I direct ICCESS, based at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. Our aim is advancing human health through simulation. We do this by bringing people from different backgrounds together, aiming for reciprocal illumination for everyone who takes part.
ICCESS brings together expertise in developing realistic medical simulation with innovative approaches to engagement. Healthcare today holds many challenges, and finding workable solutions is not easy. Often there’s little opportunity to test out proposed changes before they are implemented. The views and needs of everyone affected - staff, patients and publics - are not always taken into account when healthcare changes are brought in. Unforeseen consequences can arise and people can be adversely affected. Simulation allows us to pilot healthcare changes, testing and training for new approaches before they are rolled out in the real world. Engagement enables everyone affected to come together and contribute their different perspectives. Our team includes doctors, scientists, artists, performers, psychologists and experts in technology. Together we have built a lot of experience in working with colleagues within the health service. We also work with adults and children in museums, science fairs and music festivals across the UK.
I jointly lead this cross-institutional partnership between the Royal College of Music and Imperial College London. Our aim is to explore what it means to perform. When people hear the word ‘performance’ they often think about music and drama. But just as much performing takes place in an operating theatre, a science laboratory, a lecture theatre, a courtroom or a football stadium. We are all of us performing, all the time. The Centre for Performance Science examines what comes into view when we look across disciplinary boundaries rather than staying within them. We are explore issues like performance preparation, performance anxiety, performance education, performance economics - and much more. At the CPS we have a unique Performers in Residence programme. We have leading experts in more than a dozen fields, from close-up magic, puppetry and combat flying to hair styling, orchestral percussion and forensic science. For all of them, performing is at the heart of what they do.
MORE INFORMATIONIn 2005 I established the world’s first Masters in Education in Surgical Education (M Ed SE) at Imperial College London. Primarily aimed at surgeons (consultants and those in training) in the UK and across the world, the programme invites participants to bridge the worlds of biomedical science, clinical practice, social science and the humanities to explore what it means to become a surgeon educator. In addition to its focus on educational scholarship and academic rigour, the programme develops unexpected connections between surgery, education and the visual and performing arts. It takes advantage of Imperial’s unique location in the heart of London’s cultural district, and its relationships with some of the world’s leading museums (Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum), the Royal College of Music and the Royal College of Art. Since 2021 the M Ed SE has been available as an online and blended programme, led by me and my colleague Dr Kirsten Dalrymple. Offered in collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Faculty of Surgical Trainers, we invite surgeons and those interested in surgical education to participate from across the world.
