gms | German Medical Science

"Deep in the West ..." - This year's annual meeting of the Society for Medical Education (23^rd- 25^th September 2010) was held at the Medical Faculty of the Ruhr-University Bochum. The main topic of this year's conference was "A lot of changes - a lot achieved? A Critical review and view on the future of the study reforms”.
The new medical educational law was released 7 years ago. Experiences with the model curricula and reformed programs have been made. The dental and veterinary medicine made efforts to innovate their courses of studies and new academic courses for health professionals were tried to be established. It was a good moment to review and question the success, problems, up and downs of the various courses of studies and to focus on their future development after all those reformations.
There was a great interest in these topics which offered the possibility for dedicated lectures and discussions. This year's conference had a record attendance of 538 participants including 290 authors and chairperson. Overall 247 contributions were made. In addition 15 exhibitors and sponsors accompanied the meeting. The congress has shown that there is a great interest in academic reforms which was mirrored in the intensive exchange of experiences (see figure 1 [Fig. 1]).

For three days the participants have had the opportunity to participate in 94 lectures, 13 workshops and 153 poster presentations. The scientific contributions dealt with issues such as curriculum development and new courses, teaching and learning, examinations, the framework conditions, quality management, evaluation, communication, interdisciplinary and inter-professional teaching and examination, medical education and graduations, electronic and blended learning, training and continuing education.

The Board and the Advisory Board meeting as well as the editorial meeting of the Journal of Medical Education (CML) were held in advance of the conference. The scientific program was framed by a total of 14 committee meetings of the Society, held respectively on Thursday morning or on Saturday afternoon.

The conference started with the welcome speeches of the Congress Presidents Prof. Dr. Schäfer and Prof. Dr. Rusche, the GMA Board Chairman Prof. Dr. Hahn, the headmaster of the Ruhr-University Bochum Prof. Dr. Weiler, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Prof. Dr. Muhr and the President of the Medical Association of Westfalen-Lippe Dr. Windhorst. The speeches were followed by the impressive keynote lecture of Prof. Dr. Wim Gijselaers from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands, on "The challenge of change - lessons learned from research and medical education practice”.

In the afternoon the topical emphasis was on the model programs, their achievements and future perspectives presented in inspiring, but long-lasting lectures by the study deans of the participating 7 faculties.

The evening of the opening day ended with pretzels, wine and cold drinks and gave the opportunity to get to know the reform activities of the medical schools in Germany and German-speaking countries. For this event 19 Study Deaneries and Student Councils presented their reform efforts on posters, which provoked lively conversations and discussions around the conference theme "A lot of changes - a lot achieved?".

The plenary lectures of the two following days offered an excellent opportunity for everyone to get an insight on academic reforms. Very dedicated lectures offered the opportunity to learn about reform efforts and its prospects in dentistry and veterinary medicine and in the health sector professions. An interesting and instructive presentation of students of the federal representation of medical students in Germany –bvmd, represented their view on the efforts to improve teaching and focused on their wishes and concerns.

A symposium of the State Academy of Medical Education NRW, entitled "Medical Teaching Qualification" showed medical concepts and approaches in higher educational activities.

14 workshops, all well attended (some of them even had a rather long waiting list), offered the following topics:

• Workshop 1: The development of a competency-based professional qualification framework for higher education of health professionals as an opportunity for institutional development organization
• Workshop 2: The development of an SP-role script pool for use in medical teaching units and tests
• Workshop 3: Blended learning in medical education - Concepts and Perspectives
• Workshop 4: Research in medical education using quantitative methods (Part 1) (Part 2 -> Workshop 7)
• Workshop 5: The art of good teaching - active learning with TCI (Theme Centered Interaction) - Examples from the medical teaching methods in Bochum
• Workshop 6: Creating written examinations (1^st part): Multiple-choice questions (Part 2 -> Workshop 9)
• Workshop 7: Research in medical education using quantitative methods (Part 2)
• Workshop 8: Feedback training for teachers
• Workshop 9: Creating written examinations (2^nd part): Essay question tests
• Workshop 10: What model for what education? Workshop to develop a web-based “Device MOT"for skills labs in the D-A-CH region
• Workshop 11: Introduction to the Delphi method - Curriculum development and consensus: The Delphi method as a useful tool
• Workshop 12: Veterinary Medicine
  • Comparative representation of two OSCE examinations in Leipzig and Munich
  • Comments on the legal security of tests
  • New opportunities with electronic examinations
• Workshop 13: Success or Failure? The role of change management in the implementation of curricula in the field of communication and social skills "
• Workshop 14: "aches workshop"

Friday’s poster sessions (a total of 17) were well attended and included 153 papers. The most contributions dealt with electronic and blended learning (24 posters), but there was also special emphasis on the areas of teaching and learning, curriculum development practical skills and assessment.

During the social evening in the foyer of the main lecture hall AudiMax young teachers and students and the authors of the best posters were rewarded for their excellent work. The winners:

"Young Teachers" Award

1.

Dr. Nora Celebi, Tübingen

2.

Working Group Philip von der Borch, Munich

"Students’ Award"

1.

Kerstin Zwirner, Tübingen

2.

Working Group HannesHudalla, Heidelberg

3.

Anja Görlitz, Munich

Poster Prizes:

1.

Peter Loose, Munich

2.

Hendrik Friederichs, Münster

3.

Henning Biermann, Aachen

The social evening also offered a unique opportunity to visit the art collections of the Ruhr-University Bochum, containing the most rewarding collections of ancient and modern art.

With 94 presentations, 17 poster sessions, 14 workshops and three plenary sessions this year’s annual meeting offered a comprehensive, diversified and high quality scientific program. The large number of participants, not only from Germany but also from Austria and Switzerland, and the participation of colleagues from the veterinary and dental medicine as well as from the growing field of health professions have contributed to this successful event.

This is also reflected in the results of the evaluation. 164 participants have evaluated the subject areas as well as the organisation and the performance of the event (this had a return quote of approximately 30%). 84 % of the participants evaluated the choice of topics as good and excellent. 90% of the participants have stated that the topics were up to date (39%: excellent; 51% : good).

The Center for Medical Education of the Medical Faculty of the Ruhr-University Bochum (management team of the annual session 2010), would like to thank all participants as well as the university and faculty management of the Ruhr-University Bochum, the Congress Agency Conventus Congress management & Marketing GmbH and everybody passionately involved and responsible for the success of the event. We look forward to the next annual meeting in Munich 2011 (http://www.gma2011.de).