Flattening the world of medical education

Abstract

In his internationally bestselling book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman argues that the personal computer and the worldwide web, among other things, have ‘flattened’ the world by leveling the commercial playing field between industrial and emerging market countries.1 I would not be so bold as to pronounce that Medical Education as a journal will have an impact on the scale of those technologies, but I am very proud to announce the latest in our ongoing efforts to contribute to the flattening of the globe with respect to the sharing of knowledge relevant to the education of health professionals. We at the journal have been working with the organizers of a variety of internationally recognized meetings of medical educators to determine how we can best support the energy, enthusiasm, and success of the conference participants and share the strengths of the meeting with those who were not fortunate enough to attend. In the coming months you will see that the journal has partnered with a number of conferences to provide the proceedings of those conferences as on-line supplements of Medical Education. The first such supplement (in which this editorial is found; http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117964731/issueyear?year=2009) summarizes the work presented at the May 2009 Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME; http://www.mededconference.ca/home.php– the conference covers the continuum of education – undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education), a joint meeting put on by the Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada (AFMC), the Canadian Association for Medical Education (CAME), the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), the Medical Council of Canada (MCC), and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC). Though diverse in mandate, these five organizations have come together to create an annual forum at which medical educators, administrators, researchers and policy-makers can come together to exchange ideas and determine the best ways to move medical education forward. Canada, as a country, has been very influential in the world of medical education through the creation and dissemination of problem-based learning (PBL), the CanMEDS roles, and a variety of other educational innovations. Hoping to build on that history, the number of medical faculties in the country with dedicated educational research units has doubled in recent years. By partnering with the CCME Medical Education is indicating an anticipation that the conference will continue to be a source of good ideas well into the future. As alluded to already, this partnership is part of an ongoing effort on the part of the journal to meaningfully connect those working within medical education at a global level. Last year the journal received submissions from over 60 countries and had articles downloaded from those and other countries almost half a million times. We continue to work hard to improve decision turnaround times (which at last count are down to 21 days, on average, from submission to the point of first decision), to provide constructive feedback to authors (see my January 2009 editorial for the strategies we have recently implemented),2 and to promote methodologically rigorous, practically relevant, and ethically sound research practices. Medical Education is the only journal in its field that has seen its impact factor increase each of the past 3 years, a testament to the hard work of the authors who contribute and the reviewers who provide their sage advice. Over the coming years you will notice many changes to the journal and its website as it maintains and strengthens its reputation as the place for scholarly debate through publication of high quality critical reviews relevant to up-and-coming issues as well as thoughtful and synthesizing commentary on the articles included within any given issue. We have begun a series called the ‘cross-cutting edge’ which aims specifically to provide state-of-the-art summaries of important research that cuts across various intellectual boundaries, thereby making cutting-edge knowledge from other disciplines readily accessible to medical educators.3 On-line supplements such as this one, we hope, will provide the readership with additional rich food for thought, thereby provoking further innovation and research aimed at helping us understand when, why, and how those innovations can be successfully adapted to novel circumstances. As examples of the types of articles Medical Education seeks to publish, we are also pleased to announce that the journal has recently made access to its most downloaded articles available to all, free of charge, at http://www.mededuc.com. I hope you enjoy these articles and I hope to see your submissions included in this list in future years.