It’s the beginning of a new academic year and our BMERG blog series kicks off with an introduction to our new BMERG blog editors – and a call for blog writers.
Following a refresh of the BMERG Committee and the opportunity to take on new roles, Dr Sally Dowling and Dr Andrew Bond have volunteered to be the new BMERG Blog editors. They will be doing this under the expert supervision of Dr Sarah Allsop. Sarah has overseen the blog brilliantly for the past few years, and Sally and Andrew are very grateful to have her expertise to draw on as they take on the role.
Who are we?
Dr Sally Dowling is a Senior Lecturer who has worked in health professions education since 2007, following a career in the NHS. She came to work in Bristol Medical School in January 2022 and currently holds positions in PGT programmes (Health Professions Education and as co-Programme Director for the MSc Reproduction and Development). She also works as Year 1 Student Choice Academic Lead on the MBChB programme. Sally has been a BMERG Committee member since 2022. She has been involved in several BILT-funded associate projects, including one looking at inclusive assessment. In 2024-25 and continuing in 2025-26, she is part of the Pedagogic research and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) culture project, working with colleagues across the university. She has an interest in supporting staff and student in writing for publication and has run workshops and written blog posts relating to this.
Dr Andrew Bond is a Lecturer in Cardiovascular Medicine, in Bristol Medical School, and Co-Director of MSc Cardiovascular Perfusion. He has over 20 years of experience as a scientific researcher in UK academia, undertaking and publishing a variety of research into atherosclerosis, paediatric heart surgery, islet transplantation for Type I diabetes, and bioengineering of blood vessels for heart bypass surgery. In 2023 he switched to the Teaching and Scholarship Pathway at the University of Bristol, and his teaching role predominantly involves developing and delivering content on the MSc Translational Cardiovascular Medicine, MSc Clinical Perfusion Science and MSc Cardiovascular Perfusion. He is co-lead for various units on the three courses. Andrew recently joined the BMERG Committee, and sees it as the beginning of his pursuit of pedagogical research, and the chance to better understand how students learn and thrive. His hope is to integrate insights from this research into his own teaching practice, so that research and practice continually inform one another.
What is a blog post?
Blog posts are short pieces of writing highlighting topics of interest, usually written in an informal, accessible or conversational style. Some blogs are focussed on a specific issue; others are more general. Writing a blog is a way of sharing your ideas, experiences and opinions – it also gives you a permanent URL from which your writing can be accessed.
What can I write about for in a BMERG blog?
The BMERG blogs are aimed at the medical education community at the University of Bristol and beyond. In the past some have been themed – for example about “Writing for Publication” or reporting on papers discussed at the BMERG Journal Club. We have had conference reports (such as this one) and advice on Academic Careers and Researcher Skills, and other staff development and teaching practice issues. Individual BMERG members have written about their research projects, events they have attended or activities they’ve been involved in. If you look at the BMERG Blog page of the BMERG website you can see the latest Blog posts, and search by topics or categories.
What will we be doing?
This post relaunches the BMERG Blog. Following this we hope to have a new blog published on alternate Fridays. To open the new series, we will publish topic blogs once each month and introduce a member of the Committee in the second blog. To whet your appetite – we have forthcoming blogs on the ASME conference 2025 and the Assessment in Higher Education Conference 2025, a blog on ‘Starting out in pedagogical research’ and introductions to the new BMERG chair and others on the committee. We’ll also be re-posting some earlier blogs about writing for publication and understanding Open Access publication.
Can I write a blog post?
Yes please! We would love to hear from anyone who would like to write a blog post for BMERG. We ask that you use this form to submit your details and the text of your blog. We will review all blogs submitted and let you know if any (usually minor) edits are needed. We’ll also let you know when we are scheduling the publication of your blog. Please let us know if you think there is a reason to publish your blog as soon as possible (for example, if it’s addressing a particularly current or timely issue).
In the next BMERG blog post Dani O’Connor will be writing about ‘Reflections from ASME 2025, AI, Assessment & Agency in Health Professions Education’.