This two-day conference will foster debate amongst researchers, policymakers and professional representatives to better understand the socio-cultural and political pressures facing healthcare professionals following the COVID-19 pandemic, and to understand how these pressures are transforming healthcare professionalism.

Healthcare professionalism is conceptualised as an inherently political construct that is shaped by the expectations of multiple stakeholders and where professionals themselves negotiate these expectations in their practice, culture and identity.

In the contemporary, post-pandemic period, healthcare systems face significant resource constraints and workforce shortages; the possibilities and risks of new technologies, especially AI in the re-shaping of care; and growing appreciation of pervasive health disparities and the need to remodel services towards more preventative health improvement.

Such demands call for health professionalism to be re-imagined at the cultural and political levels. The aim of the conference is to establish a new global research agenda that will set the direction of scholarship and professional development for the next decade by encouraging international comparative research and cross-national thinking The conference will be themed to facilitate focused discussion and learning across presentations.

The event will also include an optional roundtable session for early career researchers.

Themes to include:

Theme 1: Knowledge and practice under pressure
Theme 2: Working out/through boundaries and connections
Theme 3: Organisational and Technological Innovation
Theme 4: Professions, Publics and Polity