Conference

Eric Clarke is a lecturer in health informatics in the Department of Medical Professionalism at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

He currently co-ordinates the Professionalism in the Health Sciences module, which is part of Foundation Year. 

After completing an MSc Loss & Bereavement (jointly run by RCSI and the Irish Hospice Foundation), he has been involved in a number of educational developments that aim to enhance the topics of death, dying and bereavement in the RCSI curriculum. 

Eric also supports and advocates for the national bereavement support line. 

Dr Suzanne Crowe was first elected to the Medical Council in 2018 and re-elected in 2023. She was elected President of the Medical Council in 2021.

She graduated in medicine from Trinity College Dublin, followed by specialist training in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine with the College of Anaesthesiologists. After a fellowship in paediatric intensive care medicine in the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, she took up a consultant post in anaesthesia with a special interest in paediatrics in Tallaght Hospital, Dublin.

In 2014 Dr Crowe moved to Children’s Health Ireland Crumlin Hospital as a paediatric intensivist. She is a senior lecturer in paediatrics at Trinity College Dublin and has an interest in bereavement studies and medical ethics.

She is associate clinical professor in Women and Children’s Health at UCD School of Medicine.

Dr Crowe is a board trustee for three charities: the Down Syndrome Centre, Cheshire Ireland and LGBT Ireland.

John Devitt is Chief Executive of Transparency International (TI)’s chapter in Ireland.

Since founding TI Ireland in 2004, John lobbied for the Protected Disclosures Act and advised the Irish Government on the legislation. He has also advised a number of international organisations, including the UN, Council of Europe and European Commission on whistleblower protection.

In 2011, John established TI Ireland’s Speak Up Helpline, which has supported more than 2,000 people reporting wrongdoing, and in 2016 co-founded the Transparency Legal Advice Centre, which has given free legal advice valued at more than €1 million to workers making protected disclosures.

He is also trustee and former chairperson of the Whistleblowing International Network and an Advisory Board Member of the Middlesex University Whistleblowing Research Unit.

In addition, John is also a PhD candidate at the University of Galway, studying professional anti-corruption practice.

Evelyn Fenton (Lyn) is a patient representative and steering group member for the 221+ patient support group, which supports women and families affected by CervicalCheck failures in Ireland. 

As part of this role, Lyn has provided a patient’s perspective in setting up the personal cervical screening reviews process with CervicalCheck, in particular working on the wording of their literature to make it less confusing and daunting for patients.

Lyn was also a key voice in forming the restoration of trust process alongside other 221+ patient representatives and stakeholders, including CervicalCheck, the NSS (National Screening Service), HSE (Health Service Executive), RCGP (Royal College of General Practitioners) and the Department of Health. The process is designed to help gain people’s trust back in the health system and in individuals involved in their care. At present it is open to those who have been identified through audits and whose results were found to be discordant.

Finally, Lyn is part of the HSE’s cervical cancer elimination group, which is on course to make cervical cancer a rare disease by 2040.

Lyn is patient focused and believes that a patient’s voice and experience should be used for change to ensure a better health experience for all in Ireland.

Robert Francis was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1973 and practised as a barrister until his retirement from full-time practice in 2020, specialising in medical law, including clinical negligence, medical, patient decision-making, public inquiries, professional discipline and regulation.

He has been involved in many healthcare-related public inquiries, and chaired the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust inquiries (2010, 2013) recommending reforms designed to improve values and standards in the NHS, including a legal duty of candour. He conducted the Freedom to Speak Up Review into the treatment of NHS whistleblowers (2015).  In 2022 he was commissioned by the Cabinet Office to recommend a framework for compensating the victims of infected blood which was broadly accepted by the Infected Blood Inquiry. Until 2022 he chaired Healthwatch England, and was a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission. 

He co-authored Medical Treatment: Decisions and the Law (2009), and has been chair of the Professional Negligence Bar Association, a recorder, and a deputy High Court judge. In 2023 he was Treasurer [Chairman] of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court. 

Robert is a core panel member of the Expert Advisory Panel of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, which advises the committee on the UK government’s performance in implementing health-related policy commitments. He is a patron of the Florence Nightingale Foundation. He has been a trustee of the Point of Care Foundation, which seeks practical ways of humanising healthcare; and Prostate Cancer Research, which funds cutting-edge research in this area.

He was knighted in 2014 for services to health and patients, and is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the Royal College of Surgeons (England), the Royal College of Pathologists and the Faculty of Forensic Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians, as well as holding an honorary doctorate in law from Exeter Unversity and an honorary doctorate in medical science from St George’s Medical School.

Meghan Gipson is a Toronto native and final year medical student in the six-year undergraduate medicine programme at RCSI.

After joining the RCSI palliative care society committee in 2020, she took part in extracurricular opportunities to learn about grief, death, and palliative care, which she recognised as an important concept underrepresented in the formal medical curriculum.

