This document provides an overview of medical education research. It begins with intended learning outcomes and then defines key terms like medical education and research. The aims of medical education research are to advance knowledge, skills, and professionalism of medical students by understanding educational ecosystems. Research covers themes like the six core competencies and studies populations like medical students and faculty. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are discussed. The importance of research is maintaining quality education and identifying solutions to problems.

1. Medical Education
Research: a basic and
practical approach
for medical students
Prof. Wadie Elmadhoun, MBBS, MSc., MD
Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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2. “The beautiful and impossible”
Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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3. Presentation outlines
1. Intended learning outcomes (ILOs)
2. Definition of terms.
3. Aims of MedEd research
4. Themes of MedEd research
5. Practical steps in MedEd
Research
6. Quiz section.
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4. Intended Learning outcomes (ILOs)
• By the end of this session, the learner should be
able to:
1. Define medical education (MedEd) research and
state its objectives.
2. Describe the scope and Themes of (MedEd)
research
3. List the priority areas of (MedEd) research in
his/her institution
4. Enumerate the practical steps in conduction of a
(MedEd) research
5. Demonstrate appreciation of the importance of
(MedEd) research
Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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5. What is meant by research?
• Try to mention/write a few key words before
proceeding to next slide:
• ……………....
• ………………..
• ………………..
Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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6. Definition of research
• Research is defined as the
systematic process for the creation
of new knowledge and/or the use
of existing knowledge in a new and
creative way so as to generate
new concepts, methodologies and
understandings.
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7. • This could include synthesis
and analysis of previous
research to the extent that it
leads to new and creative
outcomes.
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8. What is Medical Education
(MedEd)?
1. ……….
2. …...…..
3. ………..
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Try to write 3 key words

9. Definition of Medical Education (MedEd)?
• A course of study directed toward imparting
to persons seeking to become health
professionals the knowledge and skills
required for the prevention and treatment of
disease.
• It also develops the methods and objectives
appropriate to the study of the still unknown
factors that produce disease or favour well-
being.
Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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10. • Among the goals of
medical education is the production
of health professionals sensitive to
the health needs of their country,
capable of ministering to those needs,
and aware of the necessity of
continuing their own education.
Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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11. Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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12. • It therefore follows that the plan of
education, the medical curriculum,
should not be the same in all
countries.
• Although there may be basic
elements common to all, the
details should vary from place to
place and from time to time.
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13. Curriculum should be dynamic
• Whatever form the curriculum
takes, ideally it will be flexible
enough to allow modification
as circumstances alter, medical
knowledge grows, and needs
change.
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14. • Medical education research may include
• evaluation of the transfer or
acquisition of
1. knowledge,
2. skills or
3. attitudes
• in any topic relevant to human health
among any type of learner, including
health professionals, students in the
health professions, and patients.
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15. What is the
principal aim of
MedEd research ?
• Take one minute to reflect on this question.
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16. What is the principal aim of MedEd
research ?
Medical education research aims
to advance the knowledge, skills,
and professionalism of medical
students by understanding and
evaluating educational
ecosystems.
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17. What is the scope of MedEd research ?
• These ecosystems include:
1. policies related to admissions and curriculum,
2. people who serve as teachers and mentors,
3. instructional technology and other
resources,
4. the attitudes that pervade a given institution
or educational experience, and even the
students themselves.
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18. What is the ultimate goal of MedEd research ?
• Ultimately, research in medical education is
conducted to:
1. address contemporary issues and questions
in medical education
2. design, evaluate, and support curricular
innovations
3. assess and reform the culture underlying
medical education
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19. What Themes
does MedEd
research cover?
• You have 2 minutes to write a few words as
an answer for this question.
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20. Themes of MedEd research
• Topics often fall into one of the six
professional core competencies:
1. patient care,
2. medical knowledge,
3. practice-based learning and
improvement,
4. interpersonal and communication skills,
5. systems-based practice, and
6. professionalism
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21. Outcomes of research
• Legitimate outcome measures include:
•changes in knowledge,
skills, attitudes,
behaviors, and even
patient outcomes.
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22. Study population of MedEd
research
1. Medical school: students, faculty, curricula,
systems, ….
2. Residency training programs: candidates,
mentors, curricula, ….
3. Continuing medical education: activities,
outcomes, …..
4. Patients: education,….
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23. What is the
importance of
research in medical
education?
• In 2 minutes try to remember benefits gained
with regard to: human knowledge, patient
care, candidates’ progress, innovations,
quality of education….
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24. Importance of research in
medical education
1. Provision of trustworthy
information regarding medical
educational problems and their
solutions.
2. Maintaining quality of medical
education.
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25. Importance of research in medical
education
3- demonstration of specific ways in which
teachers can or already do help students feel a
sense of belonging in school and make gains in
learning.
4- understanding the science of learning, largely
through technologies that give a real-time look at
what happens in a student’s brain as they learn.
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26. Importance of research in medical education
5- Identifying facts regarding: enrolment,
retention, dropout, quality of medical education
and so forth.
