Staff Members

Professor John McLachlan

Member of the Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, School of

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 40323

Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 40321

Room number: C147, Holliday Building, Queen's Campus, Stockton

Co-Director in the Centre for Medical Education Research

Member of Medicine and Health Postgraduate Programmes

Associate Dean of Medicine in Phase 1 Medicine

Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

Contact Professor John McLachlan (email at j.c.mclachlan@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

John McLachlan is a graduate of Glasgow University, and gained his PhD at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. He is an embryologist by background, and has published extensively in development, with papers in Nature, Proceedings of the Royal Society and Development. His last paper in this area, on human sex determination, was featured in Nature Update and in the international news media. He also produced an award-winning undergraduate textbook on medical embryology.

From 1995 onwards, he began to focus on educational roles, especially in assessment and in e-learning. In 1999, he was invited to join the Scottish Medical Dean’s Curriculum Group and the Scottish Qualification Authority. In 2001, he was appointed Director of Phase 1 at the new Peninsula Medical School, where he developed and introduced the first two years of the course, admitting the first students in September 2002. In 2003, he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship, and a Personal Chair in Medical Education. In this year, he was also Raine Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Western Australia.

In 2005, he moved to Durham University, where he is Professor of Medical Education and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medicine. He also advises the General Medical Council on revalidation and on the assessment of overseas doctors.

John is an External Examiner for the Undergraduate Medical courses at Dundee and Birmingham.

A major research focus is the measurement of professionalism, and in particular the relationship between conscientiousness and professionalism. Conscientiousness is a relatively stable trait, which it is possible to measure objectively and quantitatively at relatively low cost compared to other approaches to measurement of professionalism. Currently he is working with the Health Professions Council and the Scottish Government in exploring measurements and meanings of professionalism, and with the UK Department of Health with regard to the revalidation of doctors practicing in the UK.

In 2000, he was awarded a grant by the Wellcome Consortium to work with the artist Helen Storey. This project resulted in an award winning art exhibition (“Mental”), which premiered in Copenhagen, and then moved to the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The Observer described it as “a wonderful liberating truth in these deterministic days of genetic cloning” while Time Out called it “utterly mesmerising”. Unusually, this work also resulted in a scientific publication in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, with artist and scientist as co-authors. In 2007 he was awarded a second Wellcome Grant to explore arts and humanities related aspects of anatomy with colleagues at the University of Ulster. This collaboration has already resulted in an art work, designed and made by Interface leader Karen Fleming, which has attracted worldwide media attention and has been featured at the Museum of Science in Boston, and the Science Museum in London.

