We are pleased to announce that registration for the 27th Annual Meeting of IAMSE, to be held June 10 – 13, 2023 in Cancun, Mexico is now open. At this annual meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) faculty, staff, and students from around the world who are interested in health science education join together in faculty development and networking opportunities. Sessions on curriculum development, assessment, and simulation are among the common topics available at the meeting.
Featured plenary speakers include Professor Kara Caruthers (Meharry Medical College, USA), Dr. Michelle Daniel (University of California San Diego School of Medicine, USA), Dr. Anique de Bruin (Maastricht University, The Netherlands), and Dr. Ricardo Leon-Borquez (World Federation for Medical Education).
Harvard Medical School Medical Student COVID-19 Curriculum One of the greatest difficulties facing everyone nowadays is a lack of clarity about what is going on and what lies ahead. We students especially feel a need to deepen our knowledge of the situation, as we are often viewed as resources by our friends and family. However, it soon became clear how challenging it was to process the wealth of information coming our way. A team of us at Harvard Medical School set out to quickly collate and synthesize accurate information about the pandemic to share with those who do not have the time or resources to research it themselves. Additional resources include Curriculum for Kids, an article written by the team discussing the curriculum, and an opportunity to give direct feedback to the developers.
AAMC COVID-19 Resource Hub The AAMC continues to monitor guidance from federal, state, and local health agencies as it relates to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Find information and updates from AAMC on this emerging global health concern.
Acland Anatomy Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy contains nearly 330 videos of real human anatomic specimens in their natural colors.
MedEd Portal Virtual Resources This collection features peer-reviewed teaching resources that can be used for distance learning, including self-directed modules and learning activities that could be converted to virtual interactions. As always, the resources are free to download and free for adaptation to local settings. The collection will be reviewed and updated regularly.
Aquifer Aquifer is offering free access to 146 Aquifer signature cases, WISE-MD (Surgery), and WISE-OnCall (Readiness for Practice) through June 30, 2020, to all current Aquifer institutional subscribers in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Kaplan iHuman With i-Human Patients, students experience safe, repeatable, fully-graded clinical patient encounters on their devices anywhere, anytime.
Online MedEd The unprecedented COVID‐19 crisis has upended the medical and medical education landscape. Our aim during this difficult and confusing time is to support you with what we do best—concise, high–yield videos to help you get up to speed efficiently and effectively—so you can feel confident with however you’re being called on to adjust.
ScholarRX Bricks In response to a request for assistance from a partner medical school impacted by COVID-19, ScholarRx has agreed to make its Rx Bricks program available at no cost to M2 students for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year. This comprehensive, online resource can assist schools in implementing contingency plans necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Osmosis You can raise the line by training healthcare workers who don’t have experience treating COVID-19. Encourage healthcare workers you know to complete this free CME course on COVID-19 so they’re prepared to fight the virus.
AnatomyZone Top-quality anatomy videos, all for free.
Harvard Macy Crowdsourced List of Online Teaching Resources Collated by the Harvard Macy Institute (@HarvardMacy)
Firecracker We understand some of the unique challenges you are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, as a company, are putting together resources to help you keep up with your courses as well as stay up to date with the latest research and evidence-based practices for addressing this new coronavirus.
5 Minute Consult Primary health care is important to everyone, and now more than ever it’s important that you have access to evidence-based diagnostic and treatment content. To help you with caring for all of your patients, we are offering 30-day free access to 5MinuteConsult.com. Use code 5MC30DayAccess73173 to sign up.
Our association is a robust and diverse set of educators, researchers, medical professionals, volunteers and academics that come from all walks of life and from around the globe. Each month we choose a member to highlight their academic and professional career and see how they are making the best of their membership in IAMSE. This month’s Featured Member is our 2019 annual meeting site host, IAMSE President Rick Vari.
Rick Vari, PhD Professor & Senior Dean for Academic Affairs Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Why was the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine the right choice for the 2019 IAMSE meeting? We are the right choice for the meeting this year because we did a fabulous conference several years ago and we were already in the queue for a future IAMSE meeting. We had some scheduling issues with our original site for 2019 and we were able to step in and fill the void. We have a wonderful hotel site (at the Hotel Roanoke), and the people who came from all across North America for the Collaborating Across Borders V: An American-Canadian Dialogue on Interprofessional Healthcare and Practice, in 2015 really enjoyed it. As a relatively new medical school, we are excited about continuing our growing success in medical education; hosting the IAMSE meeting is a real honor for us.
What opportunities will attendees see in Roanoke that they’ve not seen in years past? Roanoke is a beautiful city to have a conference. We’ve localized the venue, which is a major goal for IAMSE. Attendees and exhibitors will appreciate the layout of the conference site. We are adjacent to the Roanoke Market Square with restaurants, breweries, and shopping featuring local items. There are just lots of opportunities for networking and entertainment. The program is outstanding with presentations and sessions on current and future challenges facing health sciences educators. International abstract submission is up, so more colleagues from other parts of the world may be attending. Increased student participation will be another highlight. This year, IAMSE is also hosting a Taste of Roanoke Street Fair which will replace the annual gala dinner. IAMSE 2019 is going to be a very easy conference to attend. If you can stay for the Grand Extravaganza on Tuesday afternoon it is going to be very special with a hiking trip to a beautiful location on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a visit to the Ballast Point brewery (East Coast operation) for dinner.
