Dr Tanya Tierney

Assistant Dean, Clinical Communication
 

Dr Tanya Tierney is a medic​al educator with a specific interest in patient-centred communication and simulation-based teaching. She was previously the course leader for Clinical Communication at Imperial College London from 2007 to 2011 and has several years of experience teaching communication skills at Imperial and other London Medical Schools prior to this. She has worked extensively with simulated patients (SPs) and has expertise in training SPs for teaching and scenario-based assessments of medical students. In 2003, Dr Tierney completed her Certificate in Advanced Study in Learning and Teaching at Imperial College London.

Dr Tierney served as Head of Year for the 1st Year students studying Graduate Entry Medicine at Imperial College from 2009-2011 and was responsible for developments in curriculum structure, assessment methodology and student support processes and during this time developed a particular interest in student welfare.

Dr Tierney has experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. She holds a degree in Applied Biology from Bath University (1994) and PhD in Neuroendocrinology from the National Institute for Medical Research in London (1998). She joined Imperial College London in 1998 and after 6 years of post-doctoral research in Neuroendocrinology, she switched her research focus to qualitative research in medical education and practice. Her recent research interests centre on simulation-based methodologies and ethnographical approaches to observe and develop non-technical skills in medical students, doctors and other health care professionals, in particular the use of SPs, hybrid simulation and whole team simulation to develop communication, stress management and team working skills.

In addition to her position as Assistant Dean, Student Wellbeing, Dr Tierney continues to hold a position at Imperial Coll​ege London as an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Clinical Communication.