Dr Andy Ward

Education Lead - Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare

Andy's role is to develop innovative and evidence-based teaching interventions across the medical curriculum that will increase and sustain empathy in our medical students. He has wide experience in producing teaching around patient-centred care in his role as the Compassionate Holistic Diagnostic Detective (CHDD) course lead. The CHDD course has a clinical focus and communication skills training has often been seen as a natural home for teaching empathy. Andy's challenge will be to develop interventions in elements of the curriculum that have traditionally focussed on the biomedical elements of disease. The centre aims to produce empathic health care professionals whilst maintaining the scientific competences necessary to practice medicine safely.

Compassionate Holistic Diagnostic Detective (CHDD) Course Lead

Andy has worked at Leicester Medical School since 2005. The main focus of his responsibilities is in Phase 1 (the first two years of the Medical degree), where he leads the Compassionate Holistic Diagnostic Detective (CHDD) course. This is the biggest unit in the medical curriculum, spanning the first two years of the degree and providing 30 sessions of small group teaching to the current intake of over 300 students per year. He has led the development of all session plans, teaching materials, innovations, and assessments, and recruited and trained a team of over 40 GPs to teach on the course.

The CHDD course has always been innovative and within it Andy has developed new ways of teaching communication skills, examination skills, diversity, diagnostic reasoning, patient-safety and patient-centred care. This has required him to cultivate the GP tutors’ skills in small group teaching and introduce them to unfamiliar ways of approaching diagnostic reasoning and diversity. He has achieved that by creating a learning community utilising social media and CPD sessions. During the pandemic Andy also helped the tutors rapidly adjust to remote teaching methods.

Follow Andy on Twitter @Doc_Palindrome

Andy has been involved in research around communication skills, empathy in medical interactions and digital consultations between medical students and patients.

He has collaborated successfully with colleagues at Cambridge and St Andrews Medical Schools.

Please see publications list for more details.

Pankhania M, Judd O, Ward A. Otorrhoea. BMJ 2011; 342: d2299 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d2299

Hayward E, Ward A. Virtual learning communities for faculty members: does WhatsApp work? Medical Education 52(5):569 01 May 2018 https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13559

Ward A, Bethea J, Hsu R. Exploring life with a long-term condition using asynchronous online communication. Patient Education and Counseling Volume 102, Issue 12, December 2019, Pages 2325-2329 http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2019.08.017

Ward A, Asif A, Cattermole R, Chima J, Ebbatson T, Mahi I, Richardson N, Sheikh H. Social prescribing by students: the design and delivery of a social prescribing scheme by medical students in general practice. Education for Primary Care, 31:5, 318-322. http://doi.org/10.1080/14739879.2020.1799437

Cairns P, Pinker I, Ward A, Watson E, Laidlaw A. Empathy maps in communication skills training. Clinical Teacher. 2021;18:142–146. https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.13270

Alzeera M, Ward, A. Involving medical students in the planning and delivery of a vaccination and health screening outreach clinic. Education for Primary Care, 33:2, 113-119, 2022. http://doi.org/10.1080/14739879.2021.1983732

Ward, A. Morrison, C. A collaboration on teaching communication by text. Clin Teach. 2022; 1– 5. https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.13498

Ward A, Critoph D, Westacott R, Williams R, Dogra N. A collaboration on teaching and assessing triadic consultation skills. PEC Innovation 2022;1:100091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecinn.2022.100091

Winter, R., Ward, A., Norman, R.I. et al. A survey of clinical empathy training at UK medical schools. BMC Med Educ23, 40 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03993-5

Ward, A. Howick, J. Teaching an empathy-focused approach to difficult consultations: a pilot session and co-production evaluation workshop. Education for Primary Care (10.08.2023) https://doi.org/10.1080/14739879.2023.2241037

Ward A, Andrews L, Black A, Williamson AE. Communicating Effectively with Inclusion Health Populations: 2022 ICCH Symposium. Patient Education and Counseling. 2023 Sep 9:107977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107977

