Dr Sharkey (pictured third from left) with some of his students in June 2025
Enhancing the Study of Medicine at Robinson College
Dr Andrew Sharkey, Emeritus Fellow and Former Director of Studies, Pre-Clinical Medicine
When I first took up my role at Robinson 18 years ago, the Cambridge course, with its rigorous grounding in biomedical science, often felt worlds away from the realities of working on the wards. Students, understandably, questioned the direct relevance of their undergraduate studies to clinical practice. However, as many discovered during their clinical years, the foundational science proved invaluable in their diagnoses and clinical reasoning. "Now I get why we learned all this stuff," became a common refrain.
We were among the first Colleges to pilot Integrated Biomedical Problem Solving (IBiPS), an initiative developed at the Clinical School by Dr Richard Darnton and Dr Rachel Wakelin. At the start of each term, IBiPS introduces students to carefully curated clinical cases which align with the biomedical science they will study over the rest of term. Using a facilitator-based model, students develop ideas about possible diagnosis and are then able to keep a look out for relevant material from the biomedical science lectures, that might be relevant and help them to develop a firm diagnosis. At the end of the term, students review their initial clinical reasoning for the case. They identify the relevant learning points from the course material and develop a treatment plan, guided by the facilitators who are all GPs.
Robinson also introduced Clinical Case Days, led by Dr Naomi Deakin, one of our former Robinson medics (2008), now a qualified doctor. Complementing IBiPS, these sessions bring together Robinson clinical medics (years 4, 5 and 6) to teach the Robinson undergraduate medics (years 1, 2 and 3) at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Our clinical medics select suitable cases of their own to present and often enlist current patients for the undergrads to meet. This adds huge ‘real life’ value to this experience. The year 1-3 students spend the day up at the hospital, meeting the patients, discussing the cases and being led through the clinical reasoning, diagnosis and clinical management by the year 4-6 medics. Like the IBiPS course, the idea is to help link the bioscience lecture material with ‘real’ clinical cases and to help the student medics begin to develop their clinical reasoning and understand how to engage with patients. Conversely, this gives the clinical medics experience of teaching and leading group supervisions. It also strengthens links between the Robinson clinical and pre-clinical cohorts.
In addition to developing these new, practical, hands-on learning activities, we are also beginning to utilise VR technology and artificial models within our learning programme. As such, although we mostly teach via traditional in-person dissection methods, the new Anatomage system, accessible through Dr Stuart Eves at Selwyn College, offers a useful virtual tool for anatomy learning and dissection for our freshers at the start of term before we turn to traditional methods in the Dissection Room at the Anatomy Department. In addition to this, the Clinical Skills Unit at Addenbrooke's provides all our students with hands-on experience using artificial models to practice essential procedures like inserting cannulas and performing CPR. The college has also equipped a Medical and Veterinary Student Resource Room to provide a dedicated study space for students to work and learn together. This is heavily used - particularly during exam terms.
Many undergraduate medics want to use the summer vacation to develop their laboratory or clinical skills. Robinson is delighted to be able to support this in a variety of ways. This provision has been enormously enhanced by the recent establishment of the Dr Alex Yui Hui Studentships in Medicine. These enable up to three pre-clinical students each year to participate in summer research projects or internships at the end of years 1-3.
Teaching and supervising our medics at Robinson has been an enormous pleasure and privilege.
As I prepare for my retirement, I feel a huge sense of pride in the accomplishments of our Robinson medics and news of their continued successes and achievements. None of this would be possible without our dedicated and talented group of supervisors who provide so much support and inspiration to our students. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge their critical role in helping our Robinson medics become the best possible doctors they can be. As I embark on a new phase in my life, I look forward to spending much valued time with my grandchildren and continuing my research into early placental development and preeclampsia.
To find out more about Dr Sharkey's research click here.