The British Pharmacological Society has welcomed the news that Professor Patrick Maxwell has been elected as the new Chair of the Medical Schools Council (MSC).
The Society and MSC have a strong relationship, particularly in their partnership to improve safe prescribing; the Society and MSC Assessment have delivered the Prescribing Safety Assessment together since 2007.
Professor Patrick Maxwell has served as Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge since 2012. He is a clinician scientist and has been centrally involved in a series of discoveries that have revealed how changes in oxygenation are sensed, and how genetic alterations cause kidney disease.
Professor Maxwell is also an NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is a Non-Executive Director of Cambridge University Hospitals and Cambridge Enterprise and is a Director of Cambridge University Health Partners.
Within the Medical Schools Council, Professor Maxwell has been actively involved with academic medical policy and has previously served on the Council’s Executive - before taking up this new role.
Of his appointment, Professor Maxwell said:
“I am honoured to be elected Chair of the Medical Schools Council at this critical moment for the sector. The pandemic continues to have a lasting impact on the state of our healthcare systems with major implications for medical education. Medical schools have worked tirelessly to minimise the disruption to learning caused by the pandemic. A focus for medical schools will be to ensure that our future doctors receive the best education possible, and that we attract and support students who are representative of the entire population that we serve.”
Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, President Elect of the British Pharmacological Society, said:
I am so delighted that Medical Schools Council have elected Patrick Maxwell as Chair. He brings huge experience of medical school and NHS leadership to this role and will ensure UK Medical Schools galvanise around training and research that will provide our nation with the best possible doctors and clinician scientists of the future.