TwinsUK has Opened a Brand New Clinic at St Thomas’ Hospital

by Emily Stevens 

TwinsUK unveiled an online video tour on the 12th August, 2021.  

Outside of sleek wooden, windowed doors bearing a ‘Welcome To Twin Research’ sign, there is a hand sanitiser dispenser and a doorbell to ring upon arrival.    

Beyond the doors there is a spacious clinic room with purple phlebotomy chairs — ‘They’re very easy to use, they go up and down’ — for bloodwork and windows looking out onto greenery and trees. The famed cardboard of Professor Tim Spector stands in this room. Around each of the three chairs are sliding screens allowing for additional privacy.  One of the screens is printed with the TwinsUK logo at banner size allowing for a backdrop for phots.   

The food room for coffee, tea and biscuits after the blood draws has refrigerators and a microwave, a tiled wall, a table with chairs, houseplants and a window looking out onto arched windows and brick. Depending on the study, lunch may also be provided in this room – and for certain nutritional studies there are muffins at breakfast and lunch.   

The eye room where standard eye checks are performed has optometry machines and a diagram of an eye on the wall. The reports of these eye tests will be given to participants.   

Another consultation room just down the same hall is used to record height and weight, and there is a desktop computer for computer-based tests and questionnaires. A window covered by a blind in this room brings in natural light. Walk tests would be carried out in the hallway outside of this room.   

The last room is the DEXA scan room for looking at bone density and body composition. There is another sliding screen in this room for changing into the gown for the scan. This screen is printed with an elegant image of the branches of a cherry blossom tree in pulled focus against a teal partly cloudy sky.   

This new clinic stands at the heart of the Department of Twin Research and warmly welcomes returning twins!