We share our impressions from the AMEE 2022 conference

At the end of the summer, the conference organized by the International Association for Medical Education (AMEE) was held. Enough time has passed since the event, but we can still share exciting reflections with you!

The event was held offline in Lyon and online. Those interested from our project team joined the event remotely. We also supported the online participation of four medical educators in the conference.

This year’s main focuses of the conference were:

• rethinking medical education, discussing its philosophy and values
• challenges of distance education and learning in hybrid format
• continuous professional development of medical educators
• research in medicine and medical education,
• syllabus, assessment, competencies and clinical skills, and much more

Three thousand five hundred participants from all over the world joined the event, of which more than 1000 participated online. The conference program was intensive and lasted from 4:00 to 22:00 so that everyone from different countries could participate at a convenient time. The program included plenary sessions, symposia, workshops, and sections with scientific research presentations.

The headliner of the event was William Spady. The innovator in medical education made a presentation, “You can’t measure what you don’t have a definition for moving up the evolutionary transformation of outcome-based learning.” Mr. Spady assured the audience that achieving quality practice is a process that has several dimensions and characteristics. Therefore, it is incorrect to evaluate it with ticks in the checklist.

An interesting symposium on the professional development of educators through innovative technologies brought together change-makers who expand opportunities for the development of educators through their initiatives. They talked about podcasts, gamification, applications with infographics for self-study, and a blog on important medical and educational topics. We advise you to pay attention to the podcast ‘The Spark: Medical education for curious minds,’ mentioned by the conference speakers –>  https://bit.ly/3MdW1wF.

Instead, William proposed an assessment using rubrics with several levels of components: fluency, accuracy, performance with challenge, thoroughness, synergy; and three levels of mastery of practical skills: just learning, incomplete mastery, and competent mastery. The lecturer also insisted that evaluating “with a pencil” is necessary – erasing the grade when students master the skill better until they reach a competent level.

It should be noted that this year we used this approach during the course on teaching excellence, which we organized together with the NGO Higher.

We share the impressions of the teachers who participated:

• “I liked the wide range of topics and the opportunity to choose what interests me.”
• “The vast majority of speakers demonstrated progressive, innovative views and approaches. Most of the moderators from the sections I chose are excellent moderators. So the sections were mega-motivating!”
• “I was impressed by the geography and the opportunity to get acquainted with the experience of representatives from different countries. I am glad to see that we all strive to develop quality medical education and use similar and sometimes different ways to achieve these results.”
• “It is nice to see that what we do in the project is not different; we mostly develop all the areas mentioned in the conference program: simulation approaches, curriculum review, peer groups, podcasts.”