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Visitor teams: Bute (St Andrew’s) Medical School

As part of the quality assurance process, medical schools are assessed by teams of visitors.

Below are details about the visitors who visited Bute (St Andrew’s) Medical School during the 2007/8 cycle of visits.

Team leader: Prof Julius Weinberg

Julius Weinberg becomes Deputy Vice Chancellor at City University, London in August 2007. Before this he was Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Director of the Institute of Health Sciences at City University. He qualified in Medicine from Oxford in 1979 and completed specialist training in Infectious Disease, General Medicine, and Public Health Medicine. He has worked within the NHS, as a Consultant/Lecturer in Zimbabwe and for the World Health Organization.

He was a Consultant and Head of Epidemiology Programmes for the UK Public Health Laboratory Service, with particular interest in developing international infection surveillance programmes. He was scientific secretary to the Standing Medical Advisory Committee report into antimicrobial resistance and has been expert advisor to two House of Lords Science and Engineering Select Committee Inquiries, into Infectious Disease Services in the UK and Pandemic Influenza.

He has an interest in health informatics and is responsible for developing the National electronic Library for Infection. He was a non-executive director of the North East London Strategic Health Authority. QABME related areas of interest include: inter-professional education; the changing nature of the professions; equipping doctors for new ways of working, public health.

Prof David Cottrell

David Cottrell was appointed to the Foundation Chair in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Leeds in 1994. He has a longstanding interest in learning and teaching and substantial experience of the direct delivery of teaching, the training of clinical teachers in teaching skills, the development of student support systems, and the planning and implementation of curriculum change.

He became Director of Learning & Teaching at the School of Medicine in Leeds in 1999 with responsibility for all undergraduate and postgraduate learning and teaching activities, and from 2004 - 2005 was Acting Head of the School.

During this period he led a major review and reorganisation of the School's learning & teaching activities that included the development and introduction of a new MBChb curriculum and a successful and innovative bid for increased medical student numbers in partnership with the University of Bradford.

This latter development focused on widening participation and has resulted in real differences to the profile of the students admitted to the school.

He remains an active clinician and family psychotherapist, working as part of team providing intensive day treatment to the families of younger children with severe emotional and behavioural problems.

Prof Maurice Savage

Maurice Savage is Professor of Paediatrics at Queen’s University Belfast and is a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. His research interests include hypertension and the genesis of cardiovascular disease in childhood. He is Director of the Institute of Medical Education at Queen’s University with overall responsibility for all aspects of the undergraduate course in medicine.

In the past he has participated in teaching quality assessment teams and visited several schools on behalf of the General Medical Council. He has also been invited by the General Medical Council in Ireland to participate in inspection of medical schools there. Professor Savage has particular interests in curriculum design and development, in the area of assessment, management of curricular delivery and of course in paediatrics. He has been a participant in the Harvard Macy Institute course for Leaders in Medical Education.

Due to his responsibility in the Queen’s Medical School he has a broad grasp of the issues and problems in delivering a quality course in a new clinical environment created by changes in the National Health Service and in particular the new consultant contract.

Prof Yvonne Carter

Professor Yvonne Carter was appointed Dean of Warwick Medical School in October 2004 following her role as Vice-Dean of Leicester Warwick Medical Schools the preceding year. In August 2007 she also became Pro-Vice Chancellor for Regional Engagement at the University of Warwick. She holds a Chair in General Practice and Primary Care and is an Honorary Consultant in Primary Care with Coventry Teaching PCT. She is also a Non-Executive Director at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and is Chairman of the Local Comprehensive Clinical Research Network for West Midlands South. She is currently an elected member of the Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences; a member of the UK Healthcare Education Advisory Committee of HEFCE and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Between 1996-2000 she was Chairman of Research for the Royal College of General Practitioners and in 2000 received an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to health service research. In 2004 she received an Honorary Fellowship from Queen Mary, University of London for services to general practice and primary care and in 2006 won the CBI’s First Woman of Science Award.

