Iranian Journal of Medical Education
Year:2001 | Volume:1 | Issue:2 (2)|Papers Count:8

Introduction. In order to improve planning, educational methodology, and evaluation in medical education, well-proportioned, exact and prospective programs are needed.Without doubt, the main changes in medical education programs have resulted from researches performed in this area during the last decades.Revision of medical education in Iran began by the Cultural Revolution Council by order of Imam Khomeini in 1981. The medical group of the Council revised the aims and plans of medical education and suggested a unified Ministry of Health and Medical Education.Methods. Searching in the National Medical Papers Collection performed across two periods, (1979 till 1993 and 1994 till 1998) showed that 9981 papers have been published during 20 years; more than half of them belong to the last five years and 83% to the last 10 years. Articles related to research in medical education were extracted and their sources and studied subjects were categorized.Results. Fifty-six papers were published during the studied 20 years period; 64 percent of these articles were presented within the last 5 years. The frequency of papers was higher in the fields of “Aim and planning” and “Student”.Discussion. Research development in medical education needs special planning in which the importance of research and its role in self-improvement, independency and country development are defined. It should use existing abilities in order to grow creative powers in a suitable way. The resources of such reforming activity are available in Education Development Centers of the Universities of Medical Sciences in Iran.

It has been proposed that we think of continuing medical education (CME) as a two-stranded helix, in which one strand represents the internal characteristics of the learner-physician, the other strand the culture and environment in which he or she practices and lives. In many countries, the product of these two strands has been increasingly termed ‘continuing professional development’, (CPD). This model holds implications for CME providers and programs of maintenance of competence: what we know about lifelong, self-directed learning (SDL) and the role of culture, environment and setting on learning.This paper proposes an expanded role for CME or CPD providers, constructed on an understanding of self-directed learning, the environment or setting in which physicians work, and, on the evidence about effective CME methods. Finally, these concepts will provide a springboard to describe an idealized or conceptualized vision of the role of the CME provider - the third strand in a triple helix - building on self-directed learning, expanding the definition of maintenance of competence and attempting to effect optimal health care.

Background. The necessity of identifying talented students to develop appropriate programs to educate them is well recognized. Special programs for talented students were started in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in year 2000. This study analyses academic achievement of talented students before attending these programs, and compares them to those who are not considered as talented.Methods. Through a retrospective cohort study students admitted in the university in either 1997 or 1998 were categorized as ”talented” and "non-talented" based on the criteria employed by National Organization for Educational Measurement. The two groups were matched according to their courses of study, number of passed units, and the semesters passing the corresponding units. From each student’s file, the total average, average of each semester, and the courses of study were extracted.Results. There were 73 talented (36 female and 37 male) and 401 non-talented students. Of talented students, 50 were studying medicine and 23 were studying dentistry. With increment of passed semesters, term averages were decreased. The slope of average decrements among talented students was not significantly different from that of "non-talented" ones.Conclusion. Although term average is not the only criterion for assessment of academic achievement, it seems that current University programs were not effective to improve academic achievement of talented students ,or at least , maintain their status.

World action in medical education, notably the global programs of the World Federation for Medical Education, the Edinburgh Declaration of 1988 and the 1993 World Summit, has led to major curricular change in medical schools. For educational reform to result in improved health services of nations, an essential requirement is integration between the medical education system and the health care delivery systems of countries.Particular countries have been viewed as models of such integration: Cuba, Thailand and latterly Iran. The Iranian system of integration between the health care services and the health education sector, regarded as a model for other countries, is of the greatest interest internationally. The progress of the Iran initiative is watched with keen attention by medical educators and health care managers worldwide. This interest requires that Iranian medical education projects and experiments be reported in the world literature, and for facilitation of visits through the fostering of international cooperation. Iran is expected to contribute significantly by example to the global movement now taking place.

Background. To improve the quality of education, evaluating clinical and theoretical teaching and giving feedbacks to the teachers to obviate the drawbacks is of important value. Evaluation results are reliable if the gathered data are correct and precise and it can be achieved only if there are precise tools to gather data. This study was performed to prepare valid forms to evaluate theoretical and clinical teaching. An appropriate weight has been allocated to each item. Method. Separate checklists were designed for students, in order to evaluate theoretical and clinical teaching. Also special forms were developed for teacher evaluations by heads of departments and school deans .School deans, on the other hand, completed special checklists to evaluate vice-deans and head of departments. Using the expert’s attitudes, the validity was calculated by Delphi method and the weight of different items was calculated by trim mean. Results. The questionnaire had different categories including discipline, teaching method, scientific level and evaluation. The longest forms had 17 items (theoretical and practical teaching). The highest validity coefficient was 0.9±0.07 and the lowest was 0.83±0.03. The most important item in theoretical teaching was scientific level of teachers and in clinical teaching, it was on time attendance. Conclusion. Designing checklist for assessment of achievement in educational objectives is very essential and it must be precise and correct. The item must be checked because of changing educational context.

Medical education play an important role in health of people in 20th-century, but this system has to change overtime. Medical education must respond to not only the demand of community at large but also to changing in new technologies.Medical education have been criticized in last two decades of 20th-century, because of producing too many specialists focus on treatment instead of health, insufficient, training in ethics alternative medicine behavior and social sciences, care, of terminally ill and so on.This article attempts to discuss about the failure or weaknesses of current medical education and the different views to help train physicians to be better prepare .to meet the challenges of 21st-century.

Background. Education of physician and preparing them for suitable diagnosis and treatment of diseases are the main target of medical education with regard to importance of adjustment of educational content with community needs and high prevalence of infectious disease. We decided to measure information of general practitioners of health centers in Shiraz about diagnosis, treatment and prevention of four prevalent infectious diseases (tuberculosis, brucellosis, typhoid fever, dysentery).Methods. It is a cross sectional study with using a multiple choices questionnaire. It measured knowledge about diagnosis, treatment prevention and referral of four prevalent infectious diseases.Result. In this survey, knowledge of general physician about four infectious diseases had not correlation with sex marital status, year and university of graduation (P>0.05). Physician knowledge was more about dysentery (in comparison to other three diseases) (P< 0.05). Percent of right answers of physician to question of brucellosis, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and dysentery in order were: 42.7%, 41.02%, 32.05% and 65.32%. Knowledge of them was better about treatment than diagnosis and prevention (P<0.05).Conclusion. Physician knowledge about four prevalent diseases isn't in an acceptable level. And it is necessary to reevaluate education of infectious diseases to establish reeducation about them.

Educational quality improvement and related standards have been considered widely by all of the countries specially those who are pioneer in this field and in last fifty years.Finding objective criteria to rank universities and supporting them financially is the main Reason of this consideration.To assure the quality of higher education, the accreditation has acted as an accepted approach and a health check.Different countries have selected different models of accreditation on the basis of their organizational and political structure.Using published resources of the last decade, objectives and different models of accreditation specially those in the field of medical education has been explained in this article and the system of accreditation in some countries has been described briefly.