Update from the Dean of Education
One of the Royal Society of Medicine's remarkable strengths lies in its ability to assemble an extraordinary breadth of people with knowledge and expertise from across the healthcare spectrum. It is through this multi-sector collaboration that we can address significant questions and stimulate impactful change.
This sense of new ideas and innovation has been palpable in the early months of this academic year at the RSM. The Digital Health Section's conference on Digital Twins in the autumn was a great example. The synergy between healthcare professionals, tech innovators and entrepreneurs was inspiring and I’m sure this will ignite many more events and conversations in the future.
Our second Tackling Inequalities conference, in partnership with NHS England, was held on 16 January. This year's focus on addressing healthcare inequalities through innovation and entrepreneurship was truly invigorating. Some of the innovations described at the event are still in development, but a great many others are already making a difference in patient care. It’s good to know that the RSM has played a part in helping to expose these ideas to a much wider audience.
We will continue to host important conversations throughout the rest of 2024. We have a full-day conference in April exploring how we can address the health and care workforce crisis and, in July, we will be bringing together key players for an essential event about gene and cell therapy, the next frontier of healthcare. I strongly encourage you to join us if you can.
The majority of events hosted at the RSM are led by our 55 specialist Sections, and we rely on the energy and enthusiasm of Section Councils to draw in key speakers and pull together an inspiring programme.
To support the Sections and to ensure they can operate as effectively as possible, I’ve initiated a Section Working Group to act as a sounding board and a forum for detailed discussions on some of the challenges we’re all facing. It will address potential new developments, including new ways of collaborating, financial models, running effective events and considering potential areas for new Sections.
I am delighted that the following colleagues have volunteered to work with me on this group: Professor Susana Banerjee (Oncology), Mr Ed Glasgow (Patient Safety), Professor James Green (Urology), Mr Jonathan Hazan (Patient Safety), Dr Julia Manning (Digital Health), and Mr Josef Watfah (Surgery). We have had our first meeting and I’ll look forward to sharing some of the outputs in the months ahead as we collaborate on shaping the future of the RSM.
Professor Gillian Leng CBE
Dean of Education and President-Elect