Slavin, D., Winter, R., Ward A., Howick, J. On the need for empathy in the acute hospital setting. British Journal of Hospital Medicine. 2023 Sep 29. https://doi.org/10.12968/hmed.2023.0210

Keshtkar, L., Madigan, C.D., Ward, A., Ahmed, S., Tanna, V., Rahman, I., Bostock, J., Nockels, K., Wang, W., Gillies, C.L. and Howick, J., 2024. The Effect of Practitioner Empathy on Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review of Randomized Trials. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2024 Jan 30 https://doi.org/10.7326/M23-2168

Howick J, Ward A, Papanikitas A. Just do it! Ten easy ways to enhance empathy in the consultation. British Journal of General Practice. 2024 Mar 1;74(740):124-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X736593 

Teaching has been Andy's main focus of activity since he joined Leicester Medical School in 2005. He became clinical lead for Communication Skills in 2007 and is a Senior member of the Primary Care education team, contributing extensively to the development of teaching and the mentoring of medical students in the 3rd and 5th year of the curriculum. He became lead for the Compassionate Holistic Diagnostic Detective Course in 2016. Andy is also a member of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Management Groups. He contributes to the work of the Project Light team - enabling student placements in the homeless sector including at Inclusion Healthcare where he practices clinically as a salaried GP.

From 2018-2022 Andy was the Director of Education and Training for Lakeside Healthcare Group (LHG), the largest GP partnership in the UK. He was responsible for overseeing the development of the group's teaching and training activities. LHG hosts medical students from Leicester, Cambridge and Lincoln Medical Schools – over 200 students per year under his leadership. He introduced innovative teaching sessions on inter-professional working (with nursing students from De Montfort University), work and health, social prescribing, and homeless healthcare. Andy was also responsible for developing and delivering educational content for nurses and other allied health professionals working in the organisation

External Examiner - Brunel Medical School - Professional Skills Theme, Phase 1.

Member of Editorial Board - PEC Innovation Journal: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/pec-innovation

UK National Representative of EACH - International Association for Communication in Healthcare https://each.international/

• Global organisation dedicated to exploring and improving the ways in which healthcare professionals, patients and relatives communicate with one another
• Member of Advisory Committee
• Co-led subgroup to develop strategy for the Advisory Committee
• Member of selection panel for EACH President 2022
• Member of organising committee for 2022 International Conference on Communication in Healthcare

Previous Member of Teaching Subcommittee of EACH

• Co-led the development of the “tEACH Forum” – regular online CPD event focusing on areas of interest in the teaching of communication skills.

Member of the UK Council for Clinical Communication: https://www.ukccc.org.uk/

• Representative body of the communication teaching leads from all the Medical Schools in the UK
• Excellent forum for collaboration with colleagues from other medical schools
• Enabled development of “empathy mapping” teaching session, developed jointly with St Andrews Medical School

Member of CReME - UK Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education Group: https://creme.org.uk

Member of C4CHEd - the Collaboration for Compassion in Healthcare Education: C4CHEd

Member of Project Light Management Team

• Project Light is a student-staff partnership involving University of Leicester and De Montfort University.
• Student volunteers are provided with training before running weekend/evening health advice sessions in one of the homelessness charities in Leicester.
• Members of the management team also work to enable student placements in the homeless sector including at Inclusion Healthcare.

Membership of the Academy of Medical Educators 2012 - https://www.medicaleducators.org/

Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy 2014 - https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/fellowship/senior-fellowship

University of Leicester Distinguished Teaching Fellowship 2015 - Awarded in recognition of teaching excellence, specifically the development of innovative teaching on the use of electronic communication with patients in collaboration with the social enterprise Patients Know Best.

Merit Award University of Leicester 2019 - Awarded for “outstanding teaching contributions, where the case is backed by significant evidence and extra contributions made by a member of staff to teaching”, specifically the creation and leadership of the Compassionate Holistic Diagnostic Detective (CHDD) course in Phase 1 of the medical curriculum.

