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 MED-NET Newsletter 2
April 1998
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In this issue:
Editorial
This is the second MED-NET Newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to give you an overview of developments.
The second year of MED-NET is well under way. We have once again received the support of the European Commission. This time with 135.000 ECU. The contract arrived late 1997. The cause of the delay was the request of the European Commission to merge with DENTED, a network for dental education in Europe. Negotiations with DENTED led to the mutual wish to cooperate, but not to merge this year. The reason was that one of the planned objectives of the DENTED-project is peer review. At the founding meeting of MED-NET in May 1996 it was decided that MED-NET would become an information network. Topics such as quality assessment and accreditation should not play a significant role for the time being. In the course of this year we will stay in contact with DENTED and elaborate further co-operation for the future. We think that an intensive communication and exchange of ideas will bring the two networks closer together, making them more powerful and valuable for all faculties in medicine as well as in dentistry.
An important issue this year is making contact with Associations in the field of medical education and strengthening co-operation with the member associations. We have discussed close co-operation with the Association of Medical Schools in Europe and discussions with the European Medical Student Association will follow soon. Apart from the activities of the reference groups we will present an overview of medical education in Europe at national levels. It is a survey of medical education as it was, how it is and what it will be in the near future. The impact of the ERASMUS and SOCRATES programs will be discussed too. It will be a kind of X-ray of medical education in Europe, at a fairly high level.
The next MED-NET Conference is held May 15-16 in Lille. We hope to meet you all in this beautiful city to discuss the items which lead towards optimal medical education and to contact each other with regard to practical matters of student exchange and teaching staff mobility.
KIOSK:
Key to Internet Organised Services for Knowledge Transfer
In higher education, complex and rapid developments take place. These are induced by the explosive growth of scientific and technological knowledge and the increasing demand for higher quality and efficiency in the learning process thereof.
Universities and higher education institutes in all countries of Europe own a tremendous treasure and development expertise in high technology education products. There is also an exponentially increasing demand for new products, whereas the matching between supply and demand is poor, the quality of products is not assured, and the information of what is "on the market" is diffuse.
The type of information addressed by the KIOSK project concerns these new educational products, developed and owned by educational institutes and universities in all countries in Europe. Especially expensive products are emphasised, such as computer supported training modules, CD-ROMs, multimedia courses, video, and interactive courses. The project focuses on such educational products in medical education.
In the KIOSK project we want to design and demonstrate a (sustainable) service organisation which:
- provides integrated information of what is produced at universities and higher education institutes
- matches supply and demand in the field of educational multimedia
- regulates inter-institutional licences
- provides quality assessment of new IT products for education
In order to arrive at such inter-university service, universities and educational institutes - via the thematic networks - should supply information in a specified format where various types of information should be integrated. In the project we want to build a demonstrator for licensed exchange of courseware between universities.
We invite MED-NET members who are interested to provide the project with information concerning their educational products to contact us. The project is co-ordinated by J. de Koning ().
We count on you!!!
MED-NET is beginning to develop, it is gaining an image, a form. Many motivated role players in the field of medical education work on this thematic network. The response rate to the questionnaires and the requests for information increases steadily (30 to 50%). The results of inquiries on several topics will be presented at the second conference. But still a lot of things have to be done, such as the establishment of effective communication channels to distribute and exchange information and the further collection of relevant information on different topics, set out at the first conference.
It turns out to be a hugh task to create the 'complete picture in medical education' without performing research, collecting data, summarising and communicating. To realise this, we need your help. If we all together would like to be able to consult only one forum, one organisation in order to receive any information on any topic within the field of medical education, every member of MED-NET should contribute to the project. If you have information which can be useful to us - even if it seems useless to you - or if you are interested in one of the topics MED-NET is currently working on, we ask you to contact the co-ordinator of the working group who is dealing with it, or a member of the Task Force. If you should be in any doubt who to contact, feel free to ask for information from anyone from the management of the project, mentioned in the colophon of this newsletter. We count on you !!!!!
MED-NET's goal is to have all medical faculties as member. This leads not only to more knowledge and refreshing ideas within the network but also to more credibility. MED-NET is more than a simple network for the duration of the project: we intend to grow, to continue, and to become an important resource in the field of medical education. Therefore, other Universities and Faculties will be contacted and informed on the contents and goals of MED-NET and asked to join.