In 2021, she embarked on a student engagement partnership project with Eric Clarke to develop a curriculum for an elective module on grief, death, and bereavement for first-year medical students. She continues to be involved with research in this area, as well as in the dissemination of the course through her presence at Death Cafés.

Meghan will be pursuing a family medicine residency at Medstar Franklin Square in Baltimore, Maryland. Afterwards, she hopes to pursue a palliative care fellowship and work in academic medicine as well as clinical practice in combined family medicine and palliative care.

Prof. Salman Guraya is currently serving as Vice Dean of the College of Medicine and Head of Surgery Unit at University of Sharjah, UAE. He is a qualified medical educator, researcher, and minimally invasive surgical oncologist. He is a senior editor of the BMC Medical Education, Frontiers in Surgical Oncology, and Advances in Biomedical and Health journals.

Prof. Guraya was awarded the International Research Award of World Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University USA for 2020, 2021 and 2022, and the TAGHEER Award for Strategic Performance by University of Sharjah, UAE, in 2022. He is an examiner for RCSI and for the Fellowship in European Board of Surgery, and for a faculty of the Colorectal and Transanal Surgery programme at IRCAD in Strasbourg, France. 

He has several national and international leadership roles in academics, undergraduate and postgraduate clinical training, assessment, accreditation, research and branding. He is director of the MSc in Emergency Surgery and Coloproctology at University of East Anglia UK and Director of BSS and CCrISP courses at RCSEng. He is also a surveyor of the UAE National Institute for Health Sciences Accreditation taskforce.   

Prof. Guraya has so far published more than 200 research articles in world-leading journals with around 150 co-researchers from the UAE, UK, Germany, France, Malaysia, Italy, KSA and Pakistan. In surgery, his main areas of research include surgical oncology, colorectal surgery, transanal and transaoral scarless surgery; and in medical education, medical professionalism, interprofessional collaboration, telesurgery, and academic leadership.   

Prof Jan Illing is the Director of the Health Professions Education Centre at RCSI University of Medicine and Health. Prior to joining RCSI in November 2020 she was professor of medical education research at Newcastle University, and before that a professor at Durham University, UK.

Jan has worked in the field of health professions education for over 25 years. Her research in health professions education has addressed, for example, medical transitions, assessment and regulation, CPD, learning in the community, professionalism and workplace bullying. Some of this research has resulted in changes to policy and practice in the UK.

She has acted as academic advisor to a range of organisations including the GMC’s Assessment Advisory Board, Health Educations England’s Quality Committee, and the UK Department of Health’s Revalidation Support Group, and she is currently a member of the International Editorial Board for the journal Medical Education.

Ravi Jayaram studied medicine in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He accidentally fell into paediatrics while thinking about a career in general practice and subsequently trained in the north-east of England, Bristol, New South Wales and London, developing a special interest in paediatric respiratory medicine.

He has been a consultant paediatrician in Chester since 2004.

He has always had a particular fascination with how teams work together and how hierarchies in healthcare might affect patient safety. This has been particularly pertinent with reference to events affecting the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester.

In his spare time, he likes to run and cycle long distances slowly and sings in a band with a few other middle-aged men living out their teenage dreams.

Professor Russell Mannion is Chair of Health Systems at the University of Birmingham.

He has led national research on speaking up and whistleblowing in the NHS and provides policy and research advice to a range of national and international governments and agencies, including the World Health Organization, OECD, the International Society for Quality in Health Care, the European Health Management Association, UK Department of Health, HM Treasury, NHS Confederation, Nuffield Trust, and the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Russell has more than 350 peer reviewed publications, many appearing in leading scientific journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, Social Science and Medicine and The Milbank Quarterly. He has authored or edited 14 books. 

His most recent books include The NHS at 75: The State of Health Policy (Policy Press, 2023); Making Culture Change Happen (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Healthcare Systems Improvement Across the Globe: Future Predictions for Global Care (Taylor and Francis, 2019). 

Professor Hannah McGee is Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at RCSI. As RCSI’s chief academic officer, she is responsible for the quality of degree-awarding activities in Dublin – and in RCSI’s overseas campuses in Bahrain, Dubai, Malaysia and an upcoming partnership in China (Soochow). Prof. McGee is a graduate of TCD [BA (Mod)) in Physiology/Psychology and PhD in Psychology]. In 2015, she was awarded a Doctorate of Science (DSc) on published work by the National University of Ireland. 

Scholarly leadership roles include President of the Psychological Society of Ireland (1991-1992), President of the European Health Psychology Society (1998-2000), Chair of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Section, European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (2008-2010) and Chair of the Council of Deans of Faculties with Medical Schools in Ireland (2011-13). She is a fellow of the Psychological Society of Ireland, the European Health Psychology Society and the European Society of Cardiology. In terms of research as a health psychologist, she has over 230 peer-reviewed publications focused on quality of life assessment (including instrument development – SEIQoL and HeartQoL), and population health aspects of ageing (including instrument development – the Ageing Perceptions Questionnaire), cardiovascular disease and sexual health.

