Dundee leads from the front at landmark clinical skills conference

For two decades, the terracotta rooftops and charm of the Tuscan town of Prato have hosted the International Clinical Skills Conference - and this year, like many before - Dundee was at its heart.

This year marked a major milestone for the bi-annual gathering of the world's leading experts in the field - its tenth edition.

Dr Neil Harrison, Co-Director Director of the Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre at the University of Dundee co-chaired the event. At the same time, a twelve-strong delegation of staff and students shared their expertise on the world stage, contributing an impressive thirty to forty presentations across the programme's theme of 'past, present and future'.

Held at Monash University's Prato Centre, with only 250 carefully selected global attendees, the conference is intentionally boutique in scale - yet globally respected for setting the agenda in clinical skills education. 

From keynote speeches to ground-breaking research, Dundee's presence was felt at every level. Among the most well-received sessions were those focused on supporting student development and questioning long-held assumptions in clinical training.

Dr Neil Harrison said, "Dundee and Scotland as a whole punches well above its weight within the Clinical Skills international community. 

"It's great for our School of Medicine to be represented across the board - from students and fellows through to senior faculty, we're holding leadership roles in the organising committee and research groups, and challenging a lot of accepted ideas to try and improve things."

A notable new feature at this year’s conference was the introduction of SiReN ALERTs (Advanced Look Exploratory Research Template) workshops. Here, presenters delivered rapid-fire five-minute pitches on new or evolving projects, followed by expert-led breakout discussions to develop the ideas further. University of Dundee School of Medicine lecturer, Dr Susan Somerville, serves on the SiReN board and helped shape the sessions, representing Dundee in this global network.

There was no shortage of symbolism, either. A traditional Scottish piper opened the conference in Italy, setting the tone for what many described as one of the most memorable editions yet. 

Dr Harrison added, "Some of the long-time organisers were saying this was the best conference to date - and Dundee had a huge influence on that.”

But for all the history, the focus remains on what's next. The presentations didn't just reflect current practice - they aim to shape future thinking in this specific, but important area of medical education. That included work on embedding sustainability into simulation-based learning, exploring new ways of measuring student performance and building stronger international networks.

Find out more about the International Clinical Skills Conference