Must Reads

What is a ‘Must Read’ for those interested in medical education?

Each month, we identify 3-4 noteworthy articles from the health professions education literature and label them as “must reads.” Selection is based on several criteria including originality and methodological rigor. Our process includes a formal search of the peer-reviewed literature, screening titles and abstracts, full text review, and an editorial meeting to achieve consensus.

Who are we and why are we doing this?

Our reviewers include individuals with expertise in teaching, educational oversight, and research as well as those who are beginning their careers as educational scholars.

The volume of health professions education articles has become overwhelming. In curating some of the best new published papers, we hope to make it easier for all of us to keep abreast of cutting edge educational scholarship and practices.

We’d welcome involvement in the selection process. Reviewers can earn CME credit and contribute to Must Reads research. If you are interested in supporting this work or have perspectives to share, please email Sean Tackett: stacket1@jhmi.edu.

You can also follow @MedEdMustReads on X (aka Twitter) to be notified when new must read articles are selected and sign up to receive an email each month.

(Current Reviewers: Kara Alcegueire, Paul Bain, Kavita Chapla, Scott Kinkade, Pranav Kotamraju, Viviane Liao, Erica Lin, Liju Mathew, Pallavi Menon, Amin Nakhostin-Ansari, Ashley Paul, Julianne Perretta, Katherine Senko, Julia Shalen, Sean Tackett, Scott Wright)

Featured This Month

The effect of spaced repetition on learning and knowledge transfer in a large cohort of practicing physicians
Academic Medicine: D. W. Price, T. Wang, T. R. O'Neill, Z. J. Morgan, P. Chodavarapu, A. Bazemore, L. E. Peterson, and W. P. Newton
The Gist
• Prospective, randomized, controlled cohort study including almost 20 thousand U.S. family physicians to evaluate spaced repetition of test items.
• Spaced repetition led to better retention after 18 months and performance on new items at 30 months.
Why This is a Must Read

Spaced repetition and testing effect are proven to enhance learning, but are not routinely applied in medical education. This study adds high quality evidence to support these strategies and may compel their use more broadly.

Empowering third-year medical students to detect bias and medical misinformation online via experiential learning of “lateral reading,” a fact-checker’s technique
Teaching and Learning in Medicine: Z. J. McKinney, K. M. Tessier, Z. R. Shaheen, G. Schwitzer, A. P. J. Olson, J. M. Scheurer, and K. M. Krohn
The Gist
• Curriculum description where medical students learn “lateral reading,” a technique where one first investigates authors, sponsors, and sources of an article before reading the article itself.
• Participants found a target article published by a biased source to be less credible after applying lateral reading.
Why This is a Must Read

Good health depends on good information, but it’s not always easy to tell which sources to trust. This article offers a model for helping learners practice media literacy methods that can be implemented by others.

From constructive to critical and everywhere in between: Education leaders’ decision-making related to harsh feedback from learners about their teachers
Advances in Health Sciences Education: K. Wisener, E. Driessen, A. Tan, C. Cuncic, and K. Eva
The Gist
• Interviews of education leaders on how they interpret negative feedback prior to sharing with teachers.
• Leaders struggled to balance the interests of learners, teachers, and the program when presented with highly critical comments.
Why This is a Must Read

Feedback is essential to improvement, and students have a valuable perspective to offer. This study describes complexities in handling harsh feedback and highlights the need to ensure feedback is constructive and actionable.

Featured

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Medical Education: A. Bennett-Weston, S. Gay, and E. S. Anderson
Reflecting on the spectrum of involvement: How do we involve patients as partners in education?
The Gist
• Case study with interviews and focus groups including patients, educators, and students to describe patient partnerships in healthcare education.
• Described 3 themes: (1) equality is not necessary for effective partnership, (2) partnership means feeling valued, and (3) value can be shown multiple ways.
WHY THIS IS A MUST READ

Patient perspectives should be represented throughout healthcare. This study integrated multiple points of view to propose a “Wheel of Patient Partnerships” to guide patient involvement in health professions education.

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Medical Teacher: A. L. Blaschke, A. Hapfelmeier, H. P. K. Rubisch, P. O. Berberat, and M. Gartmeier
Structure and quality of bedside teaching: A videographic analysis
The Gist
• Surveys of students and teachers combined with data from videos of bedside teaching encounters.
• Smaller groups, more time, and teacher motivation (not teacher experience) were correlated with ratings of quality by students.
WHY THIS IS A MUST READ

Bedside teaching is a mainstay of high-quality clinical instruction. This study suggests approaches that may improve student perceptions and experiences.

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Medical Education: T. R. Wyatt and E. I. de Oliveira Vidal
The social construction of time and its influence on medical education
The GIst
• Commentary comparing perspectives of time in the U.S. and Brazil.
• Contrasts “clock time” – linear and measured objectively - with “event time” – flexible and subjective – and considers implications for medical education.
WHY THIS IS A MUST READ

Time is not experienced the same way by everyone. This article prompts us to be more thoughtful and intentional in how we manage time in medical education and practice.

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JAMA: B. M. Gray, J. L. Vandergrift, J. P. Stevens, R. S. Lipner, F. S. McDonald, and B. E. Landon
Associations of internal medicine residency milestone ratings and certification examination scores with patient outcomes
The GIst
• Analysis of 6,898 hospitalists across 455,120 admissions over 3 years in the U.S. to determine if board certification scores and ACGME milestone ratings related to inpatient outcomes.
• Board exam scores, not milestones ratings, were associated with improved patient outcomes.
WHY THIS IS A MUST READ

Attempts to tie medical education to patient outcomes on a national scale are rare. This study supports that a broad knowledge base – reflected in standardized exams - is important in clinical care and shows complexity in using milestone ratings as measures of overall clinical competency.

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Medical Education: M. Bearman, M. Dracup, R. Ajjawi, C. Kirby, and J. Brown
Feedback, learning, and becoming: Narratives of feedback in complex performance challenges
The GIst
• Interviews of 16 recently graduated general practitioners to identify narratives during difficult learning scenarios.
• Describes 4 common plotlines: (1) Journeyperson, (2) Hero’s Quest, (3) Solo Journeyer, and (4) Endless Struggle.
WHY THIS IS A MUST READ

We tell ourselves stories all the time. This study provides frameworks for how educators can understand where they fit into learners’ stories and provide appropriate support and feedback.

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Teaching and Learning in Medicine: W. H. Eidtson, A. Konopasky, J. Fong, K. E. Schmitt, L. Foster-Johnson, and V. T. Lyons
Are pre-clerkship remediation, grading, and reporting practices equitable in the U.S.? A national survey
The GIst
• Survey of U.S. pre-clerkship curriculum deans to describe grading and remediation policies.
• Grading and remediation practices varied and were inconsistently reported to residency programs.
WHY THIS IS A MUST READ

Fairness in assessment is important to protect the interests of medical learners and the public. This study found that some schools may not be reporting on student performance transparently, which may result in unfair judgments and suggests reform is needed.