We are delighted to host the Realistic Medicine Annual Conference at the Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow on Friday 19th June 2026 (09:00-17:00)
This conference is free to attend and will attract CPD points.
This year marks a significant milestone as we are celebrating ten years of Realistic Medicine in Scotland and we want you to be part of it. It is our showcase event of the year, providing opportunities for sharing and learning.
This year, we’ll explore how Realistic Medicine has evolved in practice and how it continues to improve outcomes for the people we care for. The programme will highlight both achievements and ongoing challenges, supporting shared learning and collective problem‑solving across health and care.
We are delighted to welcome Professor Jill Sonke, a world-renowned expert on the role of arts in health and care, exploring how creative and community‑based approaches can enhance wellbeing, reduce health inequalities and support more holistic models of care. The conference will also welcome Jamie Hayes, sharing with us his experience of understanding those we care for and the often hidden physical, emotional and social impacts of medicines, reinforcing the central role of shared decision‑making at the heart of Realistic Medicine. We also have a wide range of excellent interactive breakout sessions hosted by experts in their fields.
This event includes the official launch of the Chief Medical Officer’s Annual Report 2025 -2026, offering delegates first‑hand engagement with its key themes, priorities and implications for health and care leaders. Social prescribing and the growing contribution of arts and community‑based approaches will be woven throughout the programme, reflecting the breadth, ambition and future direction of Realistic Medicine.
Come and join us to celebrate a decade of Realistic Medicine while helping to shape its next chapter across Scotland’s health and care system.
Full details of the programme and how to register can be found here – Realistic Medicine Conference 2026
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PLENARY SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Professor Jill Sonke, US Cultural Policy Fellow, Director of Research Initiatives, University of Florida
Jill Sonke, PhD, is a US Cultural Policy Fellow with Stanford Arts at Stanford University, serving at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She is also Co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab in partnership with University College London, and Director of Research Initiatives and Research Professor in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF).
Dr. Sonke served during the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force, and served from 2021-2025 as Director of National Research and Impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative. She currently serves on the steering committee and as an Affiliated Researcher in the WHO’s Jameel Arts & Health Lab, and as an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal.
With 30+ years of leadership in arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Dr. Sonke is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist, cultural strategist, and a mixed methods researcher with over 150 publications She is the recipient of numerous awards and over 350 grants for her programs and research.
Professor Jamie Hayes, Director, Welsh Medicines Resource Centre
Jamie Hayes MBA, FRPharmS, FFRPS. Jamie is a pharmacist in NHS Wales. He is Director of the Welsh Medicines Resource Centre, an Honorary Professor at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Department of Applied Psychology and Behaviour Change and a Director of the Cardiff Business Club.
A clinical pharmacist by background, Jamie has a thirty-five-year career in healthcare leadership, medical education and behavioural change. He served as an elected board member for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for six years, from 2016 to 2022, and was awarded Fellowship in 2021.
In 2017, Jamie founded JMH Collaborations Ltd, a boutique coaching, leadership and performance consultancy offering one-to-one and team coaching to executives, leaders and managers from organisations across private and public sectors. Jamie has coached individuals and teams from start-ups to blue chips. Clients include executive directors, entrepreneurs, medical consultants, senior healthcare professionals, lawyers, retail leaders, journalists, managing directors, financiers, chief executives and chief operating officers.
His TEDx Talk, “Prescription to Ocean: The Hidden Impact of Medicines,” published in August 2025, continues to be viewed worldwide.
Jamie is co-host of The Aural Apothecary Podcast – a podcast about medicines, people and stories.