Tessa Richards is a senior editor at the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and leads the BMJs patient partnership strategy which has seen the journal make landmark changes to its editorial processes. She trained at Guy's Hospital in London and worked in the NHS as a general physician and rheumatologist and subsequently a general practitioner before joining the BMJ editorial staff. In 2001 she took over the BMJ analysis section and established its Overdiagnosis series, which is part of the BMJ's campaign against "Too Much Medicine." She is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners, a BMJ columnist and blogs regularly with a focus on patient perspectives. During her time at the BMJ she has led the journal's general practice, medical education, clinical reviews, and analysis sections and has written and edited several series of articles including ones on EU health policy, patient centered care and high integrity health. Her professional interest in patient partnership has been added to by first-hand experience as a carer for close family members with rheumatoid arthritis, dementia, and blindness, and as a patient living with stage 1V adrenal cancer, pernicious anemia and hyperparathyroidism. She most recently served on the faculty of Session 481, Innovating for Value in Health Care Delivery: Better Cross-Border Learning, Smarter Adaptation and Adoption, in 2011.