Conference

Dr Rachel Clarke is an NHS palliative care doctor and the author of multiple The Sunday Times bestselling books about medicine. The most recent of these, The Story of a Heart (2024), tells the story of a heart transplant that changed UK legal history. It was chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and has been shortlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize and won the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.

Breathtaking (2021) was adapted into a major television series, broadcast on ITV in 2024. It reveals how Rachel and her colleagues confronted the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dear Life (2020), depicting her work in an NHS hospice, was shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Biography Award, long-listed for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize and chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

Before going to medical school, Rachel was a broadcast journalist. She produced and directed current affairs documentaries focusing on subjects such as the Iraq War and the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She continues to write regularly for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, New Statesman and Lancet among others, and appears regularly on television and radio.

Inspired by a visit to Ukraine during the conflict in late 2022, Rachel founded a UK-registered charity, Hospice Ukraine, which support the work of local palliative care teams in Ukraine.

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

Dr Crowe 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 in Trinity College Dublin and has an interest in bereavement studies and medical ethics.

She is Associate Clinical Professor in UCD School of Medicine in the division of Women and Children’s Health. Dr Crowe is a board trustee for three charities, the Down Syndrome Centre, Cheshire Ireland and LGBT Ireland. Dr Crowe is Chair of the National Screening Advisory Committee.

Tim Dornan is a former internist and endocrinologist, who became involved in health professions education during a period of curriculum change in Manchester University, UK.

In mid-career, he completed a masters and PhD in medical education, both at Maastricht University, where we was later a professor. His most recent appointments were in Queen's University Belfast, where he is Emeritus Professor, and Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, where is Honorary Visiting Professor.

His main interest is in workplace learning, with a particular focus on the medical student phase. In retirement, he continues to explore the complexity of (clinical and educational) practice and its implications for medical education. He is a musician and photographer.

Anthony Friel is a lecturer in communications, culture and leadership at RCSI Medical University of Bahrain, with more than two decades of experience in higher education and a sustained focus on Work-Integrated Learning (WIL). His teaching, leadership and research explore how academic curricula, assessment practices and workplace supervision intersect in shaping students’ professional learning.

Anthony holds a Doctorate in Education (Leadership, Learning and Policy) from the University of Bristol alongside a postgraduate qualification in philosophy. He previously spent six years at Bahrain Polytechnic, where he coordinated WIL in the Web Media Department and worked closely with industry partners across digital marketing and entrepreneurship contexts. His professional background also includes leading a digital marketing consultancy and managing communications functions in industry, giving him a strong practitioner perspective on employability and workplace learning.

His research interests include WIL, educational assessment, higher education research, Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), teaching pedagogy, communications and culture, and leadership.

Dr Laura Golding is a Schwartz Rounds Lead Mentor for the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare, USA. She is an experienced Schwartz Rounds facilitator, mentor and trainer.

She studied and trained as a clinical psychologist in the UK. She worked in the UK’s National Health Service in the North West of England as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, in community services for adults with intellectual disabilities, and then as a clinical academic at the University of Liverpool for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme.

In 2015, Laura led a team that brought Schwartz Rounds to the University of Liverpool, as a pilot, for students training in nine different healthcare disciplines. This led to the Schwartz North project, led by Laura and her team at the University of Liverpool, enabling nine HEIs in the North of England to run interprofessional Schwartz Rounds with healthcare students. Laura became the Point of Care Foundation’s (PoCF) Schwartz Rounds in Higher Education Lead in January 2022 and worked with the PoCF until the charity’s closure in December 2025.

Laura holds an honorary position with the University of Liverpool, has published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and is the author/co-editor of three academic text books.

Professor Denis Harkin, is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon and Chair of Medical Professionalism, and leads the Centre for Professionalism in Medicine and Health Sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

He has extensive experience of curriculum design, teaching, assessment and educational research. He has published over 150 articles on areas of interest in vascular surgery, professionalism and education. He is the host of the popular RCSI Professionalism Matters podcast series.

He is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon with an international reputation in research and practice in vascular trauma and complex endovascular aneurysm care. He has experience of medical management as Clinical Lead, Training Programme Director and Assistant Medical Director at Belfast HSC Trust, the largest integrated health and social care trust in the UK.

He has been a founding member of the Specialty Advisory Committee for Vascular Surgery, and past elected Council of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He is an Examiner for Intercollegiate FRCS Vascular and European Board of Vascular Surgery.

Deputy Head of School of Medicine, Ulster University, Patricia has held a number of academic leadership roles in health and medical schools across the UK, spanning admissions and widening participation, professionalism, academic support, interprofessional education, student experience, quality assurance, curriculum design including assessment and validation and accreditation with a range of PSRBs.

