2025 Bennett Institute Medicines Symposium

We are excited to host 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

Thank you for registering for the 2025 Bennett Institute Medicines Symposium. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

If your circumstances change and you can’t make it, please cancel your registration on Eventbrite or let us know by return email, so we can make room for someone else. 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.

Contact

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 Behind the Prescription – Kerry Oliver and John Robinson Using publicly-available primary care medicines data – Richard Croker Hospital data flows and stock – Colin Richman
10:50 – 11:10	Keynote From data to impact: leveraging medicines data to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship and tackle antimicrobial resistance Diane Ashiru-Oredope, Lead Pharmacist and Joint Head AMR PROGRESS Section, UK Health Security Agency
11:10 – 11:40	Coffee Break
11:40 – 12:45	OpenPrescribing Overview of tools, papers, and user stories Chair: Seb Bacon Building OpenPrescribing Hospitals: What has 10 years of OpenPrescribing taught us? - Vicky Speed Improving Opioid Safety using OpenPrescribing – Vanessa Sherwood Analysing lithium usage in primary and secondary care – Orla Macdonald OpenPrescribing prize and 10th anniversary – Ben Goldacre Lightning presentations from Bennett prize winners
12:45 – 13:45	Lunch
13:45 – 14:45	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 MCF Formulary: linking prescribing data and medicine carbon emissions, at scale – Haroon Taylor
14:45 – 14:55	Short Break
14:45 – 15:45	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
15:45 – 16:15	Coffee Break
16:15 – 17:00	Medicines Data Tomorrow Chair: Ben Goldacre The future of ePrescribing (EPS & EPMA) – Jo Goulding The future of medicines uptake and effectiveness monitoring: possibilities and problems – Laurie Tomlinson How NICE uses medicines data – Shaun Rowark
	Panel Discussion Making better use of the datasets we have and making new datasets accessible Panel: Diane Ashiru-Oredope, Jo Goulding, Laurie Tomlinson, Shaun Rowark
17:00 – 17:20	Keynote Pharmacy and the 10 Year Health Plan 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 – Andrew Brown, Caroline Acuda, and Chris Wood OpenCodelists – Em Prestige and Jon Massey OpenCodeCounts – Arina Tamborska
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.

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

Google Maps link to the Market St entrance

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.

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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. A map of the college is available here.

On Day 1

Everything happens in the Digital Hub main arena downstairs.

There will be a short Q&A at the end of each session, not at the end of each talk. You can submit your questions via Mentimeter - the link and QR code will be shared on the day.

On Day 2

Demos of the Bennett tools and the Aural Apothecary live podcast happen in the main arena downstairs.

Drop in sessions will be in the Habakkuk Room - right next to the Cheng Building on the top floor.

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Accommodation

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

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Facilities

• Lunch and coffee breaks are provided, and there is an on-site cafe for any further needs.
• A Multifaith Room is available for delegates as a quiet / reflective space. It is right across the way from the Digital Hub.
• 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.

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Photography / Videography

There will be a photographer all day on Day 1, and for the first half of the Day 2.

Additionally, all talks on Day 1 and on the first half of the Day 2 will be filmed for sharing on the Bennett Institute website. If you prefer not to be filmed / photographed please let us know. ¹