Publications

Conference papers

McLachlan, JC., Finn, G. & Sawdon, MA. (2010), “With all due diligence” measuring conscientiousness in complex settings (workshop), AMEE Ottawa Conference on the Assessment of Competence in Medicine and the Healthcare Professions. Miami, Florida, USA.
Finn, G. M., Fleming, K. & McLachlan, J. C. (2010), Invisible maps of the body: constructing myths, uncovering legends, 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona.
Finn, G. M. & McLachlan, J. C. (2010), Students' perceptions of body painting as a tool for learning anatomy (Presentation), Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) International Meeting 2010. Glasgow, UK.
McLachlan, JC, Finn, GM & Sawdon, MA (2010), The relationship between professionalism and conscientiousness, ASME Annual Scientific Meeting. Robinson College, Cambridge, UK.
McLachlan, JC, Finn, G, Sawdon, MA, Macnaughton, J, Clipsham, L & Douglass, S (2009), Exploring the relationship between professionalism and conscientiousness, AMEE International Conference. Malaga, Spain..
Fleming, K, McLachlan, JC, Finn, GM & Ludlow, A (2009), Invited Speakers Flex and Ply: does my S3 look big in this?, AMEE International Conference. Malaga
McLachlan, JC & Fleming, K. (2009), Invited Speakers Tactility, Object and Knowledge: Art and Anatomy Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association International Conference, Turku, Finland.
McLachlan, JC & Fleming, K (2009), Invited speakers. Making Futures Conference, Plymouth, England.
Fleming, K & McLachlan, JC (2009), Invited Speakers. Naked, Nude and Just Slip Your Things Off, American Cultural Association Conference. New Orleans..
McLachlan, JC, Sawdon, MA, Macnaughton, J & Finn, GM (2008), Assessment of conscientiousness and its relation to professionalism. (Prize winning presentation and abstract), Teaching and Learning: Improving the Experience. Newcastle University, Faculty of Medical Sciences..
Fleming, K, McLachlan, JC & Ludlow, A (2008), Invited Contributor IFA International Design Exhibition, North Carolina
McLachlan, JC (2008), Invited Contributor St George’s Advanced Assessment Workshop.
Fleming, K & McLachlan, JC (2008), Invited Presenter 6th International Biennale Wearable Expressions, Palos Verdes Art Centre, Los Angeles, U.S.A..
Fleming, K & McLachlan, JC. (2008), Invited Presenter Antenna Live Surgery Event, Science Museum, London..
McLachlan, JC & Fleming, K (2008), Invited Presenter Seamless 2008 Museum of Science Boston.
McLachlan, JC, Finn, GM & Macnaughton, J (2008), Invited Speaker. ASME Annual Conference New Horizons in Medical Education, Leicester, England.
McLachlan, JC (2008), Invited Speaker. ASME Conference Medical Students and Professional Behaviour, London, England.
Patten, D, Donnelly, JL, White, P & McLachlan, JC. (2008), Learning anatomy from the living body: a modern approach to anatomical teaching. Invited Speakers, ASME Annual Scientific Meeting, New horizons in Medical Education. University of Leicester.
Finn, GM & McLachlan, JC (2008), The colour of your inside: Using the body as a canvas. (Invited key speaker), “Create” conference on colour. University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.
McLachlan, JC, Finn, GM & Macnaughton, J (2008), The Conscientiousness Index: An objective scalar measure of conscientiousness correlates to staff expert judgements on students’ professionalism, ASME Conference (Medical Students and Professional Behaviour). London, England.
Finn, GM , Patten, D & McLachlan, JC (2008), The Impact of wearing scrubs on contextual learning(Poster), ASME Annual Conference New Horizons in Medical Education.
Wearn, A, Rees, CR, Bradley, P, Vnuk, A, Sato, T, McLachlan, JC, Patil, N, Lam, C & Harsh, B (2007), Invited Speakers ‘What not to touch’ Medical students from six schools report on peer physical examination in clinical skills and anatomy learning, 2nd International Clinical Skills conference. Prato, Italy
McLachlan, JC, White P, Donnelly L & Patten D (2007), Invited Symposium. Integrating the living body into anatomy teaching, Anatomical Society Conference. Durham, England..
McLachlan, JC (2006), Invited Keynote Speaker. CETL Launch “Professionalism”, Liverpool, England.
McLachlan, JC (2006), Invited Opening Plenary Speaker. The Scholarship of Discovery, ANZAME. Gold Coast, Australia.
McLachlan, JC (2006), Invited Plenary Speaker. History of Medical Education, ASME. Maastricht, The Netherlands..
McLachlan, JC et al. (2006), Invited Speaker. Is collaborative learning in PBL promoted by using asynchronous learning network methods?, AMEE. Genoa, Italy.
McLachlan, JC et al. (2006), Invited Speaker. Medical students’ attitudes towards peer physical examination: preliminary findings from a multi-school, international study, 12th International Ottawa Conference on Medical Education. New York, USA.
McLachlan, JC et al. (2005), Invited Speaker IADIS (Selected by organizers as High Quality Paper within the theme), International Conference on Web Based Communities,. Algarve, Portugal..

