Critical Appraisal of Emergency Medicine Educational Research: The Best Publications of 2010

Funding is a perennial challenge for medical education researchers. Through a consensus process, the authors developed a multifaceted agenda for increasing funding of education research in emergency medicine (EM). Priority agenda items include developing resources to increase the competitiveness of medical education research faculty in grant applications, identifying means by which departments may bolster their faculty's grant writing success, taking long-term steps to increase the number of grants available to education researchers in the field, and encouraging a shift in cultural attitudes toward education research.ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2012; 19:1434-1441 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine T his article highlights the findings of the 2012 Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) consensus conference breakout session on funding of education research in emergency medicine (EM). The objectives of the session were to 1) identify the major barriers to attainment of funding by EM education researchers, emphasizing factors demonstrated to correlate with funding success; 2) to discuss feasible strategies to overcoming identified barriers; and 3) to create an agenda for supporting and developing the funding success of medical education research faculty within EM. To encourage rapid adoption of our recommendations, the session participants opted to emphasize expansion of existing programs and workshops over creation of new programming whenever possible. Consensus participants recognized that any substantial change in grant funding is ultimately tied to changing the culture in which EM education research is viewed; therefore, action items for supporting a more global culture change were emphasized. THE CHALLENGE OF OBTAINING FUNDING FOR EM EDUCATION RESEARCHThe Institute of Medicine has called for improved rigor of education research to support and integrate innovative medical education practices 1 ; however, this directive lacks potency without a link to mechanisms for increasing available funding for education research. A paucity of funding has been identified as a major factor in the quantity and methodologic quality of medical education studies.

Section: The Challenge Of Obtaining Funding For Em Education Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Challenge Of Obtaining Funding For Em Education Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Agenda for Increasing Grant Funding of Emergency Medicine Education Research

Choo

Fernandez

Hayden

et al. 2012

“…The quantitative studies used scoring criteria developed in 2009 based on domains from the validated Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) tool and then continually optimized and modified annually from 2010 through 2012. [5][6][7][8][9] This year, continued slight modifications focused on improved clarity of the subdomain descriptors. Quantitative studies were scored in nine domains for a maximum total score of 25 points.…”

Section: Scoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may have resulted in our erroneously omitting high-quality studies, although no single-site, surveybased studies published in 2008 through 2011 were highlighted as superior studies in this series over the past 4 years. [6][7][8][9] Second, a new scoring system was used to critically appraise qualitative studies. Although this has not been validated, it closely mirrors the same domains as the scoring system for quantitative studies and was derived using accepted measures based on the literature.…”

Section: Qualitative Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Appraisal of Emergency Medicine Education Research: The Best Publications of 2012

Lin

Fisher

Coates

et al. 2014

Self Cite

Objectives: The objective was to critically appraise and highlight medical education research published in 2012 that was methodologically superior and whose outcomes were pertinent to teaching and education in emergency medicine (EM).Methods: A search of the English language literature in 2012 querying Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsychInfo, PubMed, and Scopus identified EM studies using hypothesis-testing or observational investigations of educational interventions. Two reviewers independently screened all of the publications and removed articles using established exclusion criteria. This year, publications limited to a single-site survey design that measured satisfaction or self-assessment on unvalidated instruments were not formally reviewed. Six reviewers then independently ranked all remaining publications using one of two scoring systems depending on whether the study methodology was primarily qualitative or quantitative. Each scoring system had nine criteria, including four related to methodology, that were chosen a priori, to standardize evaluation by reviewers. The quantitative study scoring system was used previously to appraise medical education published annually in 2008 through 2011, while a separate, new qualitative study scoring system was derived and implemented consisting of parallel metrics.Results: Forty-eight medical education research papers met the a priori criteria for inclusion, and 33 (30 quantitative and three qualitative studies) were reviewed. Seven quantitative and two qualitative studies met the criteria for inclusion as exemplary and are summarized in this article. In this fifth installment of the annual critical appraisal series, the same six reviewers used previously published criteria to critically analyze and rank the EM education research from 2012. The focus of this article is to review and highlight the methodologically superior studies that are pertinent to teaching and education in EM. Trends in EM education research over the past 5 years are summarized. We hope that this paper will serve as a valuable resource for EM educators and researchers invested in the scholarship of teaching. 2 METHODS Article IdentificationA medical librarian (LM) performed the literature search in the medical and social sciences literature domains and supplied medical subject heading (MeSH) and keyword terms. MEDLINE was searched through PubMed using a Boolean search strategy that incorporated the following MeSH terms: emergency medicine and medical education, medical student, internship and residency, teaching rounds, undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education, and continuing medical education. Keyword variants for the MeSH terms were included in the search for comprehensiveness. Boolean searches of other databases, including Scopus ("medical education" and emergency), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC; emergency medicine), and PsychInfo (emergency medicine and education) were performed using keyword searching and where possible using the da...

“…Despite the plethora of educational problems that emergency medicine (EM) educators face, critical appraisals of education research studies in the EM literature in the past 3 years have identified few original contributions that reach publication. [1][2][3] Common barriers medical education researchers encounter include lack of training opportunities, protected time, or funding for research; competing administrative and leadership roles; small numbers of learners; and difficulty defining relevant and measurable outcomes. 4 Among published studies, deficiencies in reporting quality are common.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming Barriers to Addressing Education Problems With Research Design: A Panel Discussion

Yarris

Gruppen

Hamstra

et al. 2012

A plenary panel session at the 2012 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference "Education Research in Emergency Medicine: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies for Success" discussed barriers educators face in imagining, designing, and implementing studies to address educational challenges. This proceedings article presents a general approach to getting started in education research. Four examples of studies from the medical education literature that illustrate a distinct way to approach specific research questions are discussed. The study designs used are applicable to a variety of education research problems in emergency medicine (EM). Potential applications of studies are discussed, as well as effects and lessons learned.