Summary
Having served as a General Practitioner since 1985, my current roles are as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College, London and an Appraiser for South Central in England.
I am the academic Theme leader for the Foundations of Clinical Practice (FOCP) theme in the Faculty of Medicine and the Domain leader for Professional Values and Behaviours in the new Curriculum. I serve on the UK Council for Teachers of Medical Professionalism, on behalf of the Faculty of Medicine.
The course leaders for the FOCP theme have been responsible for the learning and teaching in the Early Years in Clinical Communication, Society and Health, Epidemiology, First and Second Clinical attachments, Basic Life Support, use of the Library and Digital literacies support, Ethics and Law and Personal and Professional Development. I have designed and delivered the PPD course. In past years I have developed Problem Based learning in the first and second years of the six year curriculum.
The FOCP courses are gradually phasing out as the new Curriculum is introduced from 2019-20 onwards.
I have been involved, between 2016 and 2019, in the Care for the Aging Reimagined for Europe (CARE) project that is funded by EIT-Health. In particular, I have had responsibility for the development of educational materials for the on-line courses through collaboration with colleagues and carers in the UK (Imperial University & Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford), USA and across Europe. care-campus.eu
In 2015-16 I was the Faculty of Medicine’s Director of Feedback. I designed a project to explore the issues and published an internal report that was based on a literature review and the views of patient representatives and students and staff across the years. The recommendations are being followed up by the Faculty. The feedback project built on past work developing peer feedback and also an iPad tool for Patient and team feedback (PATAB).
Back in 1994, having worked as a principal and vocational trainer for 10 years, I returned to the life of a student and studied for a MSc at UMDS (now GKT), London University. My research studies into the attitudes and behaviour of doctors towards people with congenital disability introduced me to the work of undergraduate teaching. My post at Imperial initially involved me setting up the teaching programme for clinical method teaching for GP and hospital teachers. My interest in improving clinical examinations led to me being the chairman of the Pan Thames OSCE Group which included representatives of all the London medical schools.
I was a co-ordinator for the clinical experience course for the students in the first year of the new curriculum – this course offers the students the opportunity to explore the concepts of illness, the role of the doctor, the ideas, concerns and expectations of patients and the patient’s perspective through talking to people with acute and long term medical problems and disabilities. Subsequently, I have served as the Faculty of Medicine’s Vertical Theme leader for Patient Centred Education and Communication. Winning two Imperial College Teaching Development grants enabled me to work with colleagues and the Patients'' Association to develop the active role of patients in teaching – this work has the potential to last a lifetime! In my current domain leader role I am working with fellow domain leaders to involve ‘experts by experience’ in designing and participating in the learning opportunities for our students.
Over the years I have also been involved with the Royal College of General Practitioners. I was the Clinical Lead for the Supporting Carers programme, funded by the DH. We have developed educational materials about Supporting Carers such as a DVD for use in Primary Care and Commissioning guidelines. (see the RCGP website). I also served on the Health Inequalities Group. In the past I was one of three GPs on the Task Group for disability matters and a second level Examiner for the MRCGP audit submissions and video assessor. I also referee papers for Medical Education and the British Medical Journal.
However, I am only based in London for part of the week as I live in Buckinghamshire with my family- my patients there have, over the years, reminded me of the realities of life, illness and death and encouraged me in my teaching work.
AKC BSc MBBS MSc FRCGP FRCP SFHEA
AWARDS
Excellent Medical Education Joint ASME/GMC (undergraduate) Award 2019
President’s award for Excellence in teaching, 2016
Faculty of Medicine pastoral CARE Award, 2013
Publications
Journals
Edwards L-J, Gailer R, Mezher-Sikafi R, et al., 2024, Teaching professional values and behaviours amidst doctors' industrial action in the United Kingom., Mededpublish, ISSN:2312-7996
Prendergast M, Cardoso Pinto A, Harvey CJ, et al., 2024, Burnout in early year medical students: experiences, drivers and the perceived value of a reflection-based intervention, Bmc Medical Education, Vol:24, ISSN:1472-6920
Idowu Y, Muir E, Easton G, 2016, PBL case writing by students based on early years clinical attachments: a focus group evaluation of a novel approach, Jrsm Open, ISSN:2054-2704
Idowu Y, Muir E, Easton G, 2016, Problem-based learning case writing by students based on early years clinical attachments: a focus group evaluation., Jrsm Open, Vol:7, ISSN:2054-2704