Journal papers: academic

Kelly, M., O'Flynn, S., McLachlan, J. C. & Sawdon, M. A. (2012). The Clinical Conscientiousness Index: a valid tool for exploring professionalism in the clinical undergraduate setting. Academic Medicine 87(9): 1218-1224.
Tiffin, P. A., Dowell, J. S. & McLachlan, J. C. (2012). Widening access to UK medical education for under-represented socioeconomic groups: Modelling the impact of the UKCAT in the 2009 cohort. British Medical Journal (344): e1805.
Tiffin, P., Finn, G. & McLachlan, J. C. (2011). Evaluating professionalism in medical undergraduates using selected response questions: findings from an item response modelling study. BMC Medical Education 11: 43.
McLachlan, J.C. (2011). Integrative medicine and the point of credulity: Author's Reply. British Medical Journal 342: d288.
McLachlan, John C. (2010). Integrative medicine and the point of credulity. British Medical Journal 341: c6979.
McLachlan, JC (2010). Measuring conscientiousness and professionalism in undergraduate medical students. The Clinical Teacher 7: 37-40.
McLachlan, JC, White, P, Donnelly, L & Patten, D (2010). Student attitudes to peer physical examination: a qualitative study of changes in expressed willingness to participate. Medical Teacher 32(2): e101-e105.
Finn, GM, Patten, D & McLachlan, JC (2010). The Impact of wearing scrubs on contextual learning. Medical Teacher 32: 381–384
Finn, GM & McLachlan, JC (2009). A qualitative study of student responses to body painting. Anatomical Sciences Education 3(1): 33-8.
Sato, T, Patten, D & McLachlan, JC (2009). Cultural barriers to the spread of clinical skills teaching methods. International Journal of Clinical Skills 3(2).
Finn, G, Sawdon, MA, Clipsham, L & McLachlan, JC (2009). Peer estimation of lack of professionalism correlates with low Conscientiousness Index scores. Medical Education 43(10): 960-967.
McLachlan, JC, Finn, GM & Macnaughton, J (2009). The Conscientiousness Index: a novel tool to explore students' professionalism. Academic Medicine 84(5): 559-565.
Collett, T, McLachlan, JC, Kirvell, D & Nakorn, A (2008). The role of living models in anatomy teaching: experiences from a UK medical school. Medical Teacher 31(3): e09-e96
McLachlan, JC & Patten, D (2006). Anatomy teaching: ghosts of the past, present and future. Med Educ 40(3): 243-253.
Collett, TC & McLachlan, JC (2006). Evaluating a poetry workshop in medical education. Medical Humanities 32: 59-64.
Rees, CE, Bradley, P, Collett, T & McLachlan, JC (2005). 'Over my dead body?': the influence of demographics on students' willingness to participate in peer physical examination. Medical Teacher 27(7): 599-605.
McHarg, J, Bradley, P, Chamberlain, S, Ricketts, C Searle, J & McLachlan, JC (2005). Assessment of progress tests. Medical Education 39(2): 221-227.
Collett, TJ & McLachlan, JC (2005). Does 'doing art' inform students' learning of anatomy? Med Educ 39(5): 521.
McLachlan, JC & McHarg, J (2005). Ethical permission for the publication of routinely collected data. Med Educ 39(9): 944-948.
McLachlan, JC (2005). Outreach is better than selection for increasing diversity. Med Educ 39(9): 873-875.
McLachlan, JC (2004). Anatomy in a new born medical school. Anastomosis 36-37.
Rees, CE, Bradley, P & McLachlan, JC (2004). Exploring medical students' attitudes towards peer physical examination. Med Teach 26(1): 86-88.
McLachlan, JC (2004). Good from bad: learning issues from poor teaching. The Higher Educ Academy Newsletter 2-3.
McLachlan, JC & Regan de Bere, S (2004). How do we teach anatomy without cadavers? Clinical Teacher 1: 49-52.
McLachlan, JC (2004). New path for teaching anatomy: living anatomy and medical imaging vs. dissection. Anat Rec B New Anat 281(1): 4-5.
McLachlan, JC, Bligh, J Bradley, P & Searle, J (2004). Teaching anatomy without cadavers. Medical Education 38(4): 418-424.
McLachlan, JC (2003). A special studies programme. LTSN Newsletter 1(3): 27-28.
McLachlan, JC (2003). Bodies in question. ILTHE Newsletter 12(4): 15.
McLachlan, JC & Storey, H (2003). Hot male: can sex in humans be modified by temperature? J Theor Biol 222(1): 71-72.
McLachlan, JC (2003). Using models to enhance the intellectual content of learning in developmental biology. Int J Dev Biol 47(2-3): 225-229.
Goding, L & McLachlan, JC (2003). Virtual learning in a new medical school. ILTHE Newsletter 12(5): 15.
McLachlan, JC (2002). Testing learning theories: the NUL hypothesis. Med Educ 36(12): 1196-1200.
Simpson, JG, Furnace, J, Crosby, J Cumming, AD Evans, PA Friedman, BDM Harden, RM Lloyd, D McKenzie, H McLachlan, JC, McPhate, GF Percy-Robb, IW & MacPherson, SG (2002). The Scottish doctor--learning outcomes for the medical undergraduate in Scotland: a foundation for competent and reflective practitioners. Medical Teacher 24(2): 136-143.

Presentation

Finn, G. M. & McLachlan J. C. (2010), Designer Bodies, Designer Bodies. Centre for Life, Newcastle..
McLachlan, J. C. & Finn, G. M. (2010), The Appliance of Fashion to Science, The Appliance of Fashion to Science. Durham County Hall..

Reports: official

McLachlan, JC & Turnbull, LL (2010). Selection for the Foundation Programme: A review of available methods. Prepared for the Medical Schools Council. Medical Schools Council, London. http://www.isfp.org.uk/pages/reports.aspx.

Research Groups

Centre for Medical Education Research

Teaching Groups

Medicine Phase 1

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

Biological and Biomedical Sciences: Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and health claims in general
Health & Welfare: Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and health claims in general
Education: Education in healthcare, including training doctors, and assessment (including exams and testing) of all kinds
Science & Technology: Embryology. All aspects of human development, including abnormalities and their causes, IVF, genetic engineering in humans, termination of pregnancy, stemm cells and cloning
Biological and Biomedical Sciences: Embryology. All aspects of human development, including abnormalities and their causes, IVF, genetic engineering in humans, termination of pregnancy, stemm cells and cloning