Postcards from Helsinki: Top tips from the AMEE med ed conference

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BSMS had the highest representation yet at AMEE 2017 – one of the largest international conferences in medical education. Ten of us joined almost 4000 other educators in Helsinki to present papers and posters on our research, and run a popular conference workshop “Technology Enhanced Learning… For Dummies!”. There was much to learn but here are some personal take-home reflections:

Dr Claire Smith
  • I was struck by the diversity of experiences across the world, yet also by the similarities of issues facing HEIs
  • There exists such a position as Director of Virtual Human Anatomy rather than ‘Head of Anatomy’ – could I be virtual?!
  • Also noticed the friendless of everyone and the ease of talking to new people
  • Top Tip: Get to session rooms early to get a seat – for many sessions I sat on the floor!
  • Presenting at an international conference with colleagues from so many countries made me focus on ensuring my poster presentation was accessible those for whom English is not their first language. However, I was deeply impressed by how many people spoke flawless medical English when this wasn’t their first language!
  • Attending a debate on the necessity of human cadaveric dissection in teaching anatomy teaching encouraged me to reflect on how much of what we teach is because ‘that’s just the way that it is done’ – we need to question the status quo and keep pushing the boundaries of educational practice.
  • There is much value in the time spent having informal discussions with colleagues over the local brew!

Dr Nikki Dearnley

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Best bits from the ASME medical education conference 2017

Tim Vincent
BSMS Learning Technologist

One of the main medical education conferences is the ASME Annual Scientific Meeting which, this year, took place at Exeter university. BSMS had the highest representation ever with several oral presentations and posters, a workshop, and a teaching award (well done Claire!). I am a member of the ASME Technology Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (ASME TEL SIG) and, as such, was interested to see the growing prevalence and quality of education research in this area. Here are the best bits from the conference from my perspective:

Reflection 1: The importance of Clinical Teaching Fellows. Looking around all the presentations and posters, they seem to be pivotal in medical schools and hospitals driving forward innovative educational initiatives, undertaking robust research, and disseminating the output. That has certainly been our experience at BSMS (we have had Andy, Becky, and Nikki with us this year and others before) – they have contributed a fantastic amount this year to our teaching activity and they have benefited from their year with us, too, taking their skills to . It would seem wise to continue to invest in this crucial role if we want to maintain high quality teaching and education research.

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Reflections on my first national medical education conference

Dr Andy Brereton, Clinical Teaching Fellow



Last month I attended the ASME Annual Scientific Meeting in Exeter at which I presented a poster on my research into ward round teaching. It was my first experience of a national medical education conference and here are my reflections:

If this was a trip advisor review, it may have read something like this:

“The setting for ASME 2017 was Exeter university’s beautifully manicured campus. This offered great facilities, a friendly academic audience and a reasonable B+B, a stones throw from the conference. There were some notable highs and lows…

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