Imperial medical education innovator moves onto pastures new

Professor Sonia Kumar, founding Director for the Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre (MEdIC), has now moved onto pastures new.

After nearly 10 years at Imperial, Professor Sonia Kumar, Director of Undergraduate Primary Care Education in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health and founding Director for the Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre (MEdIC), has now moved onto pastures new. We spoke to her about her proudest achievements, leading a multi-award-winning team, and the importance of community engaged learning.

1. What inspired you to set up the Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre (MEdIC)?

It was in 2019 was when we officially launched (MEdIC) but from around 2017 I was becoming increasingly aware of the disconnect between what a curriculum does and what a medical education ought to do. We have a responsibility to develop doctors that can provide compassionate and holistic care within all sectors of our society. Our health system and education system need to communicate with one another in order to achieve this.

We have a responsibility to develop doctors that can provide compassionate and holistic care within all sectors of our society. Dr Sonia Kumar

We created what I call the ‘Medic Triangle’, which essentially brings together medical education, societal engagement and the needs of our health system, where students learn the art and craft of medicine by being involved at the very heart of local communities. In everything we do, our first thought and consideration is whether we are nurturing the right skills and attributes within our doctors to serve both the workforce and the health system.It may sound complicated, but it’s actually quite intuitive in bringing these separate strands together and uniting them.

2. How does this work for the students involved?

Sitting in the centre of this triangle is something called ‘community engaged learning’ which is at the heart of MEdIC. Practically speaking, by allowing students to learn through community engagement or community service, they learn the curriculum first hand. Rather than simply observing others, this puts them in the driving seat. Right from the first year, students are providing a service to the community and they're learning the theory alongside that. It is this symbiosis between the two which is transformational for students because it provides an authentic experience in advocating and caring for patients.

What has been really interesting is identifying gaps in the health system and addressing those parts which need the most support. For example, where patients may be waiting between hospital appointments and visiting their GP, students can help in joining up primary and secondary care. The patient journey can be eased by students using this approach and it encourages students to become holistic practitioners later in their career. As the student navigates that experience with a patient, often from diagnosis to treatment, they get a glimpse into a 360 view of what it is really like living with a certain condition. They are learning and experiencing it in real time.

3. What has been your biggest achievement during the past 10 years?

On a personal note, I think what has been one of my greatest achievements is becoming a professor – but not in the traditional sense you might expect. As an Asian woman, knowing what our metrics are around the number of Asian and Black professors both at Imperial and across the country, it feels really quite special to have achieved that accolade.

In terms of my role at the College, I feel proud to have set up an educational research centre with societal impact. This has been a huge achievement as it's been a new way of thinking about education and, in many ways, has been disruptive to the system – and I mean that in a positive sense. From this disruption, we are having an influence and this approach is gaining momentum nationally and probably even internationally.

What is also especially rewarding is hearing the positive feedback from others and that there is a noticeable shift in the calibre and mindset of our medical students. From our own research and analysis, we can see students are leaving with a greater understanding of the patient journey, increased empathy and tolerance of uncertainty which is an incredibly important skill for a doctor.

4. Your team have won 19 awards since 2017. What unites and motivates you and the team to achieve such success?

I believe one of the most important aspects of a successful team is having a common purpose and shared values. Rather than being fixated on outcomes and KPIs, our principles of integrity and honesty are what bind us as a team together. I am interested in creating an environment where the team feels comfortable enough to be authentic and bring their full self to work. By providing psychological safety within the team, individuals can take risks, speak up and ask for help in a genuine way which enables us to thrive and ultimately perform at a higher level.

This also applies to feeling safe enough to challenge leadership - I want those around me to speak up if they don’t agree because good leaders possess the ability to self-reflect and have the humility to own their mistakes. I actually feel quite enthused when my team challenge me because it indicates that, actually, they feel safe enough to be able to put their hand up and call out what they might not agree with. Challenging others, in a respectful, productive manner, is to be embraced as it shows the team are thriving and moving forward. I think this is the secret of our success and perhaps why we have received so many awards.

A big part of creating a great team is realising people's potential beyond that of their job title. Dr Sonia Kumar

Another big part of creating a great team is realising people's potential beyond that of their job title. It is recognising someone’s talent and allowing people to go beyond the scope of their work and beyond the scope of their job description. In our team meetings, roles are shared. I don’t chair our team meetings – this is rotated, as well as rotating the person who takes the minutes. This goes hand in hand with role modelling, especially around hierarchy. In a leadership role, if you’ve done the role well, you don’t need to exert your leadership. Is it in the ethos, it's in the atmosphere.  The day-to-day running of a team actually doesn't need to be hierarchical – when you empower others with responsibility and believe in them, they feel trusted, and the team grows together.

5. How can we keep improving medical education and how can we increase representation and diversity in this field?

Medical education, in my mind, is preparing doctors and healthcare professionals to work in our health system. Yet, as we all know our NHS is under massive pressure and health outcomes are not what they should be, particularly for people from low socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic minorities. We know that health disparities are a massive problem and medical education needs to absolutely map itself to what our health system and what our population need.

In terms of inclusivity, I think there needs to be a very bold and brave approach from medical schools to look introspectively. We need to consider why we may not be attracting students from diverse backgrounds and a big part of that is looking at not only why some students may be discouraged from applying but also why there is a high discontinuation rate, because ultimately the two are linked. Often students don’t feel like they belong so it’s about disrupting a system to change that and shifting our attention to what we can do differently for these students. This needs to come from all levels of an organisation – as soon as you start to have different and diverse voices around the table, your curriculum, your assessment, your whole learning environment will reflect those senior voices, and therefore that cultural shift will trickle down to our student body too.

6. What will you be going on to next?

I'll be staying as a Visiting Professor at Imperial, but I have very recently joined the University of Leeds as Associate Dean in Community Engaged Learning. This will have a focus on medicine and health but will also be a role of connecting the educational endeavours of the university with the local community. I’ll be working with students across many different disciplines and thinking creatively about how students can learn their curriculum in their chosen field by delivering service to the community.