6- Building new knowledge regarding the
methodology, pedagogy or other core subject
areas.
7- Adding of existing stock of knowledge related
to medical educational field
8- suggestion of solutions for problems related to
classroom, institution, administrative level, policy
level, resources, etc...
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27. Importance of research in medical
education
9- Invention of new teaching methods,
curriculum development strategies, effective
grouping technique and so forth.
10- Realizing the exact problems of medical
educational sector.
11- Assessing the effect of new methodology
of teaching on the educational process.
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28. Importance of research in medical
education
12- Explore understanding of teachers’
knowledge about latest evaluation
techniques.
13- Identification of the hindrances to achieve
universalization of education.
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29. Cooling break
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30. Nature and value of qualitative
studies in medical education
• Qualitative research is concerned with
'...developing explanations of social
phenomena...'
• The world in which we live-
• Why things are the way they are-
• Concerned with social aspects of our world-
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31. Qualitative studies
• Seek to answer questions about:-
1. Why people behave the way they do?
2. How opinions and attitudes are formed?
3. How people are affected by the events that go
on around them?
4. How and why cultures have developed in the
way they have?
• Why there exist differences between social
groups?
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32. Qualitative questions:
• How?
• Why?
• What?
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33. • Qualitative research is a process
of capturing lived-in experiences of
individuals, groups, and society.
• It is an umbrella concept which
involves variety of methods of data
collection
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34. Differences Between Qualitative and
Quantitative studies
• Although the two methods are
often seen as antagonists,
there is a growing recognition
that the distinctions between
the methods are unnecessary.
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35. Qualitative vs. quantitative studies
• They cannot be compared side by
side but for the purposes of trying
to understand some key
characteristics of each of the types
of research, we will look at
qualitative and quantitative
methods and how they might
complement one another.
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36. • When collecting and analyzing data,
quantitative research deals with numbers
and statistics,
• while qualitative research deals with words
and meanings. Both are important for
gaining different kinds of knowledge.
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37. Qualitative vs. quantitative studies
• In terms of objectives,
qualitative research is
inductive and aims to explore
new things, insights, generate
theories, patterns, themes,
and hypotheses.
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38. Qualitative vs. quantitative studies
• On the other hand, quantitative
research is deductive so it
investigates the validity of facts,
estimates relationships, and
predicts outcomes,
• It controls, describes, or
confirms hypotheses.
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39. Qualitative vs. quantitative studies
• There's a lot more breadth to
quantitative methods,
• whereas there's a lot more
depth to qualitative.
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40. Qualitative vs. quantitative studies
• Qualitative research is
subjective, flexible, and
naturalistic.
• Quantitative on the other
hand is experimental and
uses statistics.
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41. Cooling break
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42. Steps of Conducting researches
• Step 1: Identify the Problem.
• Step 2: Review the Literature.
• Step 3: Clarify the Problem.
• Step 4: Clearly Define Terms and Concepts.
• Step 5: Define the Population.
• Step 6: Conduct the Implementation Plan.
• Step 7: Collect Data.
• Step 8: Analyze Data.
• Step 9: Write and publish your work.
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43. Priority Research Areas
• These should be agreed upon by each institution.
• Examples:
• teaching methods and learning techniques,
• job descriptions and professional skills of graduates,
• quality management in education,
• second language,
• clinical education,
• science production in medicine,
• faculty evaluation and
• information technology.
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44. Why should there be priority topics
for MedEd research?
• Research must add to the
current knowledge by
addressing clearly defined
needs or questions and the
results must have the potential
to affect the educational
practice.
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45. a list of the top themes in medical education research cited in
the 20-year review.
1. Student assessment & evaluation
2. Use of simulations
3. Clinical skills training
4. Admission to medical school
5. Clinical clerkships
6. Medical licensing exams
7. Problem-based learning
8. Knowledge retention
9. Community-based training
10.Specialty choice
11.Clinical competence assessment
12.Patient safety
13.Teaching the clinical sciences
14.Scholarship in education
15.Communication skills training
16. Humanities in medicine
17. Student characteristics
18. Teaching through lectures
19, Objective structured clinical exam
20, Interprofessional education
21. Teaching the basic sciences
22. International medical graduates
23. Nature of clinical reasoning
24. Women’s health
25. Professionalism in medicine (incl.
attitudes, cultural competence, ethics)
26. Underrepresented minority students
27. Costs of medical education
28. Computer-assisted instruction
29. Faculty development
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46. Can you list some topics that you
consider as priority research
areas in your institution
1. ...
2. ...
3. …
4. …
5. …
• In 5 minutes try to figure out the
hot topics that you think need to be
investigated or researched.
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47. Take a fresh breath
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48. Now you have chosen a topic
for research, what tool should
you use to collect data?
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49. How to design a good survey
tool for your research
• This is the most important step
• and once properly achieved
every other step would be ok.
• On the other hand; if done less
satisfactorily every other step
would be a mess.
