IMEC 2013

A report on some aspects of the International Medical Education Conference (IMEC) held in the International Medical University, Bukit Jalil, in March 2013.

The keynote address by Ronald Hardin was about excellent teachers for the 21^st century. He spoke on the type of teachers that we needed - comparing the different types of teachers to Carps, Sharks and Dolphins. Carps, he said, just muddled along without drawing attention to what they were doing, being interested only in maintaining the status quo. Sharks were aggressive and always wanted to win. They saw the world as filled with either winners or losers. The teacher of the 21^st century, Ron Hardin said, should be neither of these types. Instead they should be like the Dolphins who have good strategies and learn from previous experience. Dolphins like to win but they do want others to lose. Such teachers, he said, are unyielding on their principles unless those principles no longer make sense and they act on the big picture while being aware of the small details.

Cees van der Vleuten from Maastricht University, The Netherlands, spoke on how assessment should be used in medical schools for learning instead of being a mere tool for measuring learning.

A debate on whether professionalism can only be instilled by role modelling was held between Trudie Roberts from the University of Leeds and Dato’ Sivalingam from IMU. The debate was lively and filled with humour and references to people in music, arts and literature. The conclusion was that, while role models are important, professionalism should also be actively promoted as a goal in medical education.

A few of the research papers that I liked…..

1. A study looked at the awareness of palliative care among final year medical students and found that these students were aware of, and had interest in, this field.

2. A paper was presented on the adverse health effects of using Facebook. The authors found increasing social isolation from family and community as well as other adverse changes in health and behaviour occurred in medical students who used Facebook for an average of 2.5 hours or more per day.

3. A paper on plagiarism by medical students found that when students who indulged in plagiarism were counselled by mentors and peers, instead of being summarily punished, they showed improvement.  

4. A study looked at the role of nurses in the training of medical students and found that nurses do make significant contributions in this regard.

5. How do pre-clinical students view problem-based learning? A study found that while students generally like the PBL method of learning, their learning through PBL sessions can be improved by having smaller groups, by using better triggers, and by having content experts as facilitators.

6. A paper presented findings on how students are better able to understand illnesses from patients’ point of view when they are encouraged to write, and share, their own experiences during the time when they themselves were ill.

7. Google search is a useful tool for medical students when they wish to analyse clinical information and make diagnoses, according to a paper which studied the ability of fourth year medical students to make an appropriate diagnosis from clinical data.

8. End of life attitudes among final year medical students were surveyed in a study. The study showed that most medical students feel that decisions regarding life-prolonging treatment should be made by groups of doctors, nurses and other involved parties and not individually by anyone.

9. Do students use printed books or electronic books for study? A paper from University Technology Mara found that, for Pathology, medical students still use printed textbooks even though they have access to the Internet. Another study from Monash University found that second year medical students used mainly online resources instead of printed books.

10. A study on peer assisted learning found that when final year students are given the opportunity to teach medicine to third year students, both groups benefit from the program.