In terms of supporting policy and practice, she chaired the Irish Department of Health's Committee to develop a national cardiovascular health strategy – 'Changing Cardiovascular Health (2010-2019)'. In 2020 was appointed by the Minister for Health as Deputy Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee for COVID-19 Research. In 2022, she was admitted as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA).

Margaret McHugh started her nursing career in Galway and worked in some of London’s busiest hospitals for several years. She took up a role in quality and patient safety, focusing on her passion for high-quality safe patient care and her commitment to fostering a culture of continuous improvement. It was in this role that she demonstrated her ability to drive change, and her communication and leadership skills in the successful preparation of the hospital for its first Joint Commission International accreditation. 

Margaret took over as the Bon Secours Health System Group Director of Quality and Patient Safety on an interim basis. During this time she led the Bon Secours Health System Quality, Risk and Safety response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021 she was appointed as the Chief Nursing, Quality and Patient Safety Officer for the Bon Secours Health System.

Margaret is committed to the implementation of quality systems and using data to support patient safety. Since taking up her role she has overseen the participation of the BSHS in national quality assurance programmes such as the national endoscopy assurance programme and the Irish National Orthopaedic Register. 

Margaret has co-ordinated the successful re-accreditation of BSHS hospitals in 2020 and 2023 and led the group to achieve a Joint Commission International Enterprise accreditation, the first health system in Ireland to receive this award. As part of a systems strategy, she leads out on the goal of ‘exceptional care’, believing that exceptional care is the result of good design and safe systems of work.   

Carrie has been a consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon since 2003 and has co-authored multiple national skin cancer guidelines. In 2023 she retired from NHS clinical work and joined the University of Surrey School of Medicine. 

Carrie is the immediate past-chair of the OMFS FRCS Examination Board and is an elected member of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Council.

In a 2022 she co-founded the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery.

WPSMS has gathered data on SMS which was published in 2023 in the British Journal of Surgery, followed by the WPSMS report 'Breaking the Silence: Addressing Sexual Misconduct in Healthcare', which made a series of recommendations. WPSMS continues to work with stakeholders including the RCSEng, the GMC, NHSE and the Department of Health to put these recommendations in place to make healthcare safer for workers, and safer for patients.

Dr Shaista Salman is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Learnjng, Mohammad Bin Rashid University, Dubai (UAE).

Her educational portfolio reflects recent advancements in the field of e-professionalism. Her recent research work probes into the perceived behavioral control of undergraduate medical students to be empathetic in their clinical practices. This work aims to shed light on how professional behaviors can be influenced by planning theoretically robust educational interventions. 

Asim A. Sheikh works and practises in the area of clinical negligence and medical/healthcare law. He is also a CEDR-accredited mediator.
 
He acts for and advises a wide range of healthcare clients and organisations in contentious and non-contentious work: regularly representing them before the courts, occasionally at an international level, at inquests, at the Medical Council and other healthcare/regulatory bodies and tribunals, and in internal inquiries.
 
He is an occasional lecturer at the Law Society of Ireland, the Honorable Society of King’s Inns and at RCSI.
 
He:

• Is also an Assistant Professor in Legal Medicine at the UCD School of Medicine
• Was the editor of the Medico-Legal Journal of Ireland (MLJI) for 20 years (until 2022)
• Is a member of the National Advisory Council on Bioethics
• Was a member and Vice-Chair of the Irish Council of Bioethics
• Has been a member of national and other committees related to healthcare and medical law:
  -the Bar Council’s Working Group on the Discount Rate in Personal Injury Cases (2020)
  -the HIQA Advisory Group on Guidance on a Human Rights-based Approach in Health and Social Care Services (2019)
  -the HIQA Advisory Group on the Autonomy Guidance Project (2016)

In 2018 Asim was commissioned by a healthcare indemnity provider to provide a submission to Judge Meenan’s Expert Group reviewing the law of torts and the current systems for the management of clinical negligence claims: the Government Expert Group to review the law of torts and the current systems for the management of clinical negligence claims (August 2018).

Stephen Teap is a leading campaigner in the CervicalCheck controversy and co-founder of the 221+ support group.

He is a healthcare advocate who strongly believes in representing the patient’s voice throughout our healthcare system, and currently serves on multiple committees with the HSE and as Vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in Cork.

James Thorpe has provided expert medicolegal advice to Medical Protection members in Ireland since 2014.

He has an LLM in Medical Ethics and Law and has an interest in medical education, working with the company's risk prevention team to reduce medicolegal risk and improve patient safety.

Prior to joining Medical Protection, he trained in general and vascular surgery in the west of Scotland and is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.