How Best Improve Learning In Medicine? The Importance of Medical Education Research

Abstract

Medical schools sit at the centre of various currents of rapid change – rapid advances in biomedicine, changing public expectations, and fast changing best practice and technologies for effective lifelong education. University teachers and clinical doctors need to embrace change - asking questions of the effectiveness of their teaching/mentoring, and being aware of effectiveness of new initiatives through evidence-led medical education research. Here, I will review some evidence-led studies of how undergraduate medical education is changing globally with a view to considering small changes we can make practically to make a difference to improve student learning. From there, I will review evidence from some of our recent studies at HKU on effectiveness of biomedical teaching as an exemplar of simple routes into effective medical education research that can help improve student and lifelong learning.