2025 Bennett Institute Medicines Symposium

We are excited to invite you to the 2025 Bennett Institute Oxford Medicines Symposium, taking place on 10-11 December 2025 at Jesus College, Oxford. We hope you can join us all!

The event

This is not just an academic conference. We are the team behind practical tools like OpenPrescribing and OpenSAFELY, and we are bringing together the many different practical communities using data across the NHS and academia.

This includes: medicines optimisation teams who use data to monitor clinical activity and outcomes across the NHS, and work directly with clinicians to drive change; researchers who use data to produce academic papers exploring the benefits and risks of treatments; and technical teams who build the tools and data flows for dashboards and popups.

• Day 1 will feature keynotes, lightning talks, and panel discussions.
• Day 2 will be a more informal day, with collaborative morning meetings and drop-in sessions led by the OpenPrescribing and OpenSAFELY teams.

Whether you’re working in healthcare research, policy, or practice, this is a chance to connect and learn from those generating and using medicines data in the UK.

• When: 10th - 11th December 2025
• Where: Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub, Jesus College, Oxford ¹

Register now on Eventbrite.²

Come and talk

We would also love to receive presentations from you! These need not be formal academic talks. We are looking for practical work, done by real teams in the NHS, using data to drive change, in short presentations, using all the tools available including ePACT2, OpenPrescribing, GP data, and more. We are also looking for academic presentations about research work: this includes novel findings or single research projects; but also informative overviews of your work, showcasing how medicines data is used for the wider community. You can propose your short presentation here until 24th October 2025.

Sessions on the first day

• An overview of prescribing data sources accessible today, and how they are produced.
• An overview of the many different data tools used by medicines teams.
• Presentations from medicines optimisation teams on how they use data every day for practical quality improvement in the NHS.
• Presentations from academic researchers on how they use data to explore the uptake, safety and effectiveness of medicines.
• A panel on the future of medicines data.

Our keynote lecture is from the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, David Webb, head of the pharmacy professions in England, and principal advisor on pharmacy and medicines use in the NHS.

The Bennett Prize

Lastly, we will be presenting the first Bennett Institute Prize for outstanding use of data. This year, the prize is for projects using our OpenPrescribing tool (which is celebrating its 10th birthday). Submissions are open until 10th November here.

The day after: Bennett Institute drop-in

On Thursday, 11th December, the day after the symposium, we will also be having a more informal day, with collaborative morning meetings and drop-in sessions led by the OpenPrescribing and OpenSAFELY teams. This is the place to come if you would like to learn more about our work, or collaborate with us on tools, analyses, training, or policy change.

If you have any questions, please contact the team using the email events.bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk!

10 December 2025

Time	Details
09:00 – 10:00	Arrivals and Coffee Registration, tea and coffee, and danish pastries
10:00 – 10:10	Welcome Ben Goldacre
10:10 – 10:50	Prescribing data accessible today Presentations describing the prescribing data sources accessible today, and how they are produced Chair: Vicky Speed GP dispensing – Richard Croker GP prescribing – Kerry Oliver Hospital data flows and stock – Colin Richman
10:50 – 11:10	Keynote Diane Ashiru-Oredope
11:10 – 11:40	Coffee Break
11:40 – 12:30	OpenPrescribing Overview of tools, papers, and user stories Chair: Brian MacKenna OpenPrescribing: Overview of tools including the new OP-Hospitals Improving Opioid Safety using OpenPrescribing – Vanessa Sherwood Analysing lithium usage in primary and secondary care – Orla Macdonald OpenPrescribing prize and 10th anniversary – Brian MacKenna Lightning presentations from Bennett prize winners
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 14:30	Medicines Optimisation Stories and Tools Real teams, using real data, for quality improvement in the NHS today Chair: Richard Croker Ardens Medicines Management: Supporting safe, evidence-based & sustainable prescribing – Merlin Dunlop Adrenaline auto-injector prescribing in primary care in England: an analysis of non-standard dosing – Lucy Sherwin-Robson Prescribing and Medicines Statistics: Supporting Data-Driven Decision Making – Matthew Wilson ICB primary and secondary care pain collaborative; data intelligence – Helena Nettleton & Monica Mason MCF Formulary: linking prescribing data and medicine carbon emissions, at scale – Haroon Taylor
14:30 – 14:40	Short Break
14:40 – 15:30	Medicines Research Today Presentations from academic researchers on how they use data to explore the uptake, safety and effectiveness of medicines Chair: Rose Higgins Learning from international experience: evaluating policy impact on prescribing for pain – Frank Moriarty Gender and ethnicity: intersectional disadvantage in cardiovascular disease prevention – Sophie Eastwood Learning from the Dead: Using Mortality Data to Inform Safer Prescribing – Caroline Copeland Distribution of higher-cost narcolepsy-drug issuance within NHS England – Fred van Someren
15:30 – 16:00	Coffee Break
16:00 – 16:35	Medicines Data Tomorrow Chair: Ben Goldacre TBA The future of medicines uptake and effectiveness monitoring: possibilities and problems – Laurie Tomlinson How NICE uses medicines data – Shaun Rowark
16:35 – 16:55	Panel Discussion Making better use of the datasets we have and making new datasets accessible Panel: Shaun Rowark, Laurie Tomlinson, Diane Ashiru-Oredope
17:00 – 17:20	Keynote David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England
17:20 – 17:30	Closing Words Ben Goldacre
17:30 – 18:15	Drinks and Canapés