Dr Bruno Rushforth

Bruno Rushforth is a GP trainee in Leeds. Prior to medicine he worked in the voluntary sector in Glasgow for a mental health project and with the homeless. He holds an M.A. in Philosophy from Cambridge University and an M.A. in Health Care Ethics and Law from Manchester University. He has been a GMC Visitor for three years, involved with the quality assurance of basic medical education at Birmingham, Newcastle and Leicester medical schools.

As a student representative he chaired a BMA working group that produced Medicine for the 21st Century, a policy document setting out the rights and responsibilities of undergraduate medical students in the UK towards their training. He has taken special interest in issues surrounding student health and conduct, and promoting equality and diversity, having previously been involved on the GMC Education Committee working group that re-drafted guidance on student health and conduct issues (now incorporated into the latest version of Tomorrow’s Doctors).

He has been involved with several curriculum development groups while an undergraduate at Manchester University, looking at how to incorporate reflective practice into the curriculum from the earliest stage in the course, and developing an MB MRes research programme proposal. He has also written on the subject of promoting academic careers within medicine, and the link between exposure to early research experience for trainees, via intercalated degrees, and consideration of academic career paths. He is a peer reviewer for the journals Medical Education and The Clinical Teacher.

Dr Mike Gill

Mike has been Regional Director of Public Health for the South East since 1999, having previously been Director of Public Health in Brent and Harrow and Riverside Health Authorities.

Mike leads for the Chief Medical Officer on initiatives to reduce excess winter and summer deaths. He was the main author of England's first Heatwave Plan, published 2004.

He has been a member of the National Specialist Commissioning Advisory Group since 1999, and its chairman since 2000.

He is a member of the National Screening Committee, and chairs the group overseeing the rollout of the national newborn hearing screening programme.

He is a keen sailor, and has completed four transatlantic crossings, two with his wife and youngest son, then aged three.

Dr Johann Malawana

I am a foundation Year 2 Trainee in London. I qualified from Barts and The London in 2005 and have been a QABME visitor for 2 years and a QAFP visitor for one year.

Prior to qualifying I was the Deputy Chair for Education of the BMA MSC 2004-05, head of medical students across the five London Medical Schools 2003-05, President of Barts and The London In 2002-03.

Prof David Croisdale-Appleby

David is a professional corporate strategist, and is a Strategic Advisor to the Boards of many UK organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He is active in policy formulation in health and social care.

For many years he was a CEO of a number of Communications Groups in this country, the USA and worldwide. He was a founder Director of the University for Industry (learndirect), the Government's major post-16 education and training initiative. He was one of the first Chairmen of NHS Independent Reviews, chairing some 40 Reviews over 6 years. He is currently Professor of Corporate Strategy at the University of Durham, where he is a Member of the Council and Chairman of Ustinov College. He is a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University.

David has a broad range of health and social care involvement including Deputy Chairman of a Mental Health Trust; a Board Member and Trustee of the NHS Confederation; a Member of the Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee for the South East, and a GMC and PMETb Visitor for Medical Education. He is involved in the regulation of professionals involved in healthcare with the FHSAA and the Health Professions Council, and is Deputy Chairman of the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners.

His passionate interest is social justice, and he is Chairman of Yarrow Housing, a Learning Disability Trust; a Board Member, Trustee and Audit Chair of Turning Point, the drug and alcohol misuse charity; Chairman of a newly-merged Housing Association, a Magistrate and serves as a CBI Member for the Employment Tribunals Service.

He is a Board Member, Chair of Finance for Centrex, the National Police Training and Development Authority, Board Member and Chair of Audit for Food From Britain, and Board Member and Member of the Executive Committee of Postwatch.

Mr Matko Marlais

Matko Marlais is a third year medical student at Imperial College. Matko is involved in the Medical Education Society at Imperial as an academic tutor, providing lectures and tutorials to pre-clinical students. His is also currently writing a Cochrane review as a member of the eHealth group in the Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine at Imperial.