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50. Medical Education Research– Session July 2020 – Prof. Wadie
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51. A questionnaire
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52. A seven-step, survey scale design process
for medical education researchers.
1. Conduct a literature review: To
ensure that the construct
definition aligns with relevant prior
research and theory and to
identify existing survey scales or
items that might be used or
adapted
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53. A seven-step, survey scale design process
for medical education researchers.
2. Conduct interviews and/or
focus groups: To learn how the
population of interest
conceptualizes and describes
the construct of interest
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54. A seven-step, survey scale design process
for medical education researchers.
3. Synthesize the literature review
and interviews/focus groups: To
ensure that the conceptualization of
the construct makes theoretical
sense to scholars in the field and
uses language that the population of
interest understands
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55. A seven-step, survey scale design process
for medical education researchers.
4. Develop items: To ensure
items are clear, understandable
and written in accordance with
current best practices in survey
design
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56. A seven-step, survey scale design process
for medical education researchers.
5. Conduct expert
validation: To assess how
clear and relevant the
items are with respect to
the construct of interest
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57. A seven-step, survey scale design process
for medical education researchers.
6. Conduct cognitive
interviews: To ensure that
respondents interpret items in
the manner that survey
designer intends
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58. A seven-step, survey scale design process
for medical education researchers.
7. Conduct pilot testing: To
check for adequate item
variance, reliability and
convergent/discriminant
validity with respect to other
measures
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59. A final break before the end
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60. What are the steps
for developing a
scholarly MedEd
project?
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61. 1. Refine your study question:
1. Review the literature to identify
gaps.
2. Clearly state a problem and the
significance of addressing it.
3. Develop a conceptual framework: a
theory model, or approach that
places a question within a
theoretical context.
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62. 2. Define your outcomes:
1. An outcome is the dependent variable of
your study and should help you answer
your specific question directly
2. Challenge yourself to predict the outcome
of your study. What would your study
suggest if your prediction was proven to be
true or false?
3. Plan to collect information about your
outcome in an unbiased manner.
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63. 3. Identify designs and methods to enable you to study your
outcome such as:
1. Observations: Determine relationships or associations
between variables
2. Experiments: study the effect of changing one variable on
another
3. Qualitative research: study the reasons behind certain
behaviors and decisions
4. Validations: collect evidence to test the predictive value of
scoring instruments (e.g. course evaluations)
5. Surveys: Ask questions to better understand a subject’s
characteristics
6. Systematic Reviews: Use an established method/criterion to
summarize previously published studies
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64. How do I develop a research question?
• Sometimes the hardest part of a
research project is coming up with
an idea that is
1. feasible,
2. can have a meaningful impact, and
3. has not already been done.
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65. How do I develop a research question?
• Limiting the scope of your idea to a time
frame and level of effort that won’t unduly
interfere with your ongoing studies is also
challenging.
• Thankfully, ideas don’t spring from a
vacuum, and medical students are not
expected to independently lead something
they’ve never done before.
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66. How do I develop a research question?
• Ideas emerge from mindfully participating in
everyday experience with others.
• A great way to generate research questions is
to:
1. participate in ongoing educational
innovations at your home institution,
2. collaborate as a junior partner in ongoing
MedEd research projects, and
3. build relationships with others at your
institution who are doing MedEd research.
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67. Summary and
Take home
messages
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68. What are the practical steps in research
conduction? Take home messages
1. Sharpen your: ideas, research questions,
objectives and outcome indicators.
2. Think of an appropriate action plan: that
includes dates, logistics and cost.
3. Write your research proposal as draft, then
refine its items.
4. Plan well for the implementation phase:
consider minor details.
5. Document every thing you do immediately.
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69. Take home messages
6. Passion, Consistency and Patience
(PCP) are the most essential ingredients of
success.
7. Always keep in touch with seniors and
experts, even if you are not in 100%
agreement with their views.
8. The backbone of research writing (the
manuscript) is similar, whatsoever the type of
research: IMRAD (Introduction, Methods,
Results and Discussion).
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70. Take home messages
9. Research is a practical skill, not theoretical
knowledge, (similar to football): Trail and
error approach.
10. Adequate language skills and knowledge
of basic statistical methods are essential tools
in research( not so essential if you are a team
member, other players may compensate).
11. Teamwork is the essence of research:
(would you expect Leonel Messi to succeed if he played alone
for Barcelona?)
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71. Quiz section
1. Mention three keywords in the definition of
MedEd Research.
2. What personal benefits would you expect to
gain of conducting MedEd Research?
3. What public benefits would be achieved
through conduction and publication of sound
MedEd Research?
4. Would you summarize the practical steps of
conducting MedEd Research?
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72. Thanks for your attention
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73. References and further readings
1. https://www.aamc.org/system/files/c/2/429856-
mededresearchprimer.pdf
2. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gim/research/cont
ent/med_ed.html
3. https://www.mededpublish.org/manuscripts/400
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_education
5. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-
quantitative-research/
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