Is medical education research ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ research?

Abstract

It is a common experience for those doing medical education research to be dismissed by our basic science and clinical colleagues as working in the ‘soft’ sciences, often with the implication that our research is ‘sloppy,’ else we would have the same rigor and precision of the ‘hard’ sciences. This perspective ignores, however, important differences in the contexts and constraints of doing ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ research. Suppose we were to conduct research about the dispersion of an airborne infectious virus and the development of brain pathology as a result of exposure to that virus. A typical ‘hard’ science approach to this issue might look something like this. After a careful power analysis to determine the number of rats needed for the study, the researchers order several dozen rats from a laboratory animal supply firm. The firm would certify that all the rats are bred for genetic similarity and free from exposure to other pathogens. These rats would then be randomized into control and intervention cohorts. The intervention rats would be exposed to a controlled dose of the airborne virus for a specified period of time, whereas the control rats would be isolated from this virus. After exposure, all rats would be held in their cages for a pre-defined period of time to allow the virus to establish itself and develop any pathological consequences in the rat’s brain. During this incubation period, the intervention and control rats would be isolated from each other and kept in a controlled, sterile environment. After the incubation period, all the rats would be sacrificed and histological studies performed of the areas of the brain expected to show evidence of the viral pathology. If our researchers had to conduct this same study under the typical conditions for the ‘soft’ sciences, the process might look a bit different. First of all, the researchers would have to find their rats, which requires a hunting license from the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) which stipulates that the researchers cannot simply capture their rats but must get their cooperation to participate voluntarily. The rat population is happily running around the sewers, abandoned buildings or fields and may or