11 December 2025

Time	Details
09:00 – 10:00	Arrivals and Coffee
10:00 – 11:00	Demonstration of Tools Developed by Bennett Institute Presentations from the teams behind OpenSAFELY, OpenCodelists, OpenPrescribing, and OpenCodeCounts OpenSAFELY – Eli Holderness OpenPrescribing & OpenPrescribing Hospitals OpenCodelists – Em Prestige and Jon Massey OpenCodeCounts – Arina Tamborska and Rose Higgins
11:00 – 11:30	Break
11:30 – 12:30	Aural Apothecary live podcast
11:30 – 12:30	Drop-in Sessions An open drop-in session to talk to us about our tools and projects. This is your opportunity to get in-person advice and support on anything related to OpenSAFELY, OpenCodelists, and OpenPrescribing.
11:30 – 12:30	Project-Specific Meetings Time for the Bennett Institute and their collaborators to discuss ongoing or planned projects.
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 15:00	Drop-in Sessions An open drop-in session to talk to us about our tools and projects. This is your opportunity to get in-person advice and support on anything related to OpenSAFELY, OpenCodelists, and OpenPrescribing.
13:30 – 15:00	Project-Specific Meetings Time for the Bennett Institute and their collaborators to discuss ongoing or planned projects.

Speakers will be drawn from the Bennett Institute and the wider UK medicines community, and will be announced soon.

Come and talk

We would also love to receive presentations from you! These need not be formal academic talks. We are looking for practical work, done by real teams in the NHS, using data to drive change, in short presentations, using all the tools available including ePACT2, OpenPrescribing, GP data, and more. We are also looking for academic presentations about research work: this includes novel findings or single research projects; but also informative overviews of your work, showcasing how medicines data is used for the wider community. You can propose your short presentation here.

The symposium venue is Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub, Jesus College, Market Street, Oxford OX1 3DW.

Getting there

The venue is in the centre of Oxford, easily reachable on foot or by bike, and only a short distance from the Bennett Institute’s home at Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Radcliffe Primary Care Building.

• By train:
  The venue is only a 15-minute walk from the Oxford train station.
• By car:
  The venue does not support visitor parking. There are excellent Park and Ride options available in Oxford. There is very limited visitor parking, if you have such need, please contact Jade Womersley at events.bennett@phc.ox.ac.uk

Accommodation

A choice of University rooms can be booked on universityrooms.com.

Spaces

The Digital Hub is an excellent and dynamic space in the heart of Oxford and offers varied spaces across its four floors – from the ground floor main arena to breakout rooms.

College premises next to the The Digital Hub - Habakkuk Room - are also used as a breakout space.

Facilities

• Lunch and coffee breaks are provided, and there is an on-site cafe for any further needs.
• A prayer / quiet room is available for delegates.
• Delegates can make use of the cloakroom behind the reception area.
• The reception area is at the entrance to the Digital Hub on Market street.
• Free guest WiFi is available.

View The Digital Hub - venue website.

Accessibility

An accessible entrance is located at the Market Street entrance and a lift is available to all floors. Delegates must be accompanied by a chaperon to help open the glass doors. Hearing loops are available based on the request.

Delegates may indicate their accessibility needs through registration.

View Jesus College website for more information.