International expert to advance empathic healthcare through pioneering course

An internationally recognised leader in empathic medical education will speak at a pioneering course designed to help clinicians and academics advance the use of empathic healthcare to benefit patients and healthcare professionals.

Angela Kubacki is Professor of Medical Education and Clinical Communication at St Mary’s University London and has more than 25 years’ experience designing teaching and selection practices that place compassion, perspective taking and human connection at the heart of clinical care.

She is the latest leading expert to be confirmed as a speaker at the three-day Educating for Empathy in Healthcare course which is being delivered by the University of Leicester’s Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare to help clinicians and academics to develop empathy teaching in their own settings.

Professor Kubacki’s plenary session will be on ‘Designing for Empathy: From Admissions to Assessment’ and will explore how empathy must be designed into medical education from the outset and critically examine whether and how we can assess empathy without diminishing its meaning.

She said: “My work is grounded in the view that empathy is not innate or incidental, but teachable, assessable and sustainable, and must be intentionally embedded across curricula to support patient trust, clinician wellbeing and inclusive healthcare systems.

“Empathy does not appear by accident in clinical training; it is shaped – often silently – by the systems we design before the first lecture begins.

“My plenary will make the case for structural empathy: embedding compassion, perspective taking and human connection across the educational pipeline, from values based selection and widening participation to longitudinal communication, professionalism and wellbeing curricula.”

Professor Kubacki is currently leading the design of the St Mary’s University London School of Medicine’s clinical communication and professionalism curriculum which will welcome its first cohort this year.

She is also Head of Medical School Admissions, where she has developed a values based selection approach that prioritises relational capabilities including empathy, respect, generosity of spirit and social responsibility. Through her leadership in widening participation and contextual admissions, she has contributed to increased access to medicine for students from under represented backgrounds and to national reform in healthcare selection practices.

Other speakers taking part in Educating for Empathy in Healthcare include Dr Rabia Imtiaz, who made history when she became the first female Muslim Medical Director of South Asian origin in an acute NHS Trust, and highly respected Australian medical doctor, lawyer, researcher and disability advocate, Dr Dinesh Palipana.

They will be joined by Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare Director Professor Jeremy Howick and Director of Education and Training Dr Andy Ward.

The three-day Educating for Empathy in Healthcare course will take place from Monday, April 20, to Wednesday, April 22, at the Sir Bob Burgess Building at the University of Leicester.

The early bird deadline for tickets is Wednesday, 4 February.

To learn more about Educating for Empathy in Healthcare and to apply, visit the website here.