Val Wass retired after five years as Head of the School of Medicine at Keele University, to take up a consultancy role as Emeritus Professor of Medical Education in the Faculty of Health at Keele.

 

Originally she worked in Paediatric and Adult Nephrology for ten years before developing a strong interest in holistic generalist patient care and moving to train in General Practice. After eleven years as a GP in Kent she joined Academic Medicine at Guy’s, Kings and St Thomas’s Medical school as a senior lecturer (1995-2003), and then became Professor of Community Based Medical, University of Manchester (2003-2009) before moving to Keele (2009-2015).

 

She studied the International Masters in Health Profession Education (MHPE) at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. This led to a PhD in Maastricht on assessment methodology and increasing international consultancies; both undergraduate and postgraduate. She has worked extensively across the UK and in more than 30 countries. Currently she Chairs the World Organisation for Family Medicine (WONCA) Working Party on Education and is the RCGP Medical Director for Europe. She is Chief Editor of the journal  Education for Primary Care.

 

Awards include the RCGP William Pickles and President’s International Medals and the ASME Gold Medal for an outstanding contribution to medical education. In the 2015 New Year’s Honours she received an OBE. She is author of the Health Education England report : By choice not by chance: supporting GP careers in general practice for medical students.