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Ros Wright interviewed the plenary speaker Andy Ward about his professional background and a message he wants to pass on to the participants at the 7th English for Healthcare Conference in 11-12 September 2026 in Kraków.
Curiosity is a huge part of being a GP, and of teaching. I spend a lot of time talking to people and trying to understand what matters to them. Everyone has a story, and I still find that endlessly interesting. It probably makes me a better doctor and teacher, but it definitely makes the job more enjoyable.
Without doubt, the people I’ve met along the way. Looking back, patients have probably had more influence on my career than anything else. One example that sticks with me is a young mother I met more than 20 years ago who told me she was addicted to heroin. Hearing her story made me realise how little I understood about addiction and set me on a path that eventually led to working in homeless healthcare.
“What matters to this person?”
If you don’t know the answer, ask. It’s easy to focus on problems, symptoms or tasks, but understanding someone’s ideas, concerns and expectations is often the key to helping them. The same principle applies when teaching students too.
That empathy isn’t just good for patients, it’s good for healthcare professionals too. It’s also not about learning a set of phrases or following a communication checklist. You have to be genuinely interested in the person sitting opposite you. For me, curiosity is a big part of that. The more curious we are, the less likely we are to make assumptions, and the more likely we are to understand what’s really going on.
It’s my first visit to Poland, so I’m looking forward to having a wander around Kraków and seeing the city for myself. I’m also hoping to try some maczanka krakowska, which looks right up my street.
Dr Andy Ward is an Associate Professor in Medical Education and Honorary Senior Academic GP at the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare, Leicester Medical School. He develops innovative, evidence-based approaches to embed and sustain empathy across medical curricula and has presented his work internationally. He works clinically as a GP providing healthcare to people experiencing homelessness.
Empathy lies at the heart of meaningful healthcare communication, improving patient experience, clinical outcomes, and practitioner wellbeing.
This plenary explores robust evidence demonstrating the benefits of therapeutic empathy for both patients and clinicians, clarifies what therapeutic empathy means in clinical practice, and outlines simple, actionable ways to enhance empathic interactions. It also examines the role of empathy within healthcare teams and considers how empathy can be effectively taught and sustained within clinical education to support compassionate, human-centred care.
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