Dr Bessant qualified from the University of Manchester Medical School (later earning an MSc (Distinction) in Rheumatology at University College London Hospitals), practised at Hammersmith Hospital and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and worked as a Consultant at Guys & St Thomas' Hospitals. She now devotes her time to Medical Education. Her main research interests are Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Ankylosing Spondylitis. For three years she was the National Trainee Representative for the Heberden Committee of the British Society for Rheumatology. Dr. Bessant was involved in restructuring the UCL Hospitals PACES course and was Course Director from 2002 to 2004, and was also the Course Director for the Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust PACES course until 2010. Dr Bessant published a paper in 2006 with Dr Gerald Coakley in the Postgraduate Medical Journal on predictors of outcome in the PACES exam.