Video consultations in primary care

Co-chair: Dr Richard Darnton (@DrDarnton)

Director of Studies in General Practice and Director of the GP Education Group, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge

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Email: rmd61@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Background

Dr Darnton is an academic GP specialising in medical education. After MRCGP he undertook further academic training at the universities of Leeds and Sheffield as well as teaching for these medical schools. He was the Yorkshire Deanery lead for the RCGP curriculum and worked for the East of England GP School as their consultation skills lead. Dr Darnton has also worked as an Associate Dean for Health Education England.

Research interests

Dr Darnton undertakes research and evaluation related to medical education using quantitative and qualitative methods. His field of interest includes teaching and learning medicine in primary care, the consultation and remote consulting, development of adult learning skills in medical education, problem based learning, medical workforce planning and the commissioning, funding & quality assurance of medical education.

Teaching

As director for the GP Education Group (GPEG) Dr Darnton is responsible for the entire GP component of the Cambridge MB BChir programme, which has an annual intake of over 300 students per year. The GP component comprises around a fifth of clinical placements within the Cambridge medical course (see our video about GP placements). He leads a team of doctors and administrators to deliver the curriculum through in-house seminars and through a large network of GP practices who are recruited, supported, quality assured and financed by GPEG.

Since starting in post in 2017, Dr Darnton has overseen a major increase in GPEG’s teaching and placement activity, piloted horizontally integrated teaching for first and second year students and initiated a programme of multi-centre education research. He represents Cambridge on the Medical Schools Council’s virtual and remote clinical education working group, advises nationally on undergraduate primary care quality & finance, and is also an advisor to UK and overseas medical schools on curriculum and assessment.

Additional information

Dr Darnton also works as a General Practitioner and GP trainer in Bedfordshire. He is an examiner for the Royal College of General Practitioners and regularly provides expert tuition and feedback on postgraduate GP consultation skills.

Article

Why do GPs rarely do video consultations? qualitative study in UK general practice. Trisha Greenhalgh, Emma Ladds, Gemma Hughes, Lucy Moore, Joseph Wherton, Sara E Shaw, Chrysanthi Papoutsi, Sietse Wieringa, Rebecca Rosen, Alexander Rushforth and Sarah Rybczynska-Bunt. British Journal of General Practice 2022; 72 (718): e351-e360. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0658