Missed opportunities in health care education evidence synthesis

We read with excitement the systematic review on how to teach evidence-based medicine (EBM) to medical trainees.1 The conclusions of the paper1 represent a concise and accurate reflection of this large synthesis of evidence. Unfortunately, we were left reflecting not on the evidence base illuminated by this review, but on the missed opportunities we will highlight herein. These examples are not in any way meant to represent a specific set of criticisms of this work,1 but, rather, are intended as exemplars of wider methodological issues that currently exist within much published material on the synthesis of evidence in health care educatio

What do we mean by ‘systematic’ in health education systematic reviews and why it matters!

For anyone who reads the health education literature regularly, journal sections that focus on “reviews” are common, yet the use of the term “systematic” to describe these reviews is sporadic. Further, we believe this term is used in a manner in the field that does not accurately reflect the methodological implications of the term in this context. There are examples of “systematic” works that simply don’t describe themselves in that way, despite a clear alignment with many of the principles of “systematic reviewing”. Conversely, there are reviews that are clearly not systematic, yet describe themselves as such. In this piece, we discuss how this difficulty with methodological nomenclature has occurred and the distinct and important meaning of the term “systematic” in relation to health education reviews

Twelve tips for undertaking a focused systematic review in medical education

The exponential growth of the systematic review methodology within health has been mirrored within medical education, allowing large numbers of publications on a topic to be synthesized to guide researchers and teachers. The robust, transparent and reproducible search methodologies employed offer scholarly rigor. The scope and scale of many reviews in education have only been matched by the size of the commitment needed to complete them and occasional lack of utility of reports. As such, we have noticed a growth in reviews across journals in the field that have questions that are more focused in scope. The authors propose 12 tips for performing a focused review in the right settings for the right reasons and discuss why such “focused reviews” may be more beneficial in those circumstances. Focused reviews allow researchers to formulate answers to specific local issues that have explicit utility of findings. Such reviews are equipped to identify what works for specific groups in specific circumstances and even question how and why this may occur. An additional impact of a focused approach can be a rapid turnaround. This article explains the purpose and benefits of focused review and provides guidance on how to produce them

The ASPIRE initiative: Excellence in student engagement in the school

‘Student engagement in the school’ is offered as one dimension of the ASPIRE-to-Excellence initiative launched in 2012 by AMEE (International Association for Medical Education) to recognize/reward excellence in teaching. For a school to be awarded in ‘student engagement’ there must be evidence that students contribute to the academic community, take an active role, are consulted, involved and participate in shaping the teaching-learning experience. Four spheres of ‘student engagement’ can be recognized as main criteria namely: school management, education program, academic community and local community. So far fourteen schools were awarded. Looking at what makes ‘student engagement’ work we learned that ASPIRE is a global phenomenon with features common worldwide, not depending on school resources and not imposing a fixed model of excellence. ASPIRE is there to prove that excellence in teaching can be assessed. It brought something new because although basic standards for medical education quality were already available the best practices relevant to the schools who wish to achieve excellence in teaching were only defined with ASPIRE in 2012. ASPIRE is much more than to recognize and reward schools. Its ultimate goal is to have the schools achieving excellence in teaching, independently of having them applying to the award