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Join Moderator Kelly Quesnelle for Today’s #IAMSECafe Virtual Chat!

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As we all forge ahead building online classrooms and serving remote student bodies, IAMSE is here to keep you connected with your colleagues around the globe. We invite you to join us beginning today for IAMSE Cafe, a virtual round table discussion where you control the conversations.

Join our moderator, Dr. Kelly Quesnelle from Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine beginning at 10AM EST for a series of conversations focused on how to help us all have the most successful instruction and transition possible.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 10AM EST – MedEd Mailbag: The Virtual Teacher. Join Kelly as she takes member questions and opens the floor for discussion about how IAMSE members are dealing with and making the best of online teaching.

Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 10AM EST – Leading by Example: Practicing Self-care in a Time of Crisis. Adi Haramati of Georgetown University School of Medicine will lead a discussion about the importance of utilizing a number of mind-body techniques to reduce stress and promote resilience. We will also share how many of us have incorporated simple tools into our virtual reality with peers and learners.

Join the webinar by clicking: https://zoom.us/j/237132753. The link will remain the same for each session so make sure to bookmark it!

We look forward to chatting with you soon.

Free Aquifer Access: Now Available to All North American Medical and Physician Assistant Schools

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Aquifer is extending their offer of free access to 146 Aquifer signature cases, plus WISE-MD and WISE-OnCall, to all North American medical schools and physician assistant programs – including non-subscribers as well as subscribers through June 30, 2020 – in an effort to support our institutions and our students in this time of critical need. As you know, IAMSE and our membership have been collaborating with Aquifer, a non-profit organization of primarily volunteer medical educators, over the past six years to develop the Aquifer Sciences learning resources that support cognitive integration of the basic sciences into clinical learning.

The majority of US medical schools subscribe to Aquifer’s clinical courses, and more than 125 medical and health professions programs are already taking advantage of this generous offer to subscribing schools. Visit aquifer.org/our-network/subscribers/ to determine if your institution subscribes, and aquifer.org/covid-19/ for more information about this offer.

Please see the formal announcement from Aquifer for more information about this expanded offer to institutions who do not currently subscribe. We encourage you to forward this information to your colleagues in other disciplines and relevant forums as well. Applications for current subscribers are currently open. Applications for non-subscribers will be open soon.

Join Your IAMSE Colleagues for #IAMSECafe Virtual Chats!

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As we all forge ahead building online classrooms and serving remote student bodies, IAMSE is here to keep you connected with your colleagues around the globe. We invite you to join us over the next few weeks for IAMSE Cafe, a virtual round table discussion where you control the conversations. Have you transitioned seamlessly online and into your home office, or do you still have some questions? Do you struggle to help your students through cancellations and postponements, or did your team find an ingenious way to move forward remotely?

Join our moderator, Dr. Kelly Quesnelle from Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine beginning Tuesday, March 31 at 10AM EST  for a series of conversations focused on how to help us all have the most successful instruction and transition possible.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 10AM EST – MedEd Mailbag: The Virtual Teacher. Join Kelly as she takes member questions and opens the floor for discussion about how IAMSE members are dealing with and making the best of online teaching.

Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 10AM EST – Leading by Example: Practicing Self-care in a Time of Crisis. Adi Haramati of Georgetown University School of Medicine will lead a discussion about the importance of utilizing a number of mind-body techniques to reduce stress and promote resilience. We will also share how many of us have incorporated simple tools into our virtual reality with peers and learners.

April 7, 2020 at 10AM EST – MedEd Mailbag: Being Productive in Your Own Space. Join Kelly as she takes your questions about transitioning and adapting to an online learning environment while in your natural habitat. This open discussion will be led by the audience.

April 9, 2020 at 10AM EST – How Re-thinking and Re-designing Anatomy Instruction Into the Online Space Can Lead to Better Classroom and Cadaver Lab Learning Experiences. Join Jon Wisco from Boston University School of Medicine in a discussion about how the paradigm shift of what and when anatomy content can be taught, and how it contributes to classroom and lab learning experiences.

Join any of these webinars by clicking: https://zoom.us/j/237132753

We look forward to hearing from you next week!

A special message from our partners at AAMC

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We hope this message finds you doing well!  We want to share your great work and support the broad learning community with new or adapted clinically relevant learning experiences.

Our medical and health professions’ educators are responding to this pandemic with new or adapted learning experiences that can be done without patient contact during COVID-19. The AAMC is creating a new free and open resource repository that will allow for the agile sharing and disseminating of these educational approaches.

We are particularly interested in submissions of learning experiences that support patient care, but may not necessarily involve direct patient contact. Examples of appropriate resources may include a description with or without supplements, such as: checklists, worksheets, lesson plans, cases, or lecture outlines. Existing electives on diverse topics that have or can be adapted for online or remote completion are also welcome.

If you have exemplars to share, please send email to curricularinnovation@aamc.org

Our specific inclusion criteria for this collection, includes:

  • Describes experiences or activities that represent a structured learning experience (or can be readily designed as such)
  • Does not involve physical contact with patients
  • Can be offered virtually in real time and/or asynchronously
  • Can be offered with or without peers and/or facilitation
  • Objectives are focused on skills with clinical relevance in broad competency areas
  • Adhere to the Creative Commons License Attribution – Non Commercial

We will be reviewing those submissions and, as needed, reaching out for more information. Again, our intent is to curate and disseminate this information for the broader med ed community.

Thank you for all you are doing to support learners and the clinical learning environment during this unprecedented time!

On behalf of
Lisa Howley, PhD, MEd
Sr Director of Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships in Medical Education
Association of American Medical Colleges

A Review from Medical Science Educator from Dr. Dani McBeth

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Each month the IAMSE Publications Committee reviews published articles from Medical Science Educator. This month’s review, written by Dr. Dani McBeth, is taken from the article titled Factors Predictive of Performance on USMLE Step 1: Do Commercial Study Aids Improve Scores? (doi:10.1007/s40670-019-00722-4) published in Medical Science Educator, Volume 29, (pages 667–672), 2019 by Parry, S., Pachunka, J. & Beck Dallaghan, G.L.

I read with great interest an article in Medical Science Educator, Factors Predictive of Performance on USMLE Step 1: Do Commercial Study Aids Improve Scores?, Parry et al. The Step 1 exam has obtained such outsize importance, that it drives the way our students approach their studies. While this may be abhorrent to many of us, it is reality. Therefore, I found this article and the associated references to be of great interest. In my school, I plan to use the article in our Step 1 coaching program.

The study sought to correlate the results of Step 1 performance in 2 cohorts of students from a single medical school with academic performance in the curriculum and the use of commercially available study aids. While some of the results may not be too surprising, there were others that may be helpful in advising students about their approach to the exam. Not surprisingly, the strongest correlation to Step 1 scores was academic performance in the curriculum. The consistent use of the UWorld Qbank and the numbers of questions completed in the Qbank were also strongly correlated with Step 1 scores. Those students completing the entire Qbank twice had the highest Step 1 performance. There was no correlation between Step 1 scores and the numbers of practice exams completed, either the UWorld provided exams or the NBME CBSSA’s. This result does not negate the importance of self-assessment during the dedicated study process but may offer some advice as to the numbers of such self-assessment exams that are useful. It is my experience that too frequent self-assessment in many students may serve to increase anxiety levels. Perhaps surprisingly given the numbers of students who religiously rely on it, the extent to which First Aid was read and re-read did not correlate with increased Step 1 performance. Finally, there was a negative correlation to increased preparation time. In our school, we have seen an increasing number of students delaying their exams with the certitude that this will result in their desired score. Anecdotally, I have heard that this is an increasing issue at other schools as well.  The authors correctly point out the limitations of their study; a single medical school over only a to year period. Despite that, the article is useful in provoking thought about approaching how to help students think about their exam preparation. Similar studies with a larger sample of schools and expanding to include other commercially available resources including full prep courses would be of interest to many.

Respectfully submitted by
Dani L McBeth, PhD
Publications Committee member

Early Bird Deadline for #IAMSE20 Suspended

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In light of the sudden shift in working and teaching conditions, as well as the sweeping global restrictions on travel and mass gatherings, we understand the uncertainties regarding the IAMSE 2020 meeting. Educators all over the world are dealing with event cancelations, postponements and format changes. Given the current climate and uncertainty facing most of us as we try to plan our future educational activities, IAMSE is suspending the April 1 Early Bird registration deadline. We will reassess the situation in mid-to-late April and provide guidance by May 1, 2020.

ScholarRx offers free access to Rx Bricks online curricular system to schools affected by COVID-19

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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 implementing contingency plans necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak.

In this specific case, Rx Bricks will support the Infectious Disease course where the school has lost access to teaching faculty due to the public health emergency. ScholarRx will provide the students with access to Rx Bricks and further assist the school with curricular implementation and mapping support.

ScholarRx wishes to extend this offer of free access to Rx Bricks to you and your school. Please let us know if we can help you support the education process during this challenging period.

For more information or to request assistance, go to: https://scholarrx.com/covid-19-assistance-offer/

Rx Bricks is an innovative digital learning system designed to help students easily learn the foundations of medicine. 

Rx Bricks offers a repository of preclinical curricular materials and learning frameworks that can be rapidly deployed and customized to suit your unique curriculum needs and goals.

Rx Bricks uses short, high-yield, interactive lessons called “bricks.” Content is broken down into the smallest cohesive learning units, or “bricks”, and organized around basic science topics (e.g., pressure-volume loops) or clinical concepts (e.g., ischemic heart disease). Each brick uses clear language to explain and contextualize key topics, many in less than 20 minutes. Then it offers built-in review tools to test understanding of the content right away.

Currently, ScholarRx offers more than 600 Rx Bricks covering 12 preclinical disciplines and organ systems.

To learn more, go to: https://scholarrx.com/covid-19-assistance-offer/

Have an Announcement? Share it in Medical Science Educator!

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In every issue of Medical Science Educator, we publish an announcements section. In this section, we share information that is of interest to the readership of the journal. Individual IAMSE members wishing to post medical education related announcements in the Journal are invited to send their requests to the Editorial Assistant at journal@iamse.org. Announcements may be IAMSE-related, announcements from other medical education organizations, medical education conference information or international issues affecting medical education. Announcements will be published at the Editors discretion.

Deadline for inclusion in the next issue: April 5, 2020

Thank you,
Peter GM de Jong, PhD
Editor-in-Chief

#IAMSE20 Faculty Development Course Highlight

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The 24th Annual IAMSE Meeting will feature a host of new workshops throughout the entire conference. One of our first-time workshops is Designing VR-Enhanced Educational Activities: A Backward Design Approach. This afternoon workshop will be given on Saturday, June 13 and will be led by Yerko Berrocal, Wen Cheng (Mark) Huang, Daniel Salcedo and James Thomas.

Workshop: From Theory to Practice: How to Apply Best Practices to Create Effective Video Microlectures
Time: Saturday, June 13 from 12:15 PM – 3:15 PM
Speakers: Yerko Berrocal – University of Illinois College of Medicine
Wen Cheng (Mark) Huang – Municipal WangFang Hospital, Taipei Medical University
Daniel Salcedo – Taipei Medical University, Center for Education in Medical Simulation
James Thomas – Lecturer

Virtual reality (VR) use for health professions education has been rapidly growing during the past few years. This educational technology offers great potential benefits, including better learner engagement, ability to provide learner-centred adaptive content, with a strong focus on experiential learning.  Unfortunately, there is still a lack of evidence-based best practices in VR-education, and poor implementation strategies can lead to limited educational outcomes and unnecessary costs. Proper design of VR-enhanced educational interventions based on proven educational frameworks with appropriate assessment strategies is essential to take full advantage of this technology. This interactive workshop aims to introduce the principles of backward design for VR-enhanced learning activities to improve educational outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs associated with deficient implementation, through the careful integration of educational objectives and assessment methods. Selecting the right tools for the job is essential in the successful utilization of any educational technology, and gaining the necessary knowledge of how to optimize VR in health professions education is critical to establishing a successful program. This workshop has been successfully conducted in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and this is the first opportunity to hold it in North America.

Objectives

  • Understanding the full potential of VR as an educational tool
  • Identifying different types of VR tools commonly used in health professions education
  • Understanding the backwards design approach to developing educational activities with VR
  • Analyzing a VR-enhanced educational activity through a case study
  • Identifying common VR implementation errors and their impact on educational outcomes
  • Identifying strategies to improve educational transfer using VR
  • Designing a sample educational intervention using the backward design approach

Additional details about this and our other Faculty Development Workshops, as well as registration information, can be found at http://www.iamseconference.org.

IAMSE to Host Virtual Roundtable Discussions

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IAMSE wants to hear how you are doing and how you are adapting to the new challenges at your institution. Have you had to cancel student research, deliver online exams or revamp your curriculum to more easily be shared online? What questions or words of advice would you give to fellow medical educators? Let us know during an upcoming #IAMSEchat.

We will soon be facilitating online discussions for our members to come together and chat about what works, what doesn’t, and how we can all be learning from and leaning on each other in this tumultuous time. Thus, to assist each other and help maintain our sense of community, we invite you to join in the conversation with your fellow educators in IAMSE by submitting your discussion topics here.

We will share information on these upcoming virtual roundtables in the next few days as it becomes available.

Subscribe to Medical Science Educator Table of Contents

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Be alerted every time a new issue of Medical Science Educator is published by signing up for Table of Content alerts!

Springer offers MSE journal subscribers a first look at the newest articles as soon as they are available, so you never miss a breakthrough. To subscribe, visit Springer online here. In the right column, four headings down, you will see “Alerts for this journal.” Simply enter your email address to receive the table of contents for Medical Science Educator by email every time a new issue is published.

I hope you will enjoy reading our journal Medical Science Educator. If you have any questions, please contact journal@iamse.org .

Thank you,
Peter GM de Jong, PhD
Editor-in-Chief

Call for Reviewers – Medical Science Educator

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Medical Science Educators Needs Reviewers Like You!
As editor-in-chief of the IAMSE journal Medical Science Educator, I would like to invite you to join us a manuscript reviewer. Medical Science Educator publishes articles which focus on teaching the sciences that are fundamental to modern medicine and health. Coverage includes basic science education, clinical teaching and the incorporation of modern educational technologies. Our journal is experiencing an increasing interest from educators from all over the world to publish with us.

Our reviewers are expected to have a broad interest in medical education. We will try to match the manuscript topic to your field of interest or expertise, but this is not always possible. Although expertise in the field is always helpful, the most important goal of our peer review is to judge the manuscript for its quality and appropriateness to be published in our journal and to provide the authors useful feedback. This is done using a standardized review form, and reviews must be returned within three weeks. We invite you to review at least four manuscripts per year, but of course more is always appreciated.

For the professional development of our reviewers, we offer a review workshop during the IAMSE annual meeting, free of charge. This year this workshop will be organized on Saturday June 13, 2020 at the meeting in Denver, CO, USA. Our reviewers are expected to be IAMSE members in good standing, so we hope that you maintain your active membership.

If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, or if you have any questions, please contact me at journal@iamse.org. I look forward to working with you.

Peter GM de Jong, PhD
Editor-in-Chief