Hello and welcome to our Spring Newsletter

In addition, and if I may continue the athletic theme, while those of us working in HE are being urged to “blow the starting whistle” on plans for the next academic year, students from current years are not past the “finishing line” yet.

Educators are well used to dealing with multiple cohorts contemporaneously but the degree of uncertainty about what the future holds and its impact on educational planning significantly adds to the stress and fatigue experienced by everyone. The authors advise that “good pacing, refreshment, and support are key to surviving the long road ahead”. With these words in mind I would like to remind and encourage members that ASME is here to help you.

Regular offerings from our SIGs, ASMEBITESIZE and larger meetings including our conferences throughout the year continue to be available. I hope, like me, that you find refreshment in listening to and participating in these educational events. Our prizes and awards are designed to support scholarship and those committed to promoting ASME’s values that underpin educational excellence. I would particularly highlight our mentorship training programme launched this year, but do please continue to read our Directors’ and Chairs’ letters for updates in our other areas.

So, take care of yourselves, for in so doing you are then able to take care of others. Please do let us know if you have suggestions as to how ASME can further support you. I’m looking forward to a little respite when it comes and hope you too have an opportunity to take some time off and that this doesn’t involve a virtual holiday!   

Best wishes,
Sandra 

Sandra Nicholson
Chair, ASME, chair@asme.org.uk

Our Mission, Values and Vision 

The President's Medal

This appointment capitalised on his vast experience, principally in undergraduate education across three other medical schools.

He is a long serving member of ASME and has, for many years, been the backbone and driver of the psychometrics special interest group bringing his knowledge and enthusiasm, and contributing to the strategic direction of the ASME board.

John qualified as a doctor at Birmingham medical school and went on to become a  consultant physician with a special interest in respiratory disease in Leicester. His passion, however, was in medical education and he swiftly moved from university clinical teacher, RCP tutor, university clinical tutor, associate postgraduate dean to professor of clinical education at the University of Leicester.

He moved on to become the professor of medical education and dean of the undergraduate school at Hull York. These titles were just a reflection of the regard in which he was held both for his clinical ability and expertise in medical education.

John has co-authored four books and over 30 peer reviewed articles on his medical specialty. He has also published extensively on medical education and this resulted in being sought out nationally and internationally for his help and advice on medical education projects.

He supported the development of a new medical school in Botswana, helping to develop the course curriculum, assessment and management. He was awarded the William Evan’s Traveling Fellowship to the University of Otago, has visited Japan to report on the Japanese medical education authority for the GMC and asked to visit Gondar, Ethiopia, to report on the medical course of the Gondar College of Medical Science.

Closer to home John has been an external examiner at final MB for St Barts and the Royal London, Glasgow, Manchester, and Warwick universities. He has also been an examiner for the membership examination for the Royal College of Physicians.

He is a tutor on the essential skills in medical education from Dundee and involved in the certificate in clinical education in Exeter where he holds an honorary chair.

He developed and implemented the revised undergraduate clinical curriculum for Leicester medical school following the publication of “Tomorrow’s Doctors”.

He was also responsible for the development and implementation of a new five year undergraduate medical curriculum and assessment system for Hull York medical school.

He has presented at national and international conferences on medical education and indeed has recently presented twice at our own ASMEBITESIZE programme.

He is held in the highest regard by all who know him, have worked with him or were taught by him.

There are few individuals who manage to make such a contribution to both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education over such a sustained period of time. I have no doubt that his current energy in leading the application for Worcester University to have a medical school will be as successful as the rest of his career.

Professor John Cookson is a very worthy recipient of this years’ President's Medal.

The presentation will take place at the ASM though like last year will be a virtual event but an opportunity also for John to accept the award and offer his own reflections on his illustrious career.

#asme2021 will be a virtual conference taking place online

Thursday 8th - Friday 9th July with the theme:

'Disrupted Medical Education - challenging the norms of

medical education'

Medical and health professions education was certainly disrupted during 2020 with the way we work, educate and treat patients changing, as well as our everyday lives. Now that medical and health professions education has been disrupted, what's next?

The theme for the 2021 Annual Scholarship Meeting is "Disrupted Medical Education, challenging the norms of medical education".