Her expertise is in the review and development of educational strategy, academic policy, process and governance to improve outcomes and experience. Of particular interest to the current audience will be, the establishment and operationalisation of fitness to practice and professionalism policies and procedures for a new medical school in a world of increasing diversity, shifting social and cultural norms and where AI is reshaping what it means to ‘know’.

Patricia is passionate about widening access to the medical profession and how this could/should influence policy and practice.

Professor Barry McGuire is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, and Dean of Postgraduate Surgical Education and Academic Development at RCSI.

He completed a Prostate Cancer Research Fellowship with Dr William Catalona at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (2009–2010), followed by an Endourological Society Fellowship in Robotic and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital under Dr Robert Nadler and Dr Kent T. Perry.

His clinical practice focuses on upper urinary tract robotic surgery for kidney cancer and complex urinary tract reconstruction. He established the robotic surgery programmes at St Vincent’s University Hospital and St Vincent’s Private Hospital.

Professor McGuire directs a European Association of Urology Robotic Urology Section (ERUS) – accredited fellowship programme and serves on faculty for ERUS and the EAU, delivering the annual Advanced Robotic Surgery course at the EAU Congress.

As Dean of Postgraduate Surgical Education at RCSI, he leads national surgical education strategy across specialties, overseeing technical and non-technical skills training, examination standards, simulation, and postgraduate academic programmes.

He chaired the development of Ireland’s National Best Practice Policy for Robotic Surgery and led the introduction of a national robotic surgery curriculum for Irish trainees. He also established a dedicated robotic training and research centre at RCSI, supporting multi-platform robotic education and assessment.

Dr Áine Ryan is a Lecturer at the RCSI Centre for Professionalism in Medicine and Health Sciences, holding a PhD in Population Health and Health Services Research from RCSI.

Following graduation with a BSc (Physio), Áine worked clinically for ten years working in two teaching hospitals in Dublin along with private practice. She held senior roles in musculoskeletal outpatients, rheumatology, pain management and orthopaedic triage.

In 2013, Áine returned to education as a HRB SPHeRE PhD Scholar, researching multimorbidity and the effects of physical activity on health outcomes. Before joining the Department of Medical Professionalism as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in 2019, she served as a lecturer in the School of Physiotherapy at RCSI. Áine led and co-developed the PILLAR Study, which is a longitudinal project exploring professionalism, leadership, and resilience among RCSI medical students, while also coordinating and teaching professionalism in the undergraduate medical curriculum.

Additionally, along with the RCSI Professionalism team, she is developing a PgDip/MSc in Professionalism for Healthcare Professionals, set for launch in autumn 2025. Áine is committed to student development and holds a PgDip in Health Professions Education from RCSI. She has served on the Board of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP) as Director of Professional Development, and chaired its Professional Development Standing Committee.

Her research interests include professionalism, health professions education, and lifestyle medicine, and she was a co-investigator in the HEA-funded PROPER study, which assesses best practices in medical professionalism for international education.

Dr Asil Sadeq is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Medical Professionalism at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, where she leads and contributes to a range of research projects and international collaborations. Her work spans medical professionalism, health services research, pharmacy practice, and academic development, bringing together multidisciplinary expertise with both scientific rigour and human‑centred insight.

With a background in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmacy Practice and Health Services Research from Trinity College Dublin, Dr Sadeq brings a strong foundation in medicines management, interprofessional collaboration, and evidence‑based practice. Her earlier clinical experience as a registered pharmacist in the UAE, combined with technical expertise in multicentre Delphi studies, complex interventional research, and cross‑institutional partnerships, informs her commitment to advancing assessment, curriculum design, and evidence‑based educational practice that shapes how future clinicians learn, behave, and deliver care.

Her leadership extends to supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students across RCSI Dublin and Bahrain, managing ethics submissions, and supporting curriculum integration and assessment within medical programmes. She is also actively involved in producing high‑impact academic outputs that contribute to the evolving landscape of medical training and practice.

Stephen Teap is a dedicated healthcare advocate and patient representative whose journey began amid Ireland's Cervical Check scandal, following the tragic loss of his wife Irene to cervical cancer in 2017. As CEO of Cork ARC Cancer Support House, he leads an essential organisation providing free, confidential services, including counselling, complementary therapies, support groups, education workshops, and holistic care to cancer patients and families across Cork.

Motivated by the Cervical Check debacle, Stephen campaigned vigorously for accountability, transparency, patient rights, and systemic healthcare reforms, transforming personal grief into a powerful voice for change.

At Cork ARC since 2024, Stephen raises awareness to secure vital funds for the charity while advancing the organisation's core services, counselling, complementary therapies, support groups, education workshops, and holistic care, ensuring emotional, practical, and wellness support reaches those affected.

He also chairs the board of a Cork hospital, applying extensive board expertise to advance strategic healthcare governance and delivery.