The future of health professions education.

The need for a fit-for-purpose curriculum with a closer alignment of health professions education with society's needs was addressed at the International Conference on the Future of Health Professions Education held in Miami in November 2022. Issues discussed at the Conference were equity, competency-based education, technology enhanced learning, interprofessional education, lifelong learning, international collaborations, and the changing role of students.

Managing the tension: From innovation to application in health professions education.

Innovations in education are essential for solving problems and introducing new ways of thinking. However, implementation of these innovations must take several factors into consideration, including the context, the environment, the stakeholders, the technology needed, the cost, the pace of implementation, appropriateness, and available resources. When these factors are not balanced and considered, tensions arise. This paper describes tensions in five major educational domains, namely curriculum, instruction, assessment, accreditation/regulation, and faculty development. For each of these domains, the typical problems are described, and solutions are presented to manage the tension.

Ten key features of the future medical school-not an impossible dream.

Significant developments in medical education are necessary if medical schools are to respond to the pressures from advances in medicine, changes in health care delivery, and patient and public expectations. This article describes 10 key features of the medical school of the future: the move from the ivory tower to the real world, from just-in-case learning to just-in-time learning, from the basic science clinical divide to full integration, from undervalued teaching and the teacher to recognition of their importance, from the student as a client to the student as partner, from a mystery tour to a mapped journey, from standard uniform practice to an adaptive curriculum, from a failure to exploit learning technology to its effective and creative use, from assessment of learning to assessment for learning, and from working in isolation to greater collaboration. A move in the directions specified is necessary and possible. With some of the changes proposed already happening, it is not an impossible dream.

Forty years of medical education through the eyes of Medical Teacher: From chrysalis to butterfly.

To mark the 40th Anniversary of Medical Teacher, issues this year will document changes in medical education that have taken place over the past 40 years in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education with regard to curriculum themes and approaches, teaching and learning methods, assessment techniques and management issues. Trends such as adaptive learning will be highlighted and one issue will look at the medical school of the future. An analysis of papers published in the journal has identified four general trends in medical education - increased collaboration, greater international interest, student engagement with the education process and a move to a more evidence-informed approach to medical education. These changes over the years have been dramatic.

The ASPIRE-to-Excellence Program: A Global Effort to Improve the Quality of Medical Education.

Publications and organizations ranking medical schools rely heavily on schools' research-oriented and grant-success data because those are the publicly available data. To address the vacuum of evidence for medical education quality, in 2012 the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) introduced an initiative entitled A Schools Programme for International Recognition of Excellence in Education (ASPIRE) awards. ASPIRE panels of international experts in specific areas of medical education have developed internationally peer-based criteria to benchmark excellence in social accountability, student engagement, student assessment, faculty development, and simulation; they plan to publish criteria on curriculum design and development in 2018. Schools are encouraged to use ASPIRE criteria to challenge themselves and, for a fee, may submit evidence that they have met the criteria for excellence in one or more of the five areas. The international panels then judge the evidence submitted by the school and determine whether an award of excellence is merited.The authors share lessons learned from five years of program experience. Of the 88 schools submitting evidence, 38 have been recognized for their excellence in one of the ASPIRE topic areas. As the number of representatives from the schools that are awarded ASPIRE recognition continues to increase and those individuals find new ways to contribute, hopes are high for this program. Challenges remain in how to better define excellence in low-resources settings, what new areas to take on, and how to keep infrastructure costs down. However, as an example of continuing global interaction for quality improvement, optimism prevails.

ASPIRE to excellence: A novel approach toward benchmarking excellence in medical schools / ASPIRE a la excelencia: un nuevo enfoque hacia la evaluación comparativa excelencia en las escuelas médicas

Aspiring to excellence in medical education is a worthy theme for this special issue because in medical schools large and small, new and long-established, the work to improve continues day by day, but there are limited opportunities to document and celebrate excellence. Rankings based on research productivity do not reward excellence in medical education. ASPIRE to Excellence, begun in 2012, brings experts in different subjects from around the world together to write standards of excellence in specific topics. Student assessment, student engagement, social accountability, faculty development, and simulation have benchmarks of excellence that schools can compare themselves to and submit evidence of their accomplishments. International panels review these documents and determine if the school merits an ASPIRE recognition award. As of August 2016, 71 schools have submitted documentation and 28 have been awarded ASPIRE recognition. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of using accreditation like standards written specifically for excellence to identify schools that can serve as benchmarks and role models for others

