Professor McLachlan is a senior academic specialising in research on assessment in healthcare education and training. He is currently Professor of Medical Education at UCLan Medical School, and Psychometric Advisor to the UKFPO Foundation Recruitment Group, and has previously held senior roles with the medical programmes at Durham, Peninsula and St Andrews. He has previously provided independent reviews to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Royal College of Anaesthetists following assessment errors and challenges which arose in their administration of examinations. At the behest of Health Education England, he carried out a review into the assessment policies of the Royal College of General Practitioners, and has also reviewed the assessment policies of the national Prescribing Safety Assessment. With colleagues, he has been commissioned by the GMC to carry out analyses of the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board assessments, and by the Department of Health with regard to revalidation.
He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Medical Education, and as a Board Member for the UK Clinical Aptitude Test. In 2022 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Association for the Study of Medical Education for services to the field.
Professor McLachlan will commence the review from Monday 10 March 2025, ensuring the involvement of the resident doctor committees. We expect that the report of his review will be made publicly available by the summer.
Professor Hanny Eteiba, President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and chair of the Federation board said:
‘We welcome this independent review. The Federation is committed to providing its full support during this process, ensuring openness and transparency’.