Can you tell me more about this new event? We are blocking off the Market Square in downtown Roanoke. We will have tastes of local food, beverages, and music. This is a chance to interact in a casual fun setting with lots of local food and a live band! It’s going to be a lot of fun.
What session or speaker are you most looking forward to this year? I’m looking forward to, of course, the Board of Directors and Committee Chairs meeting. I’ve enjoyed being president and interacting with the Board and Committee Chairs in this planning session provides IAMSE with a sense of solid direction. The plenary sessions also look very strong. I’m interested in the Gen Z session (Generation Z: The New Kids on the Block) and How to Use Disruptive Technology to Make Education Better – Not Just Different.
It sounds likes there is much to look forward to this year. Anything else you’d like to share? The local response from the other medical schools in the area in support of the IAMSE meeting in Roanoke has been very strong. As a new school, this is a tremendous opportunity for us and the other medical schools in the area to get better acquainted.
To learn more about the 2019 IAMSE Annual Meeting, including the plenary speakers, workshops and networking opportunities, or to register, please visitwww.IAMSEconference.org.
Reserve your spot before March 15 to ensure the Early Bird Discount!
The IAMSE booth will be exhibiting at the annual winter meeting of the Group for Research in Pathology Education (GRIPE) in New Orleans, LA on January 24-26, 2019. IAMSE Association Manager Julie Hewett will also be delivering a pre-conference workshop titled, “Using Social Media to Disseminate Your Scholarly Work.” If you plan on attending this meeting, don’t miss this session and do not forget to swing by the IAMSE booth and say hello!
Information on the GRIPE Meeting can be found here. We look forward to seeing you there!
We are pleased to announce that registration for the 23rd Annual Meeting of IAMSE, to be held June 8-11, 2019 in Roanoke, VA, USA, is now open. At this annual meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) faculty, staff and students from around the world who are interested in medical science education join together in faculty development and networking opportunities. Sessions on curriculum development, assessment and simulation are among the common topics available at the annual meetings.
Featured plenary speakers include Don Cleveland, Claudia Krebs, Craig Lenz and Geoff Talmon.
Our Association is a robust and diverse set of educators, students, researchers, medical professionals, volunteers and academics that come from all walks of life and from around the globe. Each month we choose a member to highlight their academic and professional career and see how they are making the best of their membership in IAMSE. This month’s Featured Member is Doug McKell.
Doug McKell Adjunct Assistant Professor College of Population Health Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
How long have you been a member of IAMSE? I have been a member of IAMSE for 6 years, ever since Bonny Dickinson, one of my Medical Education classmates at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, invited me to attend my first IAMSE Annual Conference in Roanoke, VA, in 2019.
Looking at your time with the Association, what have you most enjoyed doing? What are you looking forward to? The highlight of my membership experience has been the opportunity to meet with many talented IAMSE community members with a wide range of medical and health professional expertise. I have been amazed by the strong volunteer commitment of members serving on various committees and programs. Participating in the WAS Seminar series Committee, the Annual Program Committee, and the Virtual Forum Program Committee has allowed me to meet many of these dedicated IAMSE members. As a result, I continue to learn more about the challenges – and opportunities – in health professions education. I have expanded my research interests to consider new approaches to educating health professionals, specifically in applying Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health to training health professionals.
What interesting things are you working on outside of the Association right now? For the past 6 months, I have focused on designing ways to integrate digital assistants, AI Chatbots, into graduate courses I teach for residents, practicing physicians, pharmacists, and advanced practice nurses. I want to better understand the implementation barriers to their use, in addition to the potential benefits to students and faculty. This quest has taken me deeper into understanding Competence-Based Education, Self-Directed Learning, Critical Reasoning, Human-Computer interface, Universal Design for Learning, and Professional Identity Formation, all areas of IAMSE members’ expertise.
As the Lead of the IAMSE AI Community of Growth (CoG), what have you gotten out of leading the CoG since it began, and what is your favorite part about being the Lead of the AI CoG or the AI CoG in general? The expanding network of IAMSE members interested in responsible AI use continues to challenge me to consider how, when, and especially for what purpose we adopt any AI technology or specific tool. My two AI Community of Growth collaborators, Drs. Lise McCoy and Diego Niño have been valuable collaborators in developing and leading the AI CoG since it began as an early morning interest group at the 2023 IAMSE Cancun Annual Meeting. IAMSE members continue to join the AI CoG listserv and attend our monthly Zoom discussions. It has become a terrific professional community of over 100 members that continues to strengthen network collaboration, research interests, and informal information sharing about AI in health professional education.