La iniciativa ASPIRE para reconocer la excelencia en educación médica es un tema apropiado para este monográfico porque las facultades de medicina, tanto grandes como pequeñas, tanto nuevas como con larga trayectoria, realizan una labor continúa de mejora día a día. Sin embargo, existen muy pocas oportunidades para documentarlo y celebrar su excelencia. Y además, los rankings de clasificación universitaria están basados en la productividad científica y no recompensan la excelencia en la educación médica. La iniciativa ASPIRE, puesta en marcha en 2012, reúne a expertos en diferentes ámbitos de la educación médica de todo el mundo para establecer juntos los estándares de excelencia en áreas específicas. Cómo la evaluación de los estudiantes, la participación y contribución de los estudiantes al currículo y a la facultad, responsabilidad social y el desarrollo de la facultad, aportando así criterios de referencia para que las facultades puedan valorarse a sí mismas y presentar evidencias de sus logros. Paneles de expertos internacionales revisan esta documentación y determinan si la facultad merece ser premiada con el reconocimiento ASPIRE. Hasta agosto del 2016, 71 facultades han presentado documentación y 28 han sido galardonadas con el reconocimiento ASPIRE. Este artículo discute los desafíos y las oportunidades de utilizar este conjunto de estándares, escritos específicamente para la excelencia, como los que se usan para la acreditación, para identificar las facultades que pueden servir como referencia y modelo a seguir por las demás

Interprofessional education: The magical mystery tour now less of a mystery.

Interprofessional education (IPE) is on today's agenda in medical education as a response to advances in medicine, the changes that have taken place in healthcare delivery, and pressures from the public and the profession. Although attention has focused on IPE in the later stages of the education program, there are benefits to be gained from the introduction of IPE in the early years. Curriculum developments supporting this include the adoption of outcome-based education and vertical integration. There is also a recognition that students' attitudes and biases are formed early in their education and the appropriate learning environment in the early years is important. Interprofessional education in the early years can also be seen as a part of a more general trend to greater collaboration in the delivery of an education program in the healthcare professions. Anatomy by incorporating IPE can help shape the future of medical education as well as being shaped by it. The possibility of success or failure with IPE can be captured with the equation IPE = (V × I)/N, where V = the IPE vision, I = the implementation strategy and N = negative perceptions of the approach. Success is more likely where there is a well thought out and shared vision for what is to be achieved, an appropriate implementation strategy and a plan to counteract a negative mind-set.

La excelencia en educación médica: ASPIRE / Excellence in medical education: ASPIRE

La promoción de la excelencia en educación universitaria es un tópico de reciente interés. Algunas enseñanzas de grado y máster, como Ingeniería e Informática, tienen definido su modelo de excelencia internacional, y alcanzar los estándares establecidos supone la obtención de un sello de reconocimiento. La ausencia de mecanismos de reconocimiento de la excelencia en el ámbito de la educación médica a nivel mundial, mediante revisión por pares del mismo ámbito profesional, ha motivado por parte de la Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) la puesta en marcha de diversas acciones para promover la excelencia educativa a nivel internacional en la formación de médicos, odontólogos y veterinarios en facultades de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud. El objetivo de este trabajo es dar a conocer la iniciativa ASPIRE para el reconocimiento internacional de la excelencia en educación médica y otras iniciativas puestas en marcha por la AMEE, para promover y reconocer la excelencia educativa. Se contextualizan estas acciones con los procesos de acreditación y la existencia de estándares de referencia para la mejora de la calidad de la educación médica de la World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) para la formación médica de grado, posgrado y desarrollo profesional continuo

The promotion of excellence in higher education is a topic that has caused recent interest. Some undergraduate and master programmes, such as engineering and computing have a defined model of international excellence and the achievement of these standards involves obtaining a label of recognition. The absence of mechanisms to recognize excellence in the field of medical education worldwide, through peer reviewers of the same professional field, has motivated the implementation of different initiatives by the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) to promote educational excellence at international level in the training of doctors, dentists and veterinarians in Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. The aim of this paper is to introduce ASPIRE Awards for International Recognition of Excellence in Medical Education and other initiatives undertaken by AMEE, to promote and recognize excellence in education. These actions are contextualised with the accreditation processes and the existing global standards for quality improvement in medical education of the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) for medical training at undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development levels