Dr Jon Fistein
Jon is an Intellectual Forum Senior Research Associate.
He trained as a medical doctor and barrister and has extensive experience working in healthcare management and health informatics. He has worked across the public, private and academic sectors and has a particular interest in interdisciplinary work that spans medicine, technology, law and ethics. Jon has advised national bodies on information governance and the ethical use of healthcare data and was Head of Clinical Ethics and Data at the UK Medical Research Council. His current roles include Chief Medical Officer of Outcomes Based Healthcare, Leadership and Management Theme Lead at the Cambridge University Clinical School and visiting lecturer at Oxford University. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics and a Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.
What are you working on now?
One of my current roles is centred on making information about healthcare outcomes more available and understandable so that it can be used to design health systems that effectively improve people's health. My other roles are centred on teaching and the development of the medical profession. I teach medical ethics, professionalism, leadership and management at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. At Oxford University, I lead the information governance modules in the Software Engineering Master's Programme and lecture on health data ethics at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training at the Big Data Institute. In addition, I hold a visiting Associate Professorship at the University of Leeds. I work closely with the Faculty of Clinical Informatics and the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, focusing on education and the profession's development in these areas.
How has your career to date led to this?
A combination of good luck, following my interests and having a short attention span! I was always interested in how computers and technology could be used in medicine, and I "tinkered" when I was a medical student. Having initially read medicine at Jesus College and St Mary's Hospital Medical School, then started on a "traditional" medical career pathway, I realised that wasn't entirely for me. I was lucky to be offered a Clinical Research Fellowship in Medical Informatics, which sparked my interest in the legal and ethical issues surrounding the use of "new" technology in medicine. I pursued these interests academically, training in law (called to the bar and gained a research LLM) and business (Open University MBA), then later gaining my PhD in medical ethics. Bringing this all together, I am currently thinking about how expectations of the profession of medicine have been changing and the impacts of this for doctors.
What one thing would you most want someone to learn from what you’ve done or are doing now?
Be brave enough to follow your interests, and be prepared to "start again" as they take you to different areas. Always be willing to learn from others, recognising that they almost certainly know more than you do and will have different perspectives that are just as valid as yours.
What do you think of Jesus College and the Intellectual Forum?
Since my time as an undergraduate, I have found Jesus College to be a welcoming, inspirational and forward-looking place. The Intellectual Forum is another great example of this, providing a rare opportunity for people from different disciplines to come together in a neutral setting to bring new perspectives to a broad range of topics.
You can meet the rest of the Intellectual Forum team or contact us via email.