Anything else that you would like to add? I am grateful for the warm welcome I received joining IAMSE and the opportunity to be on several committees. I also want to thank the IAMSE leadership of Drs. Peter de Jong and Carol Nichols for their vision to create the AI CoG and their ongoing support. I continue to benefit personally and professionally from the IAMSE leadership, especially their support of the AI Community of Growth and the recently published AIAMSE AI Needs Assessment on AI’s Impact on Medical Education survey (SharedIt link: https://rdcu.be/d0gVj). We plan to repeat this survey in 2025 to help provide the IAMSE members with additional information about the rapidly changing AI landscape in health professions education. Finally, a new AI Certificate program for IAMSE members will be available at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Calgary in response to the need for coordinated skill-based AI information.
As a final reminder, the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) is pleased to announce the call for oral and poster abstracts for the 29th Annual IAMSE Conference to be held at the Calgary TELUS Convention Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from June 14-17, 2025. The IAMSE Conference offers opportunities for training, development, and mentoring, to meet the needs of learners and professionals across the continuum of health professions education.
The first time you enter the site, you will be required to create a user profile. Even if you submitted abstracts in previous years, you will need to create a new account.
All abstracts for oral and poster presentations must be submitted in the format requested through the online abstract submission site.
You may list several authors, but you are limited to one presenter.
Once the submission deadline has passed, you may not edit your abstract. This includes adding authors.
Once the submission deadline has passed, authors will no longer have access to their abstract submissions.
There is no limit on the number of abstracts you may submit, but it is unlikely that more than two presentations per presenter can be accepted due to scheduling complexities. Abstract acceptance notifications will be returned in March 2025. Please contact support@iamse.org for any questions about your submission.
The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) is pleased to once again accept applications for the IAMSE-ScholarRx Student Educational Research Grant Program.
Students must be members of IAMSE to be eligible to apply for this grant. All students will need to have a faculty mentor sign off on the proposal confirming that all policies will be met. Proposals must be accompanied by a letter from an appropriate institutional official confirming that the institution will pay to send the student to the IAMSE meeting the year following project completion to present the results of the proposed work; timing of the presentation is flexible as to be appropriate for the completion of the project. Up to four (4) student grants will be awarded for up to $2500 USD.
Applications are to be submitted through the form found here by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on January 15, 2025.
All information regarding the IAMSE-ScholarRx Educational Research Grant Program, including the application process, eligibility, proposal format, and evaluation criteria, can be found on the IAMSE website here. A template for the budget can be found here. Note that you may need to open the template in another window to download it.
Thank you, IAMSE Student Professional Development Committee
In today’s rapidly evolving medical education landscape, one size does not fit all. This five-session series titled, “Tailored Education: Helping Every Student Across the Finish Line,” explores how personalized and precision-focused approaches can empower every medical student to succeed. Join leading medical educators in discussing strategies that support the success of every learner, from individual mentorship to data-driven learning support.
Sessions will cover the concept of precision medical education, from big-picture theories to innovative implementation, showing how adaptive learning environments can better meet diverse student needs. The series also emphasizes the critical role of mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship in guiding students towards personal and professional success. Additionally, it highlights pre-matriculation programs as a key strategy for preparing incoming students, enhancing their readiness, confidence, and ability to succeed.
Join us as we explore innovative strategies to personalize medical education, build supportive learning environments, and guide every student towards becoming the best medical practitioner they can be.
Questions regarding the registration process, specifically for institutions, or other FAQs about the Winter 2025 WAS Series can be found by clicking here.
Tailored Education: Helping Every Student Across the Finish Line
Join us for each one-hour session beginning Thursday, January 9 at 12 PM EST. Sessions in the Winter 2025 series include:
January 9, 12:00 PM EST – Guiding the Next Generation: Enhancing Medical Education through Mentorship, Coaching and Sponsorship, presented by Alice Fornari, Hofstra University
January 16, 12:00 PM EST – Precision Education: The Future of Lifelong Learning, presented by Sanjay Desai, American Medical Association
January 23, 12:00 PM EST – Coaching and Remediation: Developing a Toolkit for Learners Who Struggle, presented by Jean Klig, Harvard Medical School
January 30, 12:00 PM EST – From Bytes to Bedside: Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Medicine and Medical Education, presented by Marc Triola, NYU Langone Health
February 6, 12:00 PM EST – Medical Education Readiness Program (MERP): Our Guided Approach to Foster Success in Medical School, presented by Inna Lindner, Adtalem Global Education
Questions regarding the registration process, specifically for institutions, or other FAQs about the Winter 2025 WAS Series can be found by clicking here.
Our Association is a robust and diverse set of educators, students, researchers, medical professionals, volunteers and academics that come from all walks of life and from around the globe. Each month we choose a member to highlight their academic and professional career and see how they are making the best of their membership in IAMSE. This month’s Featured Member is Sarah Clayton.
Sarah Clayton Associate Professor and Interim Department Chair Physiology & Pharmacology Department Des Moines University Des Moines, Iowa, USA
How long have you been a member of IAMSE? I have been a member of IAMSE for about 10 years.
