Professor Simon Gay

A graduate of St. George’s, London in 1988, Simon completed GP training in Leicestershire in 1992, then working at various times as a GP partner, retainer, salaried doctor and locum.

In 2005, Simon joined Keele Medical School, holding various roles including co-lead of Final Year, Deputy Director of Education in General Practice and Director of Curriculum.
More recently, Simon took up a Clinical Associate Professor role with responsibility for Education Governance at Nottingham Medical School, before finally completing his circular trip back to Leicester when appointed as Chair of Medical Education (Primary Care) in 2019.
Simon is also a GMC Education Associate (contributing to the quality assurance of new medical schools), Treasurer of the International Clinical Skills Foundation (an Australian Registered Charity set up to improve the clinical education of health professionals in low-middle income countries), Editor-in-Chief of the journal Education for Primary Care, current Chair of the Association for the Study of Medical Education’s Educator Development Committee, and a co-founder and present Treasurer of the UK Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education (CReME) group.

Simon's research interests include clinical reasoning reflection clinical skills development the transition to qualified practise and patient participation in health care professions education.

Cooper N, Bartlett M, Gay S, Hammond A, Lillicrap M, Matthan J, Singh M.; UK Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education (CReME) consensus statement group. (2020). Consensus statement on the content of clinical reasoning curricula in undergraduate medical education. Med Teach. Nov 18:1-8.
DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2020.1842343. Epub ahead of print.

Richmond A., Cooper N., Gay S., Atiomo W. and Patel R. (2020). The student is key: a realist review of educational interventions to develop analytical and non-analytical clinical reasoning ability. Med Educ. 54(8):709-719.
DOI: 10.1111/medu.14137

Hyde C., Yardley S., Lefroy J., Gay S. and McKinley RK. (2020). Clinical assessors' working conceptualisations of undergraduate consultation skills: a framework analysis of how assessors make expert judgements in practice. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 25(4):845-875.
DOI: 10.1007/s10459-020-09960-3

Yardley S., Kinston R., Lefroy J., Gay S. and McKinley RK. (2020). 'What do we do, doctor?' Transitions of identity and responsibility: a narrative analysis. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 25(4):825-843.
DOI: 10.1007/s10459-020-09959-w

McKinley R.K., Bartlett M., Gay S.P., Gibson S., Panesar A. and Webb M. (2018). An innovative long final year assistantship in general practice: description and evaluation. Education for Primary Care, 29(1), 35-42.
DOI: 10.1080/14739879.2017.1399829

Lefroy J., Yardley S., Kinston R., Gay S.P., McBain S. and McKinley R.K. (2017). Using realist evaluation to explain preparedness for doctors’ memorable ‘firsts’. Medical Education, 51(10), pp. 1037-1048.
DOI: 10.1111/medu.13370

Lefroy J., Roberts N., Molyneux A., Bartlett, M., Gay S. and McKinley R. (2017). Utility of an app-based system to improve feedback following workplace-based assessment. International Journal of Medical Education. 8, pp.207-216.
DOI: 10.5116/ijme.5910.dc69.

McKinley R.K and Gay S.P. (2017). Is integrated information management a core clinical skill required for the doctor-patient encounter? Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. First published date: April-12-2017.
DOI: 10.1177/0141076817703889

Rees E., Gay S.P. and McKinley R.K. (2016).The epidemiology of teaching and training General Practices in England. Education for Primary Care, 27(6), pp.462-470.
DOI: 10.1080/14739879.2016.1208542

Bartlett M., Gay S.P., List P.A.D. and McKinley R.K. (2015). Teaching and Learning Clinical Reasoning: Tutors Perceptions of Change in Their Own Clinical Practice. Education for Primary Care, 26(4), pp.248-254.
DOI: 10.1080/14739879.2015.11494350

Lefroy, J., Hawarden, A., Gay, S.P., McKinley, R.K. and Cleland, J. (2015). Grades in formative workplace-based assessment: a study of what works for whom and why. Medical Education, 49(3), pp.307-320.
DOI: 10.1111/medu.12659.

Derbyshire H., Rees E., Gay S.P. and McKinley R.K. (2014) Undergraduate teaching in UK general practice: a geographical snapshot. The British Journal of General Practice. The British Journal of General Practice, 64(623), e336-e345.
DOI: 10.3399/bjgp14X680113.

Lefroy, J., Thomas, A., Harrison, C., Williams, S., O'Mahony, F., Gay, S., Kinston, R. and McKinley, R. (2014). Development and face validation of strategies for improving consultation skills. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 19(5), pp.661-685.
DOI: 10.1007/s10459-014-9493-9.

Gay, S., Bartlett, M. and McKinley, R. (2013). Teaching clinical reasoning to medical students. The Clinical Teacher, 10(5), pp.308-312.
DOI: 10.1111/tct.12043.

Current PhD students are studying:

Educational interventions used to develop clinical reasoning

The value and impact of patients and carers supporting professional healthcare training.


I would be willing to supervise or co-supervise PhD and MD students wishing to study most aspects of clinical education including clinical reasoning, reflection, clinical skills development, the transition to qualified practise and patient participation in health care professions education.

I also supervise Masters students researching a broad range of clinical education topics.

MB ChB

MSc in Clinical Education

Clinical reasoning

Medical education

GMC Education Associate and QABME Team Leader

Treasurer to the International Clinical Skills Foundation

Editor-in-Chief of the journal Education for Primary Care

Chair of ASME's Educator Development Committee

Treasurer to the UK Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education (CReME) group.

Leicester RCGP Faculty Board Member

External Examiner for MB BCh Graduate Entry Medicine Phase 2 at Swansea University School of Medicine.

Past Chair of Midlands Medical Education Committee

Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 

Member of AMEE

Member of SAPC

Society of Academic Primary Care Oral Presentation Prize - Kendal, 2008.

ASME Inaugural Education Innovation Award, 2011.

Member of team awarded ASME/GMC Excellent Medical Education Award 2015

Highly Commended for Education - RCGP Annual Conference 2015 Poster Competition.

ASME ASM Poster Prize 2019

My commitment to teaching, learning and pedagogic research has led to more than 130 presentations, workshops and seminars at regional, national and international conferences and higher education institutions. Recent examples include:

Medical Student Perspectives of Reflection and Reflective Practice - A Qualitative Study. O. Fashina, S. Devendra Kumar and S. Gay. University of Leicester School of Medicine. ASME ASM - Virtual Conference. July, 2021.

“Learning from teaching in a pandemic” A room 101 panel discussion about teaching post pandemic. C. Bennett and S. Gay. ASME Educator Development Committee. ASME ASM Virtual Conference. July, 2021.

How can we teach clinical reasoning in UK undergraduate medical education? A. Da Silva1, D. Mclaughlin2 and S. Gay3. 1University of Swansea School of Medicine, 2Lincoln Medical School, 3University of Leicester School of Medicine. DEMEC - Developing Excellence in Medical Education. Manchester December, 2019.

Raising concerns - the potential impact on medical student professionalism. Round table discussion. E. Sullivan, S. Gay and H. Thampy. Manchester School of Medicine. AMEE, Basel, Switzerland, August, 2018.