Come and join us to discuss how medical education will rebuild, the new directions and to share your ideas for the future of medical education.

Registration and programme details are now live - CLICK HERE!   

We are delighted to announce that ASM 2021 registration is now open...

Come and join us to share your ideas for the future of medical education as part of our action packed themed programme: "Disrupted Medical Education, challenging the norms of medical education". How will medical education rebuild? What are the new directions? 

Virtual Conference Fees:  

- ASME Member £150.00

- Non-ASME Member* £225.00

- Early Career** £100.00

- Undergraduate £75.00

*Not already a member? Join now to be able to register at discounted member rates!

**Early Career denotes Junior Doctor/Trainee/Other healthcare professional up to 3 years post-graduation; those on full-time PhD or Masters courses and receiving no salary

N.B. There will be no early bird or group rates available for ASM 2021

Rates include access to the on-demand platform of recorded sessions made available to registrants after the conference

Please click on the button below to register

Register here

Registrants will be sent details of how to access the virtual conference platform in due course - if you have any questions please email: events@asme.org.uk  

Each year, we will highlight the strategic priorities that we would particularly welcome applications on, to support the Board to advance scholarship in medical education. 

More info coming soon!

We are pleased to announce ASME’s new Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) webpage.

In wanting to lead by example, as an organisation, we acknowledge that we are nowhere near perfect, hence our intentional effort around EDI.

The recent development of our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (2020-2022) showcases our commitment to embedding the principles of diversity and inclusion throughout ASME, fostering a culture that attracts and retains diverse talent and perspectives, as well as maximising participation of our members both nationally and internationally.

Our goal with this webpage is to provide our members with an insight into ASME’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and EDI policy. What is more, core to our ethos is reassuring ASME members that diversity and inclusivity is integral when planning events, undertaking public engagement, implementing mentoring schemes and recruiting ASME directors and chairs of groups.         

For more information, please contact us at diversityinclusion@asme.org.uk

Yvonne Mbaki, Honorary Secretary & ASME EDI Lead 

10 Years of TASME - TASME Spring Conference 

Perspectives of multidisciplinary professionals involved in medical education

The Multidisciplinary Educators Group (MEG) is a newly established special interest group within the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME). We are keen to explore the views of a diverse range of professionals who work within medical education in order to inform the priorities and goals of this new group. Whatever your medical education role or professional background, clinical or not, we want to hear from you!

The principal aim of MEG is to share our combined expertise and experiences in order to raise the profile of multidisciplinary educators. We will achieve this by focusing on the development, support and role promotion of medical educators who come from a professional background other than medicine, and by exploring and promoting their skills and expertise. Our vision is:

- To share knowledge and expertise regarding medical education.
- To provide networking opportunities.
- To offer a forum for members to seek support, advice or project collaboration.
- To raise awareness of diversity of backgrounds of those working in medical education in     terms of commonalities, challenges and unique skills.

In order to set initial goals and priorities for the group (as we have been unable to meet in person at the ASME ASM as planned in 2020), we would value your opinions and perspectives. What do you think the group should be doing first? What issues are important to you?

Please feel free to forward this questionnaire link to your colleagues and contacts - we are aiming to have representation from as diverse a range of professions as possible! It should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.

There will be the opportunity at the end of the questionnaire for you to register interest in joining MEG (you do not need to be an individual member to join if your employer is an institutional member). However, your answers to the questions will be anonymised before presenting any summary data, so please do feel that you can answer freely.

You can access the questionnaire at this link (or directly via the QR code above).

We look forward to hearing from you!    

Upcoming ASME Award Deadlines

2021 Events & Prizes: Dates for your diary

ASME Committees, Career Groups & Special Interest Groups

Check out our website for details of our Committees, Career Groups & Special Interest Groups.
 
If you wish to update your interest groups on our database please log in to your membership account via our website.

UPDATE: ASME Office

The ASME office team are all working from their homes. This set up will continue as long as is necessary, following government guidance. During this time, we aim to carry out our work to the best of our abilities but please be aware we will not always have instant access to everything we need and at times there may be delays in our ability to complete work or answer queries as quickly as we would like to. Please bear with us during this time. Thank you.