Looking at your time with the Association, what have you most enjoyed doing? What are you looking forward to? I really think the Association is quite dynamic and working to continually improve medical education. I pour over the publications to glean new ideas and approaches to my teaching. In addition, the Fall and Spring Webinar Series are always well organized and timely. In the past, our institution has used these as events where faculty could meet, review the seminar, and then hold discussions as time allowed. I have always gotten great insights and ideas, especially as a novice educator. I am looking forward to widening my collaborative “net” as I engage further with members across the Association and work together to advance medical education.
What interesting things are you working on outside of the Association right now? I was recently just promoted to Interim Chair for the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. While this role is a bit daunting to me, I know the relationships that I have made, within DMU and with outside colleagues, including those within IAMSE, will put me in a good position to understand the best approaches to this new position. I also became a Fellow of the National Academy of Osteopathic Medical Educators this year. Additionally, I have very active research collaborations within Des Moines University, when I am not in the classroom.
Congratulations on receiving the IAMSE Reviewer of the Year Award this year! Can you reflect on what that means to you? Where do you see your impact within the Association? I was truly honored and humbled to receive this award – it came as a complete surprise! I appreciate the validation of my work, and it has allowed me to get more involved with IAMSE as an Associate Editor for MSE. As I increase my engagement with the Association, I am looking forward to sharing experiences and collaborating with other amazing medical educators around the world and giving back to my profession.
Anything else that you would like to add? I would like to express my gratitude to all the members of the Association and especially those members that made specific impacts on where I am today, including Drs. Kurt Cornish and Edward (Pat) Finnerty. Their enthusiasm for medical education and encouragement to engage with the Association made a powerful impact on my career trajectory. I have really enjoyed the home I have found within the Association and the opportunities it has afforded; I would highly recommend that medical educators engage with this Association, as the community is supportive and collaborative.
Join us at 12:00 PM EST Thursday, January 9, 16, 23, 30, and February 6, 2025 for the IAMSE Winter 2025 Webcast Audio Seminar Series titled “Tailored Education: Helping Every Student Across the Finish Line.”
Tailored Education: Helping Every Student Across the Finish Line In today’s rapidly evolving medical education landscape, one size does not fit all. This five-session series explores how personalized and precision-focused approaches can empower every medical student to succeed. Join leading medical educators in discussing strategies that support the success of every learner, from individual mentorship to data-driven learning support.
Sessions will cover the concept of precision medical education, from big-picture theories to innovative implementation, showing how adaptive learning environments can better meet diverse student needs. The series also emphasizes the critical role of mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship in guiding students towards personal and professional success. Additionally, it highlights pre-matriculation programs as a key strategy for preparing incoming students, enhancing their readiness, confidence, and ability to succeed.
Join us as we explore innovative strategies to personalize medical education, build supportive learning environments, and guide every student towards becoming the best medical practitioner they can be.
Further details about the Winter 2025 series, including registration, speakers, topics, and more will be coming soon, so keep an eye on your inbox. For more details on our archives of previous seasons, please visit www.iamse.org.
The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) is pleased to announce that applications for the 2025 Medical Educator Fellowship (MEF) Program are now being accepted! IAMSE is once again offering members and non-members the option of completing the MEF Program 100% virtually, from any location around the globe.
The primary goal of the MEF is to support the development of well-rounded healthcare education scholars through a program of targeted professional development and application of learned concepts to mentored research projects. The program is designed for healthcare educators from all backgrounds who wish to enhance their knowledge and productivity as educational scholars.
Please note that as a prerequisite, applicants are required to have completed the ESME course or the IAMSE Foundations Course. For more detailed information about the IAMSE Foundations Course, please visit the information on our website at https://www.iamse.org/foundations-of-health-professions-education-course/.
Applicants for the next cohort will be accepted until December 1, 2024. To submit your application, fill out this application form. As part of the application form, you will need to upload your IAMSE Foundations Course Completion Certificate and your CV.
For questions about the Fellowship or how to apply, please contact support@iamse.org. We thank you for your interest and look forward to supporting you in achieving your professional goals in educational scholarship.
Laying the Groundwork: Enhancing Medical Student Preparedness Through Pre-Matriculation and Mentoring Presenters: Dyron Corley, Ed, and Stephanie Dearden, MA, Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine
[The following blog was generated by Doug McKell and Akshata Naik]
The final session of the IAMSE Fall 2024 webcast focused on enhancing medical student preparedness through pre-matriculation and mentoring programs. Dr. Dyron Corley and Ms. Stephanie Dearden from Rowan Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine discussed their three- week, free, in-person program for incoming students, which includes two curricular tracks: a) Synergistic Group Learning (SGL), which is lecture-based, and b) Problem-Based Learning (PBL), which is small group based. The program, funded by the medical school and federal work-study grants, is designed to facilitate incoming medical students’ academic, social, and environmental adjustment, introduce them to the medical school curriculum, and begin the development of their metacognitive skills. The program’s effectiveness is evaluated using the LASSI inventory and final exam scores, demonstrating first-year medical students’ improvement in anxiety reduction (stress) and learning how to apply effective study skills.
Dr. Corley described their three-week pre-matriculation program, which takes place in June before formal orientation at the start of the student’s first year. Usually, around 130 students attend this program, about 50% of the first-year entering class. He stressed that the program is built on a peer-to-peer model, fostering a strong sense of community and support. While some SOM faculty lecture about content-specific medical school topics, the pre-matriculation program primarily relies on well-qualified second year medical students to be content teachers and peer mentors. He emphasized that they wanted to establish interpersonal connections among the first-year medical students, based on the mentoring relationships demonstrated by their second-year medical students, and build relationships with the faculty and staff through large and small group interactions. He stressed that this support does not end upon completing the pre-matriculation program. The Office of Student Services continues to provide targeted interventions to those who are academically at risk and are identified as needing additional continual support. To address this, they created the “learning groups initiative,” which allows them to follow the students needing support for the subsequent three blocks of the medical school career.
The pre-matriculation program relies on the leadership of previously successful first-year students as the driving force for its success through the abovementioned objectives and interventions. Established twenty years ago, this program was created to help students with their biochemistry preparation component because, at that time, this topic was not part of the MCAT, and the faculty needed to make sure that students were prepared for that content coming into medical school.
Dr. Corley stated that their pre-matriculation program has evolved into providing students a jumpstart in medical school and preparing them for the rigors of what they’ll experience in their first year. Their two-art core question is – What do we want our students to participate in to prepare them, and what do we want them to take away? He described the following Program Goals: The Pre-Matriculation Program will: 1. Facilitate the academic, social, and environmental adjustment of incoming first-year medical students. 2. Cultivate a safe and nurturing environment for incoming first-year medical students. 3. Establish inter-class connections and build relationships with faculty and staff. 4. Support retention efforts by providing targeted interventions to academically at-risk learners. Program Objectives after participating in the Pre- Matriculation program were that students should be able to: 1. Feel a sense of membership and belonging through supportive personal connections. 2. Demonstrate various study and metacognitive skills to become independent learners and navigate the necessary personal and environmental adjustments to medical school. 3. Engage in self-reflection and problem-solving to identify knowledge gaps and address continuing academic concerns. 4. Outline and explain key concepts related to Anatomy, Biochemistry, Histology, Microbiology, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM), and Physiology within the framework of their respective curriculum.
Dr. Corley emphasized that the program and faculty want to cultivate a safe and nurturing environment for incoming students to practice goal-setting and self-reflection skills, assess the effectiveness of their learning and study habits, and improve the organization’s time management skills. They also want to establish individual class connections among students and build relationships with the faculty, staff, and other peers through large and small group interactions. Finally, they want to ensure the support did not end with the pre-matriculation program. So, in the support efforts, they want to ensure that the interventions targeted those who were academically at risk and identified the need for continual support.
Ms. Dearden then described the two groups of students participating in this pre-matriculation program, which were evenly divided in numbers between each group: Mandatory participation attendees based on application metrics, science GPA, biology MCAT Score—biology, and other factors, and Voluntary participation attendees choosing to attend to focus on alleviating study anxiety by increased preparedness for the academic and social rigors of medical school. She stressed that a carefully selected group of second-year OMS-II students serve as Teaching Assistants (TAs) and mentors in the pre-matriculation program and are essential to the program’s success. Approximately 20 students were hired: ten from SGL and ten from PBL. All second-year medical student mentors must have a minimum overall pre-clerkship exam average of 82. They are responsible for the following activities: developing and delivering curriculum content, breaking down curriculum content, teaching transferrable skills related to curriculum content, facilitating small group discussions, and providing group and 1:1 mentoring. They also create and proctor quizzes, exams, practicums, and facilitator evaluations. She pointed out that it is unusual for them to be part of the core faculty but that, in doing so, they provide powerful role models of success for the incoming students. Ms. Dearden emphasized that the selection process focuses on mentoring skills and personal stories, including selecting some second-year student mentors who struggled during their first year.
Ms. Dearden discussed the ongoing support efforts to make sure that this, and other student support programs, targeted the interventions to those who were academically at risk and identified the need for continual support. For the PBL group, they created the longitudinal learning groups initiative, which follows them for the subsequent three blocks of their medical school career. For students in the SGL group, it has been administratively easier to check on their progress and ensure they’re receiving the support they need to do well by providing weekly support and review sessions. Their program objectives focus on entering medical students and creating a strong sense of membership and belonging through supportive personal connections. One of the running themes of their program is to make sure that students, their mentors, and the faculty and staff on campus are connected. She stresses that they also wanted to ensure students demonstrated metacognitive skills to become learners and navigate the necessary personal and environmental adjustments to medical school. They give them time to practice the skill sets that they would need to do well in medical school, such as engaging in self-reflection, problem-solving, identifying knowledge gaps, and not being afraid that if they have gaps, whether it’s knowledge or skill-building, we want them to cultivate a growth mindset.
Ms. Dearden reviewed the program’s effectiveness as measured by the student’s performance in their first three blocks of curricula. The pre-matriculation participants demonstrated better organizational skills compared to non-participants. Data from the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) showed improved anxiety, attitude, information processing, self-testing, and time management. She also stated that the program had increased interest in voluntary attendance from entering students and a growing interest from faculty in presenting mini- lectures. However, as their program evolves, they have focused on reducing content to allow more practice and peer interaction, thereby increasing the one-on-one interactions. Finally, the pre-matriculation program intends to expand their second-year medical student TA training to incorporate more coaching techniques and more faculty input into the exams during the program.
The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) is pleased to announce the call for abstracts for oral and poster abstracts for the 29th Annual IAMSE Conference to be held at the Calgary TELUS Convention Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from June 14-17, 2025. The IAMSE Conference offers opportunities for training, development, and mentoring, to meet the needs of learners and professionals across the continuum of health professions education.
Students who would like feedback on a draft of their abstract prior to final submission should email it to the Student Professional Development Committee, care of Sara Allison at support@iamse.org, by November 10, 2024.
The first time you enter the site, you will be required to create a user profile. Even if you submitted abstracts in previous years, you will need to create a new account.
All abstracts for oral and poster presentations must be submitted in the format requested through the online abstract submission site.
You may list several authors, but you are limited to one presenter.
Once the submission deadline has passed, you may not edit your abstract. This includes adding authors.
Once the submission deadline has passed, authors will no longer have access to their abstract submissions.
There is no limit on the number of abstracts you may submit, but it is unlikely that more than two presentations per presenter can be accepted due to scheduling complexities. Abstract acceptance notifications will be returned in March 2025. Please contact support@iamse.org for any questions about your submission.
Stigma in Medicine: The Power of Language Presenters: J. Corey Williams, MD, MA, and Melissa Chen, MD
[The following blog was generated by Akshata Naik and Doug McKell]
Dr. Williams began the webinar by mentioning the work of the National Anti-Racism in Medicine Curriculum Coalition (NAMCC), a network of educators developing and teaching anti- racism curricula. He then described a vital issue for this presentation: identifying language stigmas in clinical documentation and providing solutions to rectify them. He stressed the importance of using non-stigmatizing, person-centered language in clinical documentation and oral presentations. Examples include avoiding terms like “non-compliant,” “alcoholic,” and “commit suicide” and embracing person-first language.
Dr. Williams presented a clinical vignette describing an elderly Hispanic veteran with a history of alcohol use disorder who attempted suicide. He asked the audience to identify all stigmatizing and extraneous language from the vignette that is irrelevant clinically, e.g., “alcoholic veteran,” “non-compliant,” etc. Dr. Chen then described how the language we use is also a proxy for talking about race and other socially marginalized identities. She outlined the survey results that focused on using race in clinical courses. When course directors were surveyed, they mentioned they were unclear about the circumstances under which they needed to teach about race. Due to the fear of being mis-speaking or misinterpreting, many course directors (18% of the participants) did not mention race. They also found that how and what clinical concepts were taught or mentioned in the patient notes varied depending on the race, training level, and the physicians/clinicians’ discipline.
Dr. Chen described a study from JAMA Internal Medicine revealing discrepancies in race documentation based on the patient’s race, diagnostician, and level of training. In this report, the chief medical resident at an academic medical center recorded, over two months, how frequently race or any unflattering characteristics such as non-cooperativity, irritation, and anger were used in the daily clinical presentation in hospital rounds. The study authors reported that race was more often specified prominently and repeatedly during presentations of Black patients or patients who belong to other racial minorities. Frequently, unflattering (biased) characteristics were mentioned in examples of unsheltered or patients suffering from substance abuse disorder in particular. Excerpts from the clinical notes also conveyed a sense of disbelief of the patient’s concerns, often when the patient’s symptoms were reported as gossip rather than a factual experience linked to their condition. The hearsays were written in quotes, which they found to be more frequent while making notes on black patients with at least one or more judgment words, e.g., “Apparently…” or “Claims to..”.
Because care received by patients is directly related to how providers perceive patients, patients who are subject to stigmatizing language, phrases, and words are going to get care that is less effective, less efficient, and less needed when compared with someone who might be described in a more person-centered or neutral way. Because of the history of negative racial meanings in the US, this means that certain negative judgments or stereotypes will change the diagnostic thinking and treatment decisions of the patient in question. Drs. Williams and Chen reported a study to understand whether the words someone uses in charting patient details influence their diagnostic and treatment decisions. This study used an interesting methodology of exposing survey participants to a similar clinical vignette. The only difference was that one group received a neutral language vignette, while the other received a stigmatizing language. Students and residents who obtained vignettes with stigmatizing language had negative attitudes toward the patient. They were more likely to blame the patient for not having enough will or not following an aggressive treatment plan. In another study, the race and sex of the patient affected the way cardiologists approached a treatment regimen. Women and black patients were less likely to be referred to thrombolytic therapy. Therefore, black women were the least likely among the groups to be recommended for this treatment. There was also a shocking revelation that many physicians thought that black patients had thicker skin or smaller brains despite absolutely no biological distinctions between the races. This study demonstrated that having false beliefs about biological differences based on race and the way the case was written with racial identifiers influenced the medical judgment of trained medical professionals.
Drs. Williams and Chen then addressed the need to be contemplative and reflective about how we treat our patients and how we talk about and record our interactions with patients. They stressed that talking about patients using person-first language rather than adjectives that label a patient as alcoholic or crazy needs to be baked into our medical training and our real-time direct patient care instruction of trainees. They suggested that we reflect on this – and act on this necessity – by thinking about whether the information we present about the patients is clinically relevant by asking ourselves: Does it mention a person’s race that this is not crucial information for their diagnosis or symptoms? Are we routinely labeling the patient with their disease condition, e.g., diabetic, alcoholic, etc.? Are we writing clinical notes in a way that blames the patient? Does it reinforce a stereotype? Does it contain pejorative or extraneous language? Lastly, but most importantly, how would the patient feel if they read it, or how would you feel if your physician wrote about your sufferings using such a language? They argued that the clinic practices around identifying race in the patient’s chart significantly add to the disparities in which racial minorities are treated differentially in hospital systems.
Further, when a physician sees a racial minority identified in the chart, given the history of hostile and biased racial meanings, this may activate certain negative judgments with stereotypes that will inappropriately change the care providers’ diagnostic thinking and treatment decisions. They then provided examples of person-first language that could replace specific excerpts in physician’s notes. They also went on to list some of the resources they have curated that will aid medical and healthcare professionals and faculty in incorporating the training of using person-first language in their curricula.
This last point has become particularly salient in the previous five years since the passing of the 21st Century Cures Act, which increases access to patient health information and promotes patient choice. The law requires that healthcare organizations release electronic health information to patients as soon as it’s finalized. The Cures Act also prohibits information blocking when providers or hospital systems prevent patients from accessing, exchanging, or using their health information. As a result, patients are increasingly demanding access to their records, so we have to be more and more sensitive to what they would think if they were reading this documentation. So, what is this? Here are some examples of what person-first language looks and sounds like: Instead of saying a psychotic patient, for example, you would say that a person is a person with psychosis, instead of saying a diabetic patient is a patient with diabetes. Instead of an alcoholic, this is a person with an alcohol use disorder or a substance abuse disorder. There’s also an essential point about saying that someone is or describing someone as female or male or non-binary, for that matter, versus saying someone is a woman or man; biologically speaking, describing someone as a female or male is to imply something about their genital anatomy and or their chromosomes, and when, in actuality, what we’re typically doing in most medical encounters is categorizing someone based on their outward physical appearance, which is culturally constructed notion. A culturally constructed notion of what we associate a man or woman typically looks like in our particular society, so using man or woman or non-binary are better descriptors for what we’re doing in the encounter, and unless, In rare instances, someone’s genital anatomy or chromosomes are relevant to the presenting concerns.
Both Drs. Williams and Chen continued with additional examples of incorrect language use, including the following: They noted that we often conduct urine drug screening in emergency rooms and hospitals, and, when doing so, we colloquially label them as dirty urine or clean urine when we should use terms like positive or negative screens. They suggested that we should also avoid terms like contact or felon. Instead, we should say the patient had a felony or was convicted, and this goes back to that person-first language that we went over earlier suicide. This terminology is particularly salient for mental health, so people bereaved by a loved one who died by suicide have highlighted in studies that using the words “committed” suicide can feel like casting judgment as commit is commonly used in conjunction with criminal acts, resulting in a negative connotation of immorality.
Dr. Williams concluded the presentation with a discussion of the original HPI case description he presented at the beginning of the webinar of Mr. W who is an elderly Hispanic, alcoholic veteran who presented to the hospital last night after he ran into traffic after what he claims was a two-week vendor, quote, unquote, he admits to being non-compliant with antidepressant medication he gets from his provider at the VA and had, unfortunately, relapse on alcohol after being cleaned for almost six months The revised HPI case description is of Mr. W who is a 57-year-old with alcohol use disorder who presented to the hospital last night after he tried to kill himself by running into traffic after experiencing a recurrence of his alcohol use he has been unable to feel prescribed antidepressant medication due to cost and had resumed using alcohol in the last two weeks after not using for almost six months. He pointed out that more helpful information was contained in the revised HPI. We can see the reason why he’ been off of his medication. We have a more precise timeline for how long he’s been able to maintain his recovery from alcohol, and then how long it’s been since he’s returned to use, and what were the specific events that led him into the let him into the emergency room.
The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) invites you to join us for our third annual Virtual Forum! Join us October 23-25, 2024, as we host ignite talks, lightning talks, and more. The virtual forum is designed for all interested in teaching, designing, and leading health professions sciences curricula. Participants include students & trainees, basic scientists, providers, clinicians, and other faculty from across various healthcare and educational disciplines. We specifically encourage junior faculty, postdocs, and students to participate in the forum. This year’s theme: “Looking Ahead: Teaching and Learning in a Virtual/Digital Era.”
The third and final of our ignite speakers is Sarah Wood from Harvard Medical School. She will be presenting “Navigating Change: Fostering Collaborative Learning Environments with our Newest Generation of Learners” from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT on Friday, October 25, 2024.
Navigating Change: Fostering Collaborative Learning Environments with our Newest Generation of Learners
Sarah Wood Harvard Medical School
Friday, October 25, 2024 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT
During this Ignite Session, attendees will:
Identify challenges & opportunities in our current learning environments
Recognize unique characteristics of our newest generation of learners
Optimize strategies for effective teaching and learning
Apply frameworks to support collaborative learning environments
Develop & share ideas to apply at our home institutions
Dr. Wood will give a short introduction, describing the changing landscapes of healthcare and education and how learning environments are impacted. What are the biggest challenges? What opportunities will arise? And how can educators embrace generational diversity and integrate the next generation of learners into the conversation? Next, Dr. Wood will discuss strategies to help optimize teaching and learning in the current learning environment, such as knowing where your learners are at, how to set expectations, prioritizing skill development and professional identity formation, promoting a culture of learning and self-reflection, and finally integration of technology and active learning strategies. Attendees will then split into groups to discuss these learning environments and strategies, then come back together to discuss what each group covered. The session will end with a few minutes of Q&A.
AI Impact and Blowback Presenter: Dennis Bergau, CEO, KarmaSci Scientific Consulting, LLC
[The following blog was generated by Doug McKell and Akshata Naik]
Dr. Bergau presented a brief overview of the existing AI landscape, followed by a more detailed review of evolving AI’s impact on medical education and the potential downstream blowback related to unintended consequences that may be overlooked, ignored, or unforeseen. Throughout his presentation, he emphasized the need for all users to adopt a critical evaluation of the existing and developing AI tools and technologies by acknowledging the imperfections that all systems have based on inherent biases and limits on the data they use to provide requested outputs.
Dr. Bergau covered the following areas during his presentation: How to identify and avoid AI reinforcing human biases in medical diagnosis and treatment, how to decide what should be the guardrails for using AI in undergraduate medical education, how to best educate medical students and faculty about AI, including whether to teach the technical details or focus on specific AI tools, the need to consider the environmental impact of increased AI usage and incorporate it into the cost-benefit analysis when discussing AI in medical education, consideration of ways to democratize access to AI tools and resources for medical students across different institutions, the opportunity to explore the use of digital twin concepts to teach medical, nursing, and other health professions students.
Dr. Bergau began his presentation by explaining AI by functionality, including reactive AI, limited memory AI, theory of mind AI, and self-aware AI. Dr. Bergau used an example of a comparison of five different models to illustrate the variability in AI model performance. He then discussed the concept of generative AI and its evolving applications in generating various forms of content. He specifically highlighted the role of transformer models in large language models (LLMs) and the concept of foundation models. Dr. Bergau discusses the potential and limitations of AI, including the idea of hallucinations in AI-generated content. He also emphasized the importance of setting realistic expectations for AI uses and performance, noting that there is a life cycle to all innovative advances elements. He then reviewed the benefits of AI in healthcare delivery, including faster drug and medical device development and assisting providers in accessing additional information for diagnosis and treatment decisions. He stressed the importance of not letting technology dictate societal norms and the need for flexible and applicable AI programs.
Dr. Bergau shifted his presentation to address AI’s existing and future challenges, including the evolving pace of technology, the need for ethical frameworks, and the potential for unintended consequences. Dr. Bergau emphasizes the importance of collaboration between IT and healthcare professionals to address AI biases and improve model accuracy. In response to a question from a webinar attendee, he also highlights the environmental impact of AI, including increased energy consumption and the need for sustainable solutions. One of the biggest challenges he sees in the future is the increased complexities of bias in AI resulting from human-generated data sets and the need for more and better representative training data sets to avoid unfair or unethical biases in the widespread application of AI tools and technologies.
Dr. Bergau discusses the need for AI literacy and the importance of understanding AI as a tool rather than a solution. He acknowledged the need for a common language between IT and healthcare professionals to integrate AI effectively into healthcare education. Doing so requires a better understanding of each discipline’s approach to the sources, quality., analysis, and expected utility of the information AI provides the user. He recognized that there are increasing questions about the future of AI in medical education, including the potential for AI avatars and the balance between personalized and generalized data. Central to this discussion is the need to decide how to educate entering medical school students about AI and what degree of knowledge (or competence) is necessary for their future practice experience in clinical rotations and residency. Dr. Bergau stated that AI should be taught as a tool rather than a comprehensive subject, focusing on intelligent interaction with AI.
Looking forward, Dr. Bergau outlined the following considerations of AI in health professions education: The need for a partnership between AI users and IT/curriculum development will require developing a common language; AI literacy means going from using “buzz words” to a more accurate understanding of what AI is; Expert AI users and developers must be able to explain some of the complicated AI concepts to create shared knowledge, content balance, and transparency; It is critical to remember to focus on the problem you are trying to solve, not the AI solution, since AI is just one of many tools to be applied in healthcare learning and healthcare delivery; The application of and outcome from AI is different in biological or clinical uses that in predictive mathematical applications.
Dr. Bergau concluded by stressing that we must appreciate the different expectations and uses of AI applied to industry clinical trials, academic medicine, community medicine, UME, and GME, including different countries’ medical school curricula and learning formats worldwide. Finally, he challenged us to consider if and what programming skills/experience/ knowledge will be required competencies for all healthcare providers to use AI effectively in the future.