Professor Mairi Scott

Director of CME (Teaching and Scholarship)

Postgraduate Medicine, School of Medicine

Portrait photo of Mairi Scott
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Contact

Email

M.Z.Scott@dundee.ac.uk

Phone

+44 (0)1382 383760

Biography

Professor Mairi Scott is Professor of General Practice and Medical Education at the School of Medicine, University of Dundee. She is the Director of the Centre for Medical Education and also offers consultancy support and post-graduate development programmes on all aspects of educational governance, management and leadership. In addition, she is the Director of the Kuwait Scotland Health Innovation Network which delivers a Masters level programme in Diabetes Care, Education and Management for health care professionals in Kuwait. She is the head of Tayside Centre for General Practice, an Honorary Consultant and a General Practitioner with NHS Tayside. She is a member of the University Senatus Academicus and an elected member of the University Court where she also serves on the Policy and Finance Committee and Governance and Nominations Committee.

Mairi was Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Scotland from 2003 until 2007 and represented General Practice on many working groups within NHS Scotland and the Scottish Executive/Government including the Kerr report (Building a Health Service Fit for the Future) and the white paper ‘Delivering for Health’. Along with Professor David Kerr, she served on the Delivering for Health Implementation Board which reported to the Minister for Health. She built up strong working relationships with the Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament (giving formal evidence many times) and senior civil servants within the Scottish Executive Health Department. She led and shaped the development of ‘GP’s with Special Interests’ (GPwSI) in Scotland as a core element of service re-design and produced the planning document, Guidance on the Provision of Healthcare in a Community Setting in Scotland for Pandemic Influenza, at the request of the Minister for Health.

In the second half of 2008, Mairi Scott was appointed for four years as a member of the General Medical Council. (This appointment was made by the Appointments Commission following changes to legislation around Professional Regulatory Bodies.) Being a Council Member of the GMC provided the opportunity to contribute at the highest level to ensuring that all members of the medical profession have the necessary knowledge and skills to deliver high standards of patient care. On completion of her term of office as a council member, Mairi continues to work for the GMC as a Quality Improvement Framework assessor.

One of her most significant publications, with Professor David Kerr, was in the New England of Journal of Medicine on “British Lessons on Health Care Reform”. It was published at a critical time for USA health policy reforms and not only explored the benefits of a strong Primary Care sector but also suggested some key factors in developing this sector in other Health Care systems around the world.

Professor Scott is a member of Court.

Declared Interests

Declared Interests 
Start date on Court1 August 2015
Employment None
Directorships

None

 

Other pecuniary interestsNone
Any other disclosureTrustee, University of Dundee Duncan of Jordanstone Centenary Trust
Related partiesNone
Register Last Updated2022

Committees

  • Court
  • Finance & Policy Committee
  • Governance & Nominations Committee

Teaching

Health Care Transformational Change

Mairi’s particular area of interest and expertise is the transformational change of both local and national health care delivery systems. Her approach is based on her understanding of the importance of a strong primary care structure being the foundation of any National Health system. Mairi’s approach is to embed this concept into a range of multi-modular educational programmes designed to enable and empower health care professionals working in their own systems. By using a workplace-based assessment system within the modules participants can bring about change quickly and consistently as they study. In addition, Mairi offers leadership training and mentoring support for senior leaders and managers.

In addition, Mairi’s special area of teaching expertise is in Small Group Facilitation and she has developed a series of Master Classes on these skills. Along with this, she has developed a programme to train general practitioners to run ‘Balint group’ case discussions and so develop their skills in patient-centred care.

Post-Graduate Teaching

Mairi is the Director of the Centre for Medical Education which has provided Masters Level Courses in Medical Education for over thirty years and also offers consultancy support and post-graduate development programmes on all aspects educational governance, management and leadership. In addition, she is the Director of the Kuwait Scotland Health Innovation Network which delivers a Masters level programme in Diabetes Care, Education and Management for health care professionals in Kuwait. This programme has been created out of a successful partnership between the Dasman Diabetes Institute (DDI) the Ministry of Health in Kuwait and the Scottish consortium consisting of the University of Dundee, NHS Tayside and Aridhia Informatics. It is a blended learning programme and is being offered to all health care professionals in Kuwait. It consists of a range of modules covering clinical, educational, organisation and research topics and uses face to face teaching in Kuwait, on-line additional study materials and tutor support and all assignments are student-developed workplace-based projects with critical reflection.

The project has twice been nominated for the Times Higher Education Award for International Collaboration of the year (2012 and 2015).

Undergraduate Teaching

Mairi is the Head of the Tayside Centre for General Practice. The centre has a dedicated team of educators based who, along with many contracted general practitioners and other primary healthcare professionals deliver teaching across all five years of the curriculum. The team also contribute to many of the core academic functions of the whole Dundee undergraduate curriculum such as admissions, academic standards, student support, assessment, integrated teaching blocks and also SSC’s along with intercalated degrees of a BMSc Teaching in Medicine and a BMSc in International Health.