Denis O’Leary Medical Educator Award 2020 - Awarded for creating and leading the design and delivery of a social prescribing scheme by medical students in general practice. https://www.oxcme.uk/dol-award-2020

Workshop: “Using a novel technology to develop online consultation and communication between students and patients” with J. Bethea

UK Conference for Clinical Communication in Undergraduate Medical Education

11^th March 2015. Manchester, UK.

Workshop: “Integrating Diversity into Communication Skills Training” with N. Dogra

International Conference on Communication in Healthcare.

9^th September 2016. Heidelberg, Germany

Oral Presentation: “Teaching Medical Students About Life with a Long-Term Condition Through Online Communication with Patients"

Regional Conference. Society for Academic Primary Care

21^st March 2017. Lincoln, UK.

Workshop: “Integrating Diversity into Communication Skills Training” with N. Dogra

EACH Summer Event

5^th – 6^th September 2017. London, UK.

Elevator Pitch: “Exploring Life with a Long-Term Condition Using Asynchronous Online Communication”

Annual Scientific Meeting. Society for Academic Primary Care

12^th July 2017. Warwick, UK.

Dangerous Idea Presentation: “The Wrong People Doing the Right Jobs”

Annual Scientific Meeting. Society for Academic Primary Care

14th July 2017. Warwick, UK.

Workshop: “The teaching and assessment of triadic communication skills”

International Conference on Communication in Healthcare with D. Critoph (University of Cambridge), R. Westacott, N. Dogra

4^th September 2018. Porto, Portugal

Oral presentation: “Exploring life with a long-term condition using asynchronous online communication”.

International Conference on Communication in Healthcare.

3^rd September 2018. Porto, Portugal

Workshop: “Empathy maps: what are they, and how could they help develop empathy and compassion in medical students?” with A. Laidlaw, E. Watson, P. Cairns (St Andrews Medical School)

UK Conference for Clinical Communication in Undergraduate Medical Education

6th March 2019. Manchester, UK.

Workshop: “The teaching and assessment of triadic communication skills”

UK Conference for Clinical Communication in Undergraduate Medical Education

6^th March 2019. Manchester, UK.

Workshop: “Communication using technology” with L. Morris (Cardiff University).

UK Council for Clinical Communication Meeting

22^nd November 2019. Dundee, UK.

Workshop: “Teaching Remote Consultation Skills” with L. Morris (Cardiff University)

International Conference on Communication in Healthcare

9^th September 2020. Online.

Oral presentation: “Collaborative Development of a Triadic Consultation Assessment in two UK Medical Schools” with D. Critoph (University of Cambridge)

International Conference on Communication in Healthcare

10th September 2020. Online.

Roundtable discussion: “Sharing experiences of digital & phone consultations & working with Personal Protective Equipment” joint-chair with E. van Weel-Baumgarten (Radboud University Medical Center, Netherlands)

International Conference of Communication in Healthcare

16^th April 2021. Online.

Oral presentation: “The use of online assessment and text-based communication between medical students and patients in lifestyle modification”

AMEE 2021 Virtual Conference. 30^th August 2021. Online

Symposium (Chair): “Communicating Effectively with Inclusion Health Populations” with L. Andrews (Change Communication), A. Black (Public Health Scotland), A. Williamson (University of Glasgow)

International Conference on Communication in Healthcare

8^th September 2022. Glasgow.

Oral Presentation: "Working with Interpreters"

Pathways to Homelessness Conference

15th March 2023. London.

Plenary Lecture: "The Role of Empathy in Healthcare"

29th International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services

21st September 2023. Vienna.

Plenary Lecture: "The Importance of Empathy in Inclusion Healthcare" with R. Cottington (Hepatitis C Trust)

Listening to Community Voices - Inclusion Health Symposium

18th October 2023. Anglia Ruskin University. Chelmsford.

MBChB - 1992 (Leicester)

Post Graduate Certificate in Medical Education - 2007 (De Montfort University)

MSc - Clinical Leadership Education and Research - 2021 (De Montfort University)

MRCGP - Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners