College announces John Munro and Chiron Medal Winners

College announces John Munro and Chiron Medal Winners

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (“the College”) has announced the winners of two of its annual awards, the John Munro and Chiron medals for excellence in teaching and excellence in teaching and training respectively. The John Munro medal will be presented at next January’s Diploma Ceremony while the Chiron medal will be presented at the St Andrews Day Symposium in November.

Dr Stefanie Lip has won the John Munro medal. Dr Lip, a specialty registrar and Clinical Research Fellow, is the Deputy Lead for the Clinical Pharmacology Vertical Theme at the University of Glasgow. In this role she has improved the curriculum across all years, planning, developing and leading many new teaching sessions as well as creating a new student selected component module. Committed to education around safe prescribing and medicines reconciliation, she has led on Medicines Safety Month which runs annually in October and has developed a teaching session on polypharmacy for GP trainees. She has also created a new app for induction which contains information required by trainees as well as two innovative quality improvement projects aimed at improving education and performance of routine ward tasks during the working day to minimise disruption to patient care and pressure on staff during the out of hours period.

Dr Nicola Zammitt has been awarded the Chiron medal. Dr Zammitt is a Consultant Physician and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer working at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. As an Educational and Clinical Supervisor and, since 2022, RCPE Lothian PACES Coordinator, she has made an exceptional contribution to training in NHS Lothian for over many years and also served as Foundation Programme Director for NES between 2011 and 2016. In addition, she established the first RCPE PACES teaching course. Her contribution to training within NHS Lothian encompasses undergraduate, postgraduate and specialty training including regular tutorials and lectures for of the 2nd and 6th year D&E MB ChB curriculum, bi-monthly PACES teaching sessions for IMT trainees, and weekly tutorials for specialty registrars. Much of this teaching is conducted in her own time and Dr Zammitt is renowned for her empathetic approach and the individualised support she offers to doctors facing challenges in their training.

Professor Andrew Elder, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said:

The College is always delighted to highlight examples of best practice and excellence in teaching and training and I congratulate Dr Lip and Dr Zammitt on being awarded the prestigious John Munro and Chiron medals.

Both Dr Lip and Dr Zammitt are to be commended for the innovation they have demonstrated in delivering training of the highest quality and their commitment in ensuring the needs of trainees are right at the heart of teaching.

The College is very proud that so many of our Fellows and Members are involved in providing world class training and teaching to the next generation of doctors.