A round-up of news from the opening day of Innovation in Medicine 2018
In her opening speech, Professor Dame Dacre revealed that the RCP now has over 35,000 active members. She also announced changes to its membership access requirements in order to ‘increase inclusivity and encourage members of the wider physician family to join the college’.
Professor Dame Jane Dacre called on the government to double the number of medical school places to meet the needs of tomorrow’s patients. Quoting the RCP’s new Double or quits policy brief, she said that the number should rise from 7,500 to 15,000.
Dr Danielle Ofri, associate professor of medicine at the New York School of Medicine called the doctor-patient conversation ‘the single most powerful tool we have’. She told delegates: ‘we need to give this more respect and allow our patients to speak without interruption’.
Patient and Carer Network (PCN) member Lynne Quinney urged doctors to ‘ask patients what matters most when designing and delivering services’. She then called on doctors to involve patients as equal partners, saying that they needed to nurture this approach as they were ‘part of the solution’.
NHS England’s chief digital officer Juliet Bauer delivered an in-depth look into the role of digital technology in reconfiguring how we deliver health and care. She argued that, despite the ongoing progress and digital transformation, technology would never replace people, saying: ‘Technology is to extend humanity, not replace it’.
Social summary
- RCP continues to champion change from training to pay policy review
- "How being overweight causes cancer", says Prof John Wass
- Why less female medical trainees? From role as primary carer to employer processes & conscious bias; travel, research to collab. opps. are limited.
- "One safety model doesn't fit all in healthcare but there are things we can learn from the aviation industry"