September 2021: MedEdPORTAL? Update

MedEdPORTAL™ and ADEA invite educators to submit stand-alone teaching or learning modules that have been tested in the classroom, preclinical laboratory or clinic educational materials that aim to improve patient care. The learners must include training or practicing physicians or dentists (e.g., professional school, residency, faculty development, continuing professional development) and may include trainees or practitioners across the health professions.

The vision of MedEdPORTAL is to:

• Serve as the premier clearinghouse of high-quality, peer-reviewed health education tools,
• Promote interprofessional collaboration by facilitating the open exchange of educational resources across the health professions and
• Equip health professionals across the continuum with effective and efficient educational resources to improve patient care.

Special Collections
In addition to general submissions focused on dental and medical education, MedEdPORTAL invites authors to submit their works for publication to the following Special Collections:

Call for Submissions: Emerging Didactic and Clinical Technologies in Dental Education Collection
The number of emerging technologies that have the potential to improve educational delivery and patient care in dental medicine is expanding at a rapid rate. Academic dentistry should be leading efforts to advance clinically focused teaching and promote research into innovations intended to improve patient outcomes. Some examples include genomic dental medicine, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, advanced diagnostic technologies, classroom learning technologies, virtual reality, computer-assisted design/computer-assisted manufacturing, robotics, digital treatment planning, emerging technologic approaches to disease diagnosis and management, electronic health record advances and artificial intelligence. Incorporating these emerging didactic and clinical technologies into the classroom is critical to the education of future dentists.

For questions related to this Call for Submissions, please contact Paul C. Edwards, D.D.S., M.Sc., MedEdPORTAL Associate Editor, at pcedward@iu.edu.

Call for Submissions: Telehealth Education
Telehealth is defined as the use of electronic communications technology to provide care at a distance, including patient portals, eConsults, video visits and remote patient monitoring. As health systems increasingly use telehealth to provide care delivery, it is important to disseminate best practices across the field, promoting their integration into training and curricula across the continuum. MedEdPORTAL invites generalizable teaching and learning activities with a focus on telehealth education.

Featured MedEdPORTAL Publications
Highlights of recent MedEdPORTAL publications of interest to the dental education community. These resources, selected by MedEdPORTAL’s Associate Editor for ADEA, Paul C. Edwards, cover a range of topics published as stand-alone teaching or learning modules that have been implemented and evaluated in health education settings.

Human Papillomavirus Knowledge and Communication Skills: A Role-Play Activity for Providers
Theresa M. Fiorito, M.D., M.S., Leonard R. Krilov, M.D., Jeannine Nonaillada, Ph.D., OTR/L

Despite availability of a safe and effective vaccine (Gardasil-9) to protect against infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), sexually transmitted infection with high-risk HPV remains a significant source of morbidity and mortality. High-risk HPV infection is estimated to cause 36,000 cancers annually in the United States, including cervical, anal, vulvar and oropharyngeal carcinomas. Discussing this vaccine with parents of young children can be challenging for clinicians. As noted by the authors, barriers to vaccination include parental beliefs, physician knowledge of HPV-associated disease and vaccines, and provider comfort levels with discussing sexually transmitted diseases. The authors describe the implementation of an interactive workshop in which participants participate in role-play sessions as both concerned parent and provider to practice communication skills in promoting HPV vaccination.

This educational module includes a full complement of resources needed to implement this workshop in the health care setting, including a detailed set of facilitator instructions, role-play scripts with assessment rubrics, a PowerPoint slide deck overview of HPV disease and vaccination education, and pre- and postworkshop self-assessments with answer keys.

Just Culture for Medical Students: Understanding Response to Providers in Adverse Events
Brijen J. Shah, M.D., Bonnie Portnoy, RN, Dennis Chang, M.D., Marc Napp, M.D.

In the health care setting, a just culture approach to managing medical errors seeks to create a system that encourages individuals to report errors to identify and address systemic failings and improve outcomes by examining the roles of personal choices and sociotechnical systems that lead to preventable adverse events. The authors describe the implementation of a small-group, discussion-based learning activity for health care professions students comprising three main components: a presession case-based survey, a didactic lecture and a facilitated small-group discussion. This activity provides health care professions students an opportunity to apply just culture concepts and engage in discussion about the complexity of these topics. Topics covered included the concept of just culture; an overview of human error, at-risk behavior and reckless behavior; and a review of appropriate responses to those errors and behaviors. 

This educational module includes a slide deck that provides an overview of just culture, defines the attributes of high-reliability organizations and outlines the differences between at-risk reckless behavior and human error cases, a detailed facilitator guide, and five cases that include case-specific questions to facilitate participant discussion.

Foundational Telemedicine Workshop for First-year Medical Students Developed During a Pandemic
Susannah Cornes, M.D., Jeffrey M. Gelfand, M.D., Brook Calton, M.D., M.H.S.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid increase in the use of telemedicine, relatively few published foundational curricular resources on this modality are available. The authors describe the development of a telemedicine workshop that introduces preclinical learners to telemedicine communication, history, and physical examination techniques. The workshop comprises foundational skills-building opportunities that are outside of the traditional simulation approach, and includes a didactic introduction to telemedicine, provides video communication and examination exemplars, and provides participants with the opportunity to practice physical examination skills with peers through role-play. 

Resources to facilitate implementation of this foundational curriculum include a detailed facilitator guide that includes presession readings and multimedia resources, a student session guide with a series of guided questions, presession reading materials and other relevant literature, a telemedicine encounter checklist that summarizes best practices during telemedicine consultations, exemplar videos highlighting how to start a telemedicine encounter and how to conduct a physical examination remotely, and a series of peer role-play scenarios to enable participants to integrate this material into practice.

MedEdPORTAL is a peer-reviewed journal of teaching and learning resources in the health professions published by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in partnership with the American Dental Education Association.

Published on Sept. 8, 2021