Understanding and Embracing Culture in International Faculty Development.

Introduction: Research on international faculty development programs (IFDPs) has demonstrated many positive outcomes; however, participants' cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and behaviors have often been overlooked in these investigations. The goal of this study was to explore the influences of culture on teaching and learning in an IFDP.

Method: Using interpretive description as the qualitative methodology, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 Fellows and 5 Faculty of a US-based IFDP.

The Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom in Health Professions Education in China: A Systematic Review.

Background: Flipped classroom has received much attention during the last few years in China, but inconsistent conclusions are made about the effectiveness this approach in health professions education. This review examined the findings of controlled studies published in Chinese in order to summarize the effects of the flipped classroom methodology. These studies focused specifically on undergraduate level of health professions students.

Ensuring quality of health workforce education and practice: strengthening roles of accreditation and regulatory systems.

Regulation of the health workforce and accreditation of educational institutions are intended to protect the public interest, but evidence of the impact of these policies is scarce and occasionally contradictory. The body of research that does exist primarily focuses on policies in the global north and on the major health professions. Stress on accreditation and regulatory systems caused by surges in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, privatization of education, rising patient expectations, and emergence of new health worker categories has created urgency for innovation and reform.

Academic excellence in Latin America: Social accountability of medical schools.

Social accountability of medical schools has emerged as a standard of excellence in medical education during the last decade. However, the lack of valid and reliable instruments to estimate social accountability has limited the possibility of measuring the impact that medical schools have in society. Our aim was to develop an instrument and validate its use for assessing social accountability in Latin American countries.

The built environment and health: fostering interprofessional collaboration for better policy recommendations.

This paper describes the initiation and proceedings of a national consultation organized to appraise issues in the local built environment affecting public health, using an interprofessional and intersectoral approach. The consultation was hosted as a part of the onsite session of an international fellowship program in interprofessional education and practice, organized by the Manipal FAIMER Institute for Leadership in Interprofessional Education, India. One hundred and eight delegates from across academic disciplines including the health professions, management, public health, architecture, and engineering, participated in this event.

Using a theory of change for evaluation: has the FAIMER international faculty development program improved the field of health professions education?

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Program theories have not been extensively used in evaluating faculty development programs in medical education.

Can We Increase the Value and Decrease the Cost of Clinical Skills Assessment?

Although the authors do not agree with medical students' bid to end the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 Clinical Skills or Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination Level 2-Performance Evaluation tests, they concur with Ecker and colleagues that conducting further research to support the validity argument, providing greater feedback on performance, and exploring options to reduce costs are important for addressing students' concerns. Evidence to support the validity of clinical skills exam scores and associated inferences already exists. What is lacking, and would help further justify the use of these examinations, is more evidence to support the "extrapolation" argument-that is, is performance on these examinations related to actual patient care? Enhanced feedback on exam performance should also be considered.

The Shortage of Clinical Training Sites in an Era of Global Collaboration.

The increasing number of health professions students, coupled with a shift to ambulatory care and shorter hospital stays, has created a shortage of clinical training sites around the world. The authors present data on accreditation, quality, cost, and student indebtedness related to medical schools in the Caribbean-schools that some view as taking clinical training sites in the United States away from U.S.

Packaging and modular assembly of large-area and fine-pitch 2-D ultrasonic transducer arrays.

A promising transducer architecture for largearea arrays employs 2-D capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (CMUT) devices with backside trench-frame pillar interconnects. Reconfigurable array (RA) application-specified integrated circuits (ASICs) can provide efficient interfacing between these high-element-count transducer arrays and standard ultrasound systems. Standard electronic assembly techniques such as flip-chip and ball grid array (BGA) attachment, along with organic laminate substrate carriers, can be leveraged to create large-area arrays composed of tiled modules of CMUT chips and interface ASICs.

Global faculty development: lessons learned from the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) initiatives.

Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) faculty development programs have operated since 2001 and are designed to overcome many of the challenges inherent in global health collaborations, including alignment with local needs, avoiding persistent dependency, and development of trust. FAIMER fellowship programs, developed for midcareer faculty members in all health professions from around the world, share goals of strengthening knowledge and skills in education leadership, education methods, and project management and evaluation. Building community is another explicit goal that allows participants to support and learn from each other.

Factors promoting sustainability of education innovations: a comparison of faculty perceptions and existing frameworks.

Introduction: Health professions education uses innovative projects to promote faculty development and institution change. Faculty perceptions of the factors that promote project sustainability affect how faculty conceptualize and implement their innovations, which influences whether and how they plan for sustainability. This paper compares educators' perceptions of factors that influence sustainability in innovative projects with factors identified in project sustainability literature, to identify areas of convergence and divergence.

Impact of a fellowship program for faculty development on the self-efficacy beliefs of health professions teachers: a longitudinal study.

Background: Teachers' belief in their ability to teach influences how much of the new knowledge and skills gained during faculty development (FD) programs are actually implemented at the workplace.

Aim: To study the effect of a longitudinal FD program on the self-efficacy beliefs (SEB) of teachers of health professions using quasi-experimental methodology.

Methods: The SEB of 70 teachers of health professions enrolling for a longitudinal FD program at three sites in India and one site in South Africa and an equal number of comparable controls were measured using the "teacher efficacy belief systems-self" (TEBS-self) scale.

Stages and transitions in medical education around the world: clarifying structures and terminology.

Background: In a world that increasingly serves the international exchange of information on medical training, many students, physicians and educators encounter numerous variations in curricula, degrees, point of licensing and terminology.

Aims: The aim of this study was to shed some light for those trying to compare medical training formats across countries.

Methods: We surveyed a sample of key informants from 40 countries.

Educator perceptions of the relationship between education innovations and improved health.

Background: Education innovations by health professions faculty are shaped by faculty conceptualizations of the pathway between their innovations and changes in health of communities.

Aims: We aimed to explore how existing theories about the relationship between education and health are attended to, interpreted, and applied by faculty in different national contexts.

Methods: We compared existing theoretical frameworks to perceptions of "front line" faculty.

Project-based faculty development by international health professions educators: practical strategies.

Background: Project design and implementation, applied to real life situations, is emerging as an educational strategy for application of health professions faculty development learning within a supportive environment.

Aim: We conducted a retrospective analysis of project evolution to identify common experiences, challenges, and successful strategies of 54 mid-career faculty members from 18 developing countries who attended the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research Institute between 2001 and 2006 and designed, conducted, and evaluated education innovations at their home institutions.

Methods: Chronological analysis of the evolution of 54 projects over the initial 16-18 months of the 2-year Fellowship was based on an iterative qualitative analysis of 324 reports and individual interview transcripts collected over 6 years.

Faculty development projects for international health professions educators: Vehicles for institutional change?

Background: Projects are an important tool in faculty development, and project emphasis may offer insights into perceived education priorities. Impact of projects has been focused on individuals, not institutions or health.

Aim: Education innovation projects of Fellows in an international faculty development program were examined to better understand perceived needs in health professions education and institutional impact of projects.

A model for linkage between health professions education and health: FAIMER international faculty development initiatives.

Linking faculty development to improvement of community health is of particular interest to health professions educators and researchers. While individuals and institutions engaged in health professions education have the potential to improve health, limited literature connects capacity building in education with improvements in health. Understanding the mechanism by which faculty development may promote development of socially accountable institutions and improve health can be useful for improving this connection and evaluating program effectiveness.

AMEE 2010 symposium: medical student education in the twenty-first century - a new Flexnerian era?

As we mark the 100th anniversary of the Flexner report which revolutionized the process of medical education, there is again concern that we face a critical need for change in the process of medical education in order to meet the needs of learners, teachers, and patients. In this symposium, panelists shared perspectives on medical education reform from throughout the world, including The Future of Medical Education in Canada, the role of regulators in contributing to reform, the evolution of accreditation standards, the current state of medical education in Southeast Asia, and the perspectives of a medical student on medical education reform. In the "Audience discussion" section, themes emerged surrounding medical education as a social good, the need for governmental support of medical education, the cost of medical education and the rise of for-profit medical schools, and embracing a broader view of health professional education.

Change in action: using positive deviance to improve student clinical performance.

At our medical college many students have lower ratings in their clinical performance once they start their clinical years (third year). This is contrary to their results in other written exams. Some students demonstrate better clinical performance.

Using geographic information systems to compare the density of stores selling tobacco and alcohol: youth making an argument for increased regulation of the tobacco permitting process in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

Background: This study is based on a community participatory research (CBPR) partnership between a youth group and a local university to explore whether greater regulation of tobacco permits would reduce the density of tobacco outlets overall, and particularly in low-income, high minority neighbourhoods in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

Methods: Applying Geographic Information Systems and regression analyses to neighbourhood demographics and the location of stores selling tobacco and alcohol, the study predicts the density of tobacco outlets as compared to alcohol outlets at the neighborhood block group level and in relation to the location and demographic composition of public schools.

Results: This study found that there are more than double the number of stores that sell tobacco as compared to alcohol in the city of Worcester.

Relevance of the Flexner Report to contemporary medical education in South Asia.

A century after the publication of Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (the Flexner Report), the quality of medical education in much of Asia is threatened by weak regulation, inadequate public funding, and explosive growth of private medical schools. Competition for students' fees and an ineffectual accreditation process have resulted in questionable admission practices, stagnant curricula, antiquated learning methods, and dubious assessment practices. The authors' purpose is to explore the relevance of Flexner's observations, as detailed in his report, to contemporary medical education in South Asia, to analyze the consequences of growth, and to recommend pragmatic changes.