Our Story

“While extensive research demonstrates conclusively that good communication between health professionals and patients leaves both parties more satisfied with treatment & produces better outcomes, over a quarter of all formal complaints about health practitioners are in the category of communication & diagnosis and this proportion continues to increase (NSW HCCC). These statistics confirm the personal experiences that many patients and their families have within healthcare.”

The Pam McLean Centre (PMC) was born out of this need for change.

PMC evolved from the pioneering work of Professor Stewart Dunn. Following a 1996 visit to the Morchand Centre at Mt Sinai Medical School, where ‘standardized patients’ were used in student assessments, Prof. Dunn, with the support of Prof. Kerry Goulston AO, established a communication skills training program in the University of Sydney Northern Clinical School at Royal North Shore Hospital. Prof. Goulston sourced funding to employ Dr Paul Heinrich, whose PhD in Theatre and Drama provided the impetus to invest in developing extensively researched, clinically accurate, detailed actor-based scenarios to improve student learning.

In 1997, leading medical oncologist, Prof. Fran Boyle AM, joined the team as Medical Director, bringing local and international clinical networks and collaborations. This created a powerful mix of clinical knowledge, psychological research, and dramatic theory and practice that became the multiple award-winning Pam McLean Centre.

The family of Pam McLean, under the guidance of Prof. Martin Tattersall, provided a significant donation after her death from breast cancer in 1995 to expand health communication skills education in Oncology, and the Pam McLean Cancer Communications Centre was officially launched in 2001 by HE Professor Marie Bashir, Governor of NSW, and Prof. Tattersall was the inaugural Chair of the PMC Board.

Since then, PMC has evolved and expanded to provide complex communication skills education across the Healthcare sector. Our success within Oncology opened doors to offer high quality programs within other specialties and disciplines. Ongoing funding and support has been provided from very generous and diverse partners; Northern Sydney LHD, Friends of the Mater and the Ritchie foundation, the University of Sydney, and the McLean family. Dr Renee Lim took on the role of PMC Director of Program Development in 2015, bringing in her diverse portfolio skills as a clinician, an educational designer, engagement consultant, and a performer and writer. As the impact of the Centre’s work grew, it was decided that the Centre be renamed in 2016 to simply The Pam McLean Centre, keeping the patient, rather than the medical specialty, at the center of our focus.

Today, PMC is the leading provider of evidence-based experiential health communication skills training in Australia and beyond, specializing in immersive simulation workshops founded on coherent theory and rigorous research. We deliver over 80 programs annually to all levels and areas of healthcare, from students to trainees and senior clinicians, with a team of highly skilled facilitators and more than 30 professional actors. Our priority is to design meaningful learning, in person, through video and online, to tackle emerging communication challenges that are relevant to the health profession, both within Australia and internationally.