Ottawa and AMEE conferences, Lyon, 26-31st August 2022

My first post-pandemic in-person conference attendance took me to the beautiful city of Lyon. The Ottawa and AMEE (Association for Medical Education in Europe) conferences ran back-to-back over the six days.

Julie Browne and I ran a workshop at the Ottawa conference on consensus methods for outcome setting in healthcare education. It wasn’t well attended, sadly, but those who were there really seemed inspired to use the nominal group approach in their work. At the AMEE conference, I gave an oral presentation on broad-based training. This programme provided trainee doctors with 6-month placements in general practice, core medicine, paedriatrics and psychiatry. I reported on a follow up study to our earlier work (for example, see Bullock et al, 2018, BMJ Open; Muddiman et al, 2016 BMJ Open) and I am grateful for funding from Health Education England (HEE) (North-West) for the opportunity to reconnect with the original participants. The room was packed for that session, with ~100 people. I think the attendance patterns reflected the scheduling and the numbers at the respective events. AMEE was busy, Ottawa less so (and for me, better for it).

I thought the overall quality of the sessions I attended was good. Although an international event, I used the time to hear about the changes that are happening to HEE as they move into Workforce Training and Education from 1^st April 2023. It is a time of significant change in medical education, including the introduction of a medical degree apprenticeship programme.

I am on the Research Committee of AMEE and it was a treat to meet in person. The newly appointed Chief Executive, Dr Anne Lloyd joined the meeting to learn something of the work of the committee. The meeting was followed by a good meal in a small restaurant serving local food cooked to traditional recipes.

I travelled by Eurostar which would have been wholly enjoyable had it not been for the delays. Still, it is a privilege to have the opportunity to attend and present at international events.