ASME Conference 2010

The Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) had their conference in Cambridge, UK earlier this week. You can find out more about the conference here. I did tweet thoughout the conference and although I was a rather solitary voice I did have some good interaction with my followers as usual. A transcript of tweets can be found here.

I wish I could link to some of the very interesting presentations I attended but they are not online as far as I am aware. However, one of the keynote addresses was given by John Norcini, from FAIMER (Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research) using Prezi. I searched the website and found his presentation so can share it here with you.

Although ASME is an international organisation it does have strong UK roots so his presentation on the problems for medical education internationally was an interesting change. I should also point out that the UK does not yet have a national licensing exam. Licensing is carried out by medical schools who are accredited by the GMC (although I did hear some talk at the conference that a national exit exam may be back on the agenda).

One of his most interesting points was that often medical education followed fashion, which was then evaluated. He gave Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as an example of this. But there was evidence during the conference that other aspects such as the use of simulation are also being thought of more critically now. We don't have the evidence to justify widespread use.

I also talked to some other doctoral researchers about the need for a network to share our questions and learning. Watch this space for more about that!

What next for medical education? on Prezi