EDITORIALS 13 Speeckaert MM, Wehlou C, Vandewalle S, Taes YE, Robberecht E, Delanghe JR. Vitamin D binding protein, a new nutritional marker in cystic fibrosis patients. Clin Chem Lab Med 2008;46: 365–370. 14 Heaney RP, French CB, Nguyen S, Ferreira M, Baggerly LL, Brunel L, Veugelers P. A novel approach localizes the association of vitamin D status with insulin resistance to one region of the 25-hydroxyvitamin D continuum. Adv Nutr 2013;4:303–310.
Editors’ Introduction to ATS Reports: Medical Education The teaching of medicine, like the practice of medicine, has become more complex. Educational outcomes, like clinical outcomes, