News from Imperial: Transform MedEd 2022: Adaptation, Innovation, Transformation

By Penny Kharroubi, Collaborative Partnerships Manager, Imperial College London

On 11 and 12 November, Imperial College London and LKCMedicine were delighted to deliver our joint international medical education conference at Imperial’s South Kensington campus and the Royal Geographic Society in London, two sites located just a few metres away from one another. Our meeting planned for March 2020 was postponed due to the pandemic. Instead, we provided a series of 15 Digital Transform MedEd sessions throughout 2021 and 2022 to keep our audiences engaged.

Transform MedEd 2022 brought together nearly 400 delegates from around the world, in person and via digital livestream. Participants were leading medical educators, students, researchers, clinicians, patients, academics and technical innovators. There was much lively debate, inspirational perspectives and different new understandings elicited during our two packed days of conference.

We kicked off proceedings the evening before, with a special welcome reception for our Singaporean colleagues and committee members. It was lovely for many of us to meet up again in person or, in some cases, to meet for the first time. The Steering Committee has been at the forefront of the conference organising and we are very grateful for the time and energy that everyone gave in order to make the event such a success.

Professor Hugh Brady, the new President of Imperial, formally opened the conference, following an address by Mr Martin Lupton, Vice Dean Education for the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial and Professor Jennifer Cleland, Vice Dean Education at LKCMedicine. He commented upon the historic physical setting and our collaborative partnership, and urged participants to make the most of the different opportunities offered by the conference programme.

Our guest keynote professors offered much thought-provoking original content as they spoke on each of the main medicine-linked themes for the conference. David Cook (Mayo Clinic) questioned whether medical research is resting on its laurels, Rachel Ellaway (University of Calgary) asked us to consider each side of the technologies coin as we engage further and deeper down AI and virtual paths, Alan Bleakly (Plymouth University) beseeched medics to think differently, talking of language used, of poetry, and psychological acumen, and Walter Eppich (RCSI, University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin) underlined the essential role of teamworking in paediatric emergency medicine.

Eight parallel sessions of symposia, workshops, short communications and research salons and posters offered a range of platforms that provoked rich and engaging debate, new understanding and new perspectives. Over 150 separate presentations were selected and offered to our audience throughout the programme.

The Drinks Reception at the end of the first day was extremely well attended, with an opportunity for everyone to network and chat informally. Later that evening, over 100 people sat down to enjoy a spectacular Gala Dinner in the Queen’s Tower Rooms, with stunning musical entertainment from Imperial’s School of Medicine Music Society students’ string quartet and an engaging speech by Professor Simon Parson.  

We were very proud of our students’ participations both in the sessions and outside of them. Student Union and Students Medical Society Presidents for both schools, Ernest Ong from LKCMedicine and Christian Oldfield from Imperial, spoke about distinct challenges facing students of medicine around the world at the closing address of the conference.  

This conference was a tangible veneration of our medical education partnership and its great success. Our collaboration has evolved and changed over the years, and we move into a new phase of partnership working. As with many of our participants, new Imperial and LKCMedicine friendships were made and old ones rekindled.

We will continue to work together and deliver the next phase of digital Transform MedEd in 2023 – look out for news of that in the new year.