Curriculum innovation questionnaire
Reported by G. Majoor
Preliminary data
As those who participated in the May 1997 Rotterdam meeting will remember the Reference Group on Curriculum Innovation handed out a short questionnaire. Twenty five out of the 75-odd institutions represented handed in their questionnaire, a response rate of 33%.
Among the respondents only one representative had neither in the past five years, nor up to now seen any innovation implemented and did not even expect to witness such event in the near future. By contrast, 22 out of 25 respondents reported substantial changes in their institutions' approach to education implemented over the last five years; 19 institutions reported also to be currently involved in implementation of such changes and 15 were in the process of planning such changes for the near future. No respondent announced only the planning of innovations without any changes implemented up to now.
The somewhat disappointing low response rate may be caused by the fact that the representatives of the institutions attending the MED-NET meeting felt not authorised to fill in the questionnaire. This effect may have been strengthened by the way the first three questions were phrased: There was little to report on, if, hardly anything had changed in education over the last years. Therefore, one may surmise that the thrive to change may have been less among the non-responding institutions than among the respondents being reviewed here.
Fourteen out of the 25 respondents appear to have entered a steady state of change: as well as they had been over the last five years, at present they are, and in the future they will be busy to implement changes. Three institutions had been involved in changing their educational approaches but were not considering new adaptations for the near future.
Again, 14 institutions felt that external circumstances, such as state legislation or regulations by external bodies had either forced them to implement changes in education, or on the opposite side had prevented them to do so. Only six respondents mentioned institutions beyond MED-NET that might represent examples of innovation in medical education. Two of them, plus another three respondents took the effort to write down comments pertaining to the plans of the reference group and/or the questionnaire as such.
How to proceed?
Obviously the reference group would like to increase the response rate, were it only to refute the hypothesis that there may be a high percentage of non-innovative schools among the non-respondents. Therefore, all MED-NET members who did not respond will be sent another copy of the questionnaire with the request to fill it in.
As announced in the heading of the questionnaire, the reference group will not publish details on the information gathered but select some 10-15 schools for in-depth study of the changes recently made in their educational approach. Please help us to increase the response to the questionnaire. It will only take 10 minutes to fill in!
Second MED-NET conference:
encounters in medical education
May 15-16, 1998, Lille
Whereas the first MED-NET conference started the discussion forum on Medical Education in Europe, the second conference aims to continue its academic development.
The task to achieve a "Complete Picture" of medical education in Europe is spread over a number of reference groups collecting data with respect to various actual topics on medical education.
The objectives of the second conference are:
- to report and discuss the progress made by the various reference groups.
- to offer to medical faculties the opportunity to present their new developments in medical education and to encounter colleague institutions
- to organise a meeting point for operational matters concerning exchange and mobility of students and staff members
The conference will be a mixture of plenary sessions, workshops, and presentations. There will be an extended education market allowing free exchange of information, experiences and new technologies.
Your participation at the conference is of great importance in order to achieve the objectives of the conference: bringing together a qualified and multidisciplinary assembly. Medical faculties and medical schools are invited to prepare a presentation or a poster and to submit an abstract to the conference organisation.
Issues of the second conference of MED-NET
State of the art Medical Education
In co-operation with AMSE (Association of Medical Schools in Europe) the present situation of Medical Education in the European countries was compared and will be presented and discussed. Special attention is directed to the overall organisation of education, the implementation of new didactic approaches, the structure of the curricula in general and the various possible modalities, new thoughts with respect to educational objectives such as clinical competencies, legal matters and rules, and expectations concerning future developments. Special attention is directed to exchange possibilities for students and teachers within the present state of the art.
Education topics in detail
Concerning various issues in medical education, dedicated reference groups started inventories to collect relevant data. These groups will report on their progress. The reference groups are:
- Education survey, presenting the critical indicators of medical educations and presentation of these in an 'ideal' homepage.
- Curriculum Innovation, presenting cases of good practice, examples of innovation in medical education in Europe.
- Professionalisation of Teachers, presenting the mission statement on professionalisation of medical teachers
- Student Exchange with ECTS, discussing the practical issues concerning implementation and extention of the ECTS-system
- Post Graduate Education presenting the state of the art in Europe on post graduate specialisation and continuous education
- International Health presenting the state of the art in Europe in education on international health
Education market
Medical faculties are invited to present new developments, and to discuss these with colleagues. Such presentations may concern experiences in multimedia courses, international co-operative projects, curriculum innovations, new ideas, projects in education, new courses having a European dimension, exchange programs and possibilities.
At the conference the education market is organised as an open session.
Universities may:
- present a poster
- give a short presentation on a successful project in medical education
- organise meetings with groups of co-operating faculties
- have bilateral meetings and discussions concerning exchange and mobility
- present a profile of their faculty
- present ECTS information packages
New topics arising in medical education
A number of new topics arising in medical education will be plenary presented and discussed. Such topics concern:
- Open and Distant Learning
- Medical education in Eastern European countries
- Health economy and education
- Health care needs and education
- Specialisation curricula
- European guidelines and standards for education
Registration
You may confirm your attendance by returning the registration form to prof. C. Creusy.
For further information about the conference please contact:
Prof. C. Creusy
Faculté Libre de Médecine
Université Catholique de Lille
Fax: +33 320 874827
Email:
ir. Jan de Koning
Faculty of Medical Sciences
University of Nijmegen
Fax: +31 24 3540529
Email:
Books
MedED-21: An account...
Co-operation with AMSE
By Sjoert Willemstein
The Association of Medical Schools in Europe (AMSE) and MED-NET have a lot in common. Both are interested in medical education. MED-NET exclusively, but in the widest sense and AMSE as part of the activities of medical schools. In AMSE the deans are represented. In MED-NET mostly people active in administration or education. MED-NET is an information and consultancy network. Deans will form opinions having meta-discussions on items. As soon as the discussions within AMSE concerns medical education, MED-NET should be able to collect relevant information and find the experts.
AMSE and MED-NET will profit from close co-operation of deans and internationally oriented administrators and teachers within the local faculties of medicine. Therefore, we propose a joint approach in promoting the European dimension in Medical Education. For further information on AMSE please contact:
Prof. Sergio Curtoni
Università degli studi di Torino
Dept. of Genetics, Biology and Medical Chemistry
Via Santena 19,
10126 Torino, Italy
Interview with Professor Curtoni, President of AMSE
Professor Curtoni, first of all we would like to thank you for making some time for us for this interview. As an introduction, can you situate yourself and your organisation in relation to MED-NET?
I think the best is to mention article 2 of AMSE (Association of Medical Schools in Europe) Constitution: "The aims of AMSE are concerned primarily with the function and responsibilities of medical schools and faculties, which include:
- the development of medical schools and faculties
- the development in medicine and medical science and their translation into policies of medical education
- research management policy in medical schools and faculties
- admission policies
- organisational and institutional problems facing medical schools and faculties
- the relationship of medical schools and faculties to health service organisations
- the developments in professions allied to medicine and their relations with medical schools and faculties
- the role of medical schools and faculties in post-graduate and continuing medical education."
What is your own position outside and within AMSE?
I am professor of Human Genetics at the University of Torino. Furthermore I am the president of AMSE and editor of AMSE Newsletter.
Which are the actual topics AMSE is currently working on?
AMSE has prepared the current topics at its annual congress in Uppsala.
During the conference of 1998 in Prague we will discuss:
- How to encourage staff members towards excellence in teaching and how to assess educational qualification of teaching.
- The developments in the relationship between a University Hospital and the University.
- When researchers in a Medical Faculty are not medically trained - is this a problem?
How important is AMSE to the Faculties of Medicine? In other words, does the organisation give advice on certain topics or is there an obligation for the members to follow the conclusions of AMSE?
AMSE is relevant to those faculties who think it is important to know what happens in medical faculties of other European countries. Medical faculties may benefit from AMSE in the sense that they can take examples and models and use them to improve. AMSE mainly tries to enhance the exchange of experiences and ideas. The AMSE working groups prepare documents which are voted by the AMSE General Assembly; yet, there is no formal obligation to follow these resolutions. How did AMSE get in contact with MED-NET? And what was discussed during this first contact? In summer 1995 I attended the annual meeting of an Erasmus ICP in Padova (Italy). Sjoert Willemstein and Jan de Koning were also there. During these days we discussed the development of a "thematic network" to be proposed to Socrates. AMSE was invited to be part of the network since the very beginning.
Can you explain the relation between these two organisations and how the objectives of AMSE are related, overlapping or complementary to those of MED-NET?
As I have pointed out already, AMSE deals with the three main aspects of a faculty i.e.: education, research and management. MED-NET is interested in educational issues. There is a clear overlap between the overall goal of MED-NET and one of the three fields of AMSE. The methods used by both organisations are to a good extent the same: allow people to gather and exchange experiences and ideas, make European inquiries, and allow people to know (and compare as well) facts, behaviours and solutions from all European countries.
What is the overall opinion of the members of AMSE concerning the MED-NET thematic network?
Do they think MED-NET is important, irreplaceable, or do they see MED-NET as a tool to realise their own goals? As I said, the common field of both organisations is education. I think the correct way to view at them is that they both are tools, and also medical education is a tool. The ultimate goal is the best response to the health needs of the population, and therefore the best possible improvement of health professional training. In this view, nobody is irreplaceable and everybody can be useful.
What is your personal opinion of MED-NET and its organisation?
Since the MED-NET goal is shared by AMSE, of course I think it is relevant. I think MED-NET can give an important contribution in this field because many faculties and organisations are members of MED-NET, mainly through persons actively involved in international relationships. On the other hand, we know that not all the members of medical faculties, and not all deans, are really interested in international exchange of ideas and experiences. They give internationalisation or the development of a European dimension a low priority with respect to many other duties which they have to face up to. A big advantage of MED-NET are its members: very good potential collaborators in an international field.
What particular subjects of MED-NET are interesting to AMSE and why?
As you know, the six topics on which MED-NET has now working groups are the following: Curriculum innovation, Education survey in Europe, Professionalisation of teachers, Postgraduate training, International health, Student exchange within ECTS. All of them are important. However, AMSE is now mainly interested in the first two, since the information exchange on these topics is very active in our meetings and in our Newsletter.
How can AMSE contribute to MED-NET? And, of course, what does AMSE expect from the co-operation with MED-NET?
I would rather say 'what can MED-NET and AMSE together do for the improvement of health professionals?'. However, as an example, AMSE provided MED-NET with its list of Internet addresses of European medical schools, and it turned out that most of them were not already known by MED-NET. Furthermore, AMSE is now actively collaborating in the preparation of a medical education survey in Europe, to be presented at the next MED-NET congress which will be held in Lille on 15 and 16 May 1998.
Which topics do you think are important for MED-NET to work on?
AMSE has already proposed some topics on which MED-NET should work in the future. They include a relationship with medical schools of Central and Eastern Europe countries which at the moment are not in the European Union. Another important topic is the relationship between (health) Economy and Medical Education.
What is your personal opinion on the future of MED-NET?
MED-NET was able to start because Socrates accepted to support financially this thematic network. As I mentioned above, the persons representing their faculties or organisations in MED-NET are selected people. However, I think the future of MED-NET depends on the ability of MED-NET to find further financial support, but we are lucky to have two general co-ordinators very skilled in this field. Therefore, I am rather confident in the future of MED-NET.
First European Thematic Network Forum
October 15 - 16, 1997, Dublin, a report
The first European Forum of the Thematic Networks of the SOCRATES programme had 96 registrants from all but five Thematic Networks (TNPs) and from 21 countries. The other organisations present were, among others, DGXII, CRE and ESMU. The two day forum was divided in an overview of the first year reports, two sessions of the five working groups and the respective discussion, demonstrations and a closing session of recommendations. The five working groups (WGs) were formed after expression of interest from the participants and followed a list of guidelines proposed by DGXII.
The first WG addressed problems and obstacles of TNPs. The key issues were human resources, contracts, institutional commitment, membership commitment, co-funding, merging, activity policy and sustainability. The second WG discussed TNPs and research and focused on relationship between education, training and research, the respective cross-fertilisation, the correspondent feedback, the innovative methods for support of training and mobility and the role of TNPs. The third WG was in charge of the discussion about the ICT and ODL dimension in TNPs and mentioned topics like virtual university, virtual meeting, use of technologies, kiosk idea, interactive databases, standards, lifelong learning and core competencies. The fourth WG debated TNPs and links with society and discussed subjects like the interaction between TNPs and social problems, intercultural cross-fertilisation, employability and economic and social development. The fifth WG dedicated its time to linking TNPs and discussed the use of ICT and WWW, the role of Continuing Education and the utilisation of joint TNP proposals.
The conclusions from the WGs and from the global debates that followed had many recommendations and left several questions unanswered. There are however some general ideas that are worth referring to. These are:
- a structured information about TNPs programs and activities is desired;
- joint projects and other links between TNPs are useful and welcome;
- ICT and ODL activities should be encouraged;
- links between the outside and the TNPs must be developed;
- TNPs have a future if properly organised.
MED-NET homepage: med-net.nl
Although still under construction the MED-NET homepage will soon be accessible on the following address: med-net.nl. The homepage offers to teachers, students and faculty officials a number of facilities:
News
This sections contains up to date reports concerning MED-NET activities. The news-letter gives recently published information, whereas earlier published information can be found in the archive. Announcements and reports from the various reference groups are available under:
- education survey
- curriculum innovation
- professionalisation of teachers
- student exchange with ECTS
- post-graduate education
- international health
Kiosk
Many faculties of medicine develop new education products ranging from video-tapes, software for computer supported training to multimedia products (CD-roms) and simulation programs. Also on the market an increasing number of education software is presented by commercial publishers. The MED-NET kiosk is meant to provide the medical faculties and teachers a new facility to sell, buy and evaluate these new products. MED-NET organises for each offered product a review by an international team of experts. Also products are evaluated by the users.
Congresses
On these pages the congresses organised by MED-NET is presented. The pages show the programme and proceedings of the yearly conference. Besides the MED-NET conference, other relevant congresses may also be announced, either via direct presentations or through a link to the specific home-page.
Café
The café is a public chatbox. Anyone who wants to say or ask something can speak freely. There are special 'private' places in the café for students, teachers and specialists. Here general discussions on topics in medical education may take place, or discussions about a case presented by one of the reference groups. The main function of the café is to bring together students and teachers wishing to study or work in faculties abroad, and medical faculties offering fellowships, practical periods, and/or visiting positions.
Educational Services
Through the MED-NET homepage the visitor can be connected with all medical schools and faculties who have a site on internet. Also an increasing number of hospitals is linked to the MED-NET homepage. The specific information is complete, up to date and correct. The database is geographically oriented.
External quality assessment in medical education
Quality Assessment becomes an important item in medical education. On October 20-21 1997 the Workshop "The Assessment of Medical Education" was organised in Paris by the European Network of Quality Assessment Agencies. The workshop was attended by representatives from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom and USA. Up to now quality of education is mainly assessed internally in the medical schools in Europe. In some countries however, it is assessed externally by national visitation committees. The state of affairs at the moment in Europe is that external assessment of one or more institutions of medical education has been completed in Denmark, The Netherlands and Scotland. Pilots with a single institution were completed in Sweden and Finland. Some countries are just starting with external assessment:
Portugal, Spain, Austria and France. All active national evaluation centres were represented at the workshop.
Central questions for discussion were:
- Does a need for European accreditation of medical education exist?
- Is it possible to develop an international instrument for external quality assessment of medical education?
- In which ways can we cooperate?
- Would it be useful to compile an international program review of medical education?
In general it was concluded that there is no need for European accreditation of medical education. Although it is possible for European physicians to work everywhere in the European Union it was concluded that there are too many obstacles to realise many "emigrations" of physicians in the European Union. The representatives of the national agencies present, with subsequent national regulations, did not see the necessity of international European accreditation. It would be better to look for closer co-operation in assessment and in the development of proper national systems.
Examples of co-operation were:
- Making national reports internationally available by translating them into English
- Mutual exchange of experts, as in the case of Austria where two non-Austrian members of the European Network of Quality Assessment Agencies will join the national assessment committee
- Exchange of experiences as discussed at the workshop
- The possibility to organise an international program review with some medical schools should be investigated. There was interest in these matters from Finland, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
During the workshop MED-NET was presented as an information network. Our interest in quality assessment was expressed, but not leading to accreditation in Europe. International peer reviewing can only be done with medical schools on a voluntary basis.
Professionalisation of teachers
At the beginning of March the reference group on professionalisation of teachers sent a short inquiry to all MED-NET members and associated members. The response hitherto was high (40%). The results of the inquiry will be presented at the second MED-NET conference. If you have not yet filled in the inquiry please do so within the next weeks.
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