Dr Katherine Woolf is an academic based at University College London Medical School. After attending a fellowship application day, she approached Research Design Service (RDS) London to receive advice on her application. “I really valued the expertise of my adviser, the relevant and constructive feedback and the quick turnaround.” RDS London helped Katherine to obtain a £600,000 NIHR Career Development Fellowship for a project that aims to understand and address inequality from the beginning of medical training, by exploring the selection process.

A psychologist by background, Katherine’s expertise lies in understanding why ethnicity impacts on doctors’ learning and performance, and in shaping policy to improve educational outcomes for doctors from minority ethnic groups. She hopes the research will change the way medical schools attract applicants from diverse backgrounds. She is also working with the Medical Schools Council to develop a tool for all medical schools which based off the research will help applicants make informed choices.

The research will also deliver a major medical education research resource through UKMED, which is jointly run by the General Medical Council (the UK medical regulator) and Medical Schools Council. The research has already given UKMED the incentive to request the inclusion of data on applicants to medicine (instead of just entrants) which will provide an open data resource that researchers can use to determine the impact of medical school selection and training on medical workforce outcomes. “This has the potential to transform undergraduate medical education in the UK, and therefore have a significantly positive impact on the care provided by UK doctors,” says Katherine.