An innovative tool to assess the development of medical students’ identity as doctors has won the Education Award at the 2026 RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences International Education Forum.

The award was presented to Dr Anthony Friel, Lecturer in Communications – Medical Commencement Programme and Academic Lead in Leadership, who represented the collaborative RCSI team from Dublin and Bahrain behind the initiative.

Dr Friel delivered a presentation entitled ‘How do we measure a shoulder to lean on?’, which outlined the personal and professional identity mini-evaluation exercise (PPId-MEX), an innovative workplace-based assessment tool developed by the RCSI team.

Aligned with RCSI’s personal and professional identity curriculum, the tool bridges the gap between theory and practice by helping clinical supervisors assess professionalism, leadership and resilience during undergraduate clinical rotations. It will be piloted across four clinical placement modules in the medical curriculum during the 2026–27 academic year.

The aim of the tool is to allow students to visualise their development in professionalism, leadership and resilience as they progress through their studies. It will also enable supervisors to support coaching conversations based on multiple observations rather than isolated impressions. This repeated feedback across multiple clinical encounters provides the opportunity for small developmental gains over time, that collectively shape better doctors.

Personal and professional identity formation is one of the three key pillars of RCSI’s new medical curriculum, which places equal importance on the development of knowledge (head), skills (hand) and personal and professional identity (heart). It recognises that excellent doctors require not only knowledge and skills, but also the personal and professional qualities essential to compassionate, person-centred care.

Professor Fiona Kent, Director of the Health Professions Education Centre at RCSI, said: “I am delighted to announce that among a competitive field, Dr Anthony Friel, and his collaborators across RCSI, as the winner of the 2026 RCSI Education Award. It is deserving recognition for the innovative approach to supporting personal and professional identity formation, which is one of the most difficult domains to measure in medical education.”

Professor Tracy Robson, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, said: “Now in its 15th year, the International Education Forum continues our tradition of bringing together RCSI’s international community to share education-focused ideas, celebrate innovation and work collectively to address challenges and opportunities. We were also delighted to welcome internationally recognised experts Professor Jennifer Cleland, Professor Phil Newton and Dr Dani Hall, whose presentations explored topics including sustainable and community-engaged health professions education, the impact of generative AI on assessment and academic practice and the role of simulation in advancing healthcare education and service transformation.”

The Education Award finalists are a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of our educators and I was greatly impressed by the innovative teaching and learning initiatives presented at this year’s awards. The contribution of an external academic perspective, by Professor Nurun Nahar, alongside faculty and student representation on the judging panel, brought valuable breadth to the evaluation of this year’s submissions.”