Professor Ronald Harden graduated from medical school in Glasgow, UK.  He completed training and practised as an endocrinologist before moving to full time medical education.  He is Professor of Medical Education (Emeritus) University of Dundee, Editor of Medical Teacher & General Secretary and Treasurer of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE).  Professor Harden was formerly Teaching Dean & Director of the Centre for Medical Education at the University of Dundee. 

He is committed to promoting excellence in medical education through the development of new approaches to curriculum planning, assessment and to teaching and learning.  Ideas which he has pioneered include the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) which has been universally adopted as a standard approach to assessment of clinical competence, the spiral curriculum and the SPICES model for curriculum planning and models for outcome-based education.  He has published more than 400 papers in leading journals.  He is co-editor of A Practical Guide for Medical Teachers and the Routledge International Handbook of Medical Education and co-author of Essential Skills for a Medical Teacher, The Definitive Guide to the OSCE and Eight Roles of the Medical Teacher.

His contributions to excellence in medical education have attracted numerous awards including the Karolinska Institutet Prize for Research in Medical Education, which has been equated to the Nobel Prize for medical education.  He was awarded by the Queen the OBE for his services to medical education. He was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize for services to medical education at a ceremony in Manila and presented with the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in Dundee.