A message from Dr Arti Maini, Director for Undergraduate Primary Care Education
Dear colleagues,
As I write this, the season is changing, with Spring flowers in bloom, reminding me of the cycles that affect us all, and how what unites us is greater than what divides us.
Here in our undergraduate primary care cycle, we are reviewing and refreshing our placement materials for the coming academic year. The themes of holistic patient care, sustainable healthcare and meaningful patient and community engagement are coming through stronger than ever in the students’ projects -a real testimony to all the brilliant work you are doing to support their learning.
Student feedback continues to show how highly they value their experiences with you and how much they are learning about medicine and their own sense of professional identity through being a part of your practice team. Thank you so much for all that you do.
Please keep your Inspire GP nominations coming in for students have made exceptional contributions and achievements while on placement with you. We look forward to celebrating all those nominated, as well as their GP tutors, in our Inspire GP event later this year.
A key event in our cycle is the Annual Teachers Conference – just round the corner in June, this time at our new base in White City. Our theme this year is about learning through innovative partnerships in medical education. We have an exciting programme planned and I look forward to seeing many of you there!
Please do get in touch if you have any feedback and ideas on these areas or more generally.
Wishing you all the very best,
Arti Maini
Director for Undergraduate Primary Care Education
Meet the new members of our team
Dr Nina Dutta, Deputy Director for Undergraduate Primary Care Education
Dr Nina Dutta has been appointed as Deputy Director for Undergraduate Primary Care Education. Nina joined the department in 2018 and many of you will have worked with her in her previous roles as MICA Lead and Faculty Development Lead. She has a particular interest in diversity and inclusion, including creating inclusive learning environments and widening access to healthcare careers. She is looking forward to supporting practices, faculty and students in the continued vision of delivering excellent primary care education. Alongside her education role, Nina is a GP in Kensington. Nina is happy to be contacted on n.dutta@imperial.ac.uk
Dr Aisha Yahaya, Principal Teaching Fellow in Primary Care Digital Health and Education
Dr Aisha Yahaya has taken on the role of Principal Teaching Fellow in Primary Care Digital Health and Education. She works at a GP practice in North West London that specialises in a digital-first primary care model. She can be a point of contact for tutors looking to improve student access to digital health training and opportunities within primary care placements. If you'd like to get in touch, you can email her at a.yahaya@imperial.ac.uk
Dr Jack Roberts, Clinical Teaching Fellow in Undergraduate Primary Care
Dr Jack Roberts has recently been appointed Clinical Teaching Fellow in Undergraduate Primary Care. He is a GP at Richford Gate Medical Practice, and prior to accepting his Fellowship he also worked in clinical research as an investigator on numerous academic and commercial studies. A MICA Tutor for over 3 years, Jack won the Supporting the Student Experience Award at last year's Annual Teacher's Conference. He is very excited to have joined the team.
Inspire GP nominations
Inspire GP is an exciting initiative from the Undergraduate Primary Care Education Unit to inspire students to learn more about and consider a career in General Practice.
We would like to ask you to nominate students who you feel deserve recognition for their outstanding achievement or contribution to Primary Care during the academic year 2023/24. Selected students will be invited to attend the Inspire GP celebratory event in Autumn 2024 where your nominations will be shared with them. You may nominate as many students as you wish that have left a lasting impression on you. your practice team and/or patients.
Some examples of areas where students may have made significant contributions while on placement include student projects, contributions to the practice and patient care.
Deadline for submissions Friday 28 June 2024
Annual Teachers Conference
The 2024 Annual Teachers Conference will take place on Thursday 6 June 2024 at the School of Public Health Building, White City Campus.
The theme this year is Innovative Partnerships: Learning and working together in Medical Education and we are delighted to have as our keynote speaker Dr Chaand Nagpaul CBE, GP Partner and former Chair of the British Medical Association.
The day will feature a lively mix of talks, student presentations and workshops aimed at community GP tutors teaching medical students. There will also be prizes and awards for our students and GP tutors.
The conference is free to attend and will take place in the School of Public Health Building, White City Campus, Wood Lane, London W12 0BZ. We have recently moved to the new building and look forward to welcoming you.
Patients, Communities and Healthcare (PCH 1 & 2) reflections
PCH2 is the first clinical placement where our students take histories. This year, it occurred at a critical time in the NHS’s journey when technologies that promote personalised care may ironically lead to the loss of the personal touch. One of our students shared their reflections on this.
I admit that on my first encounter with a treatment algorithm, a faint feeling of dread came over me. Fears I thought I had put to bed when applying for medicine were renewed; was medicine just a form of glorified factory work? Would an algorithm not be better adhered to by a computer?
Tool for GP tutors to support MICA students with their Community Action Project (CAP)
We have developed a slide deck in collaboration with GP tutors, community organisations and students, for GP tutors to use when meeting with their MICA students to discuss their CAP. Slides include the project stages, questions to encourage student-thinking and example projects from 2023.
We hope this serves as a useful tool during your meetings with students to encourage inclusive, asset-based, community engaged projects. GP tutors can use the tool alongside the GP tutor guide.
We welcome any feedback or questions about the slide deck. Please direct these to Community Collaboration Lead Stephanie Powell.
Lived experience insights in the primary care curriculum
Training students to hold person-centred, inclusive conversations with patients, including those with complex health needs and experiencing social exclusion, is a key aspect of the primary care curriculum. As part of this, we have been developing curriculum materials that reflect diverse lived experiences of patients and communities. For the past year, we have worked with Expert Focus, a team with lived experience of homelessness, to explore their perspectives about health, healthcare and what they would most like our students to know. Their insights have transformed curriculum materials and the insights of faculty and students into the reality of experiencing homelessness and how this impacts health and healthcare.
School of Public Health Building opens at White City Campus
The new School of Public Health building at Imperial College London’s White City Campus was opened by Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England.
The new building, designed by Allies and Morrison, who also designed the neighbouring Sir Michael Uren Hub, is a flexible and dynamic space where students, academics, collaborators and the local community can come together. The site is part of the Imperial WestTech Corridor which includes South Kensington, Paddington Life Sciences, White City Innovation District and the Old Oak Park Royal development area. It is close to the Invention Rooms, where Imperial engages with local communities and brings global expertise to bear on London health challenges; clinical research settings at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; and Imperial’s Hammersmith Campus.
It is also now home to the Undergraduate Primary Care Education unit, which is situated on the 6th and 7th floors of the building. We look forward to welcoming you there soon.
Society of Academic Primary Care conference
at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, 25-26 January 2024
This year’s annual conference of academic primary care for the South East and London was hosted once again at Madingely Hall, Cambridge and a number of the team were in attendance to present various aspects of our work. The theme for the conference was ‘Challenging Inequality and Promoting Inclusiveness’ and we were treated to fantastic key note speeches from Dr Sally Hull, Dr Margaret Ikpoh and Dr Ban Haider which got us all thinking and on our feet as we heard about their inspiring work and initiatives in this field.
MEdIC (Medical Education Innovation & Research Centre) update
Global Creative Competition
As part of its commitment to promoting conversations between students studying healthcare across the globe, MEdIC have created a Global Creative Competition. Initially established in 2020, the competition invited students to understand and reflect on the global COVID-19 pandemic. Further iterations of the competition have focussed on the themes of: Global Unity (2022) and the United Nations Sustainability goals (2024) reflecting international priorities. In 2024 the competition was also opened to all healthcare profession students from across the globe to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of healthcare delivery globally.
ICSM General Practice and Public Health Society Conference
Please note the below event is run by the ICSM GPPH Soc
Call for speakers and workshop facilitators
Do you want to speak at a national conference? Run a workshop to inspire confidence in the next generation of GPs?
We are inviting you to the upcoming Imperial General Practice and Public Health Society, where we're bringing together the brightest minds in General Practice for a day of enriching discussions, insightful workshops, and networking opportunities.
Date: Sunday 21st April
Time: 09:00 - 17:00
Location: Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Imperial College London
With a theme of “Unity in Health”, our aim is to showcase General Practice as a fascinating and diverse specialty, and emphasise its important links to Public Health. We are hoping to host speeches and workshops on the topics of practising medicine abroad, GP and Public Health training programmes, the integration of management, entrepreneurship, and digital health, and the future of GP. We are very flexible when it comes to aligning with your area of expertise!
If you are interested in speaking/running a workshop at our conference, please contact us:
Email: gp.careers@imperial.ac.uk
Warm regards,
Imperial College London GPPH Society
Dates for your diary
TaCTIC (Training Course for Teachers at Imperial College)
Wednesday 8 May 2024
Book here
ASTIC (Advanced Skills for Teachers at Imperial College)
Wednesday 24 April 2.00pm-4.30pm
Making GP placements inclusive for neurodivergent students
Book hereTuesday 11 June 9.15am-4.30pm
Health Coaching for Imperial GP clinical tutors - with TPC Health
Book hereWednesday 3 July 2.00pm-4.30pm
Supporting students who experience discrimination in primary care settings
Book here
Annual Teachers Conference
Thursday 6 June 2024 - School of Public Health Building, White City Campus, London
Book here
Society of Academic Primary Care ASM 2024
Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 July 2024 - University of Bristol
Book here
ASME 2024
Wednesday 10 to Friday 12 July 2024 - University of Warwick
Book here
AMEE 2024
Saturday 24 to Wednesday 28 August 2024 - Basel, Switzerland
Book here
RCGP Annual Conference 2024
Thursday 3 - Friday 4 October 2024 - ACC Liverpool
Book here