Medical students spend much of their training learning in clinical settings; patients have traditionally played only a passive role in this process. Engaging patients in medical education has the potential to positively impact on medical students’ learning experiences as well as their future practice and the care and safety of their patients. This project will use the principles of design thinking within a workshop setting to enable patients, students from all years of Warwick Medical School’s MB ChB programme and clinical and non-clinical educators to develop new and innovative ways in which patients can be involved in medical education to enhance students’ learning and the patient experience.

There will be three design streams: patients giving feedback to students, real patient involvement in Case-Based Learning (CBL) and patient involvement in clinical teaching. The workshop will run as an additional stream within our MB ChB education conference in May 2017 (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/news/events/ed_conf ).

Following the workshop the ideas developed will be taken forward for development and piloting with a view to implementation in the MBChB curriculum, benefitting all four years of medical students. This funding will allow us to run a half day workshop with students, educators and patients and will fund the attendance of 10 expert patients from UNTRAP (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/healthatwarwick/untrap) with a variety of physical and mental health conditions and experience as carers.

Kate Owen is Deputy Head of the MB ChB and Academic Lead for Learning and Teaching as well as a practising GP in Warwickshire. She believes in improving quality through innovation and working with students and patients as partners.

Catherine Bennett is Academic Lead for Faculty Development for Warwick Medical School’s MBChB course. Her key responsibilities include strategy for teacher development for the MBChB, including for clinical teachers in all partner NHS trusts and primary care, and postgraduate teaching on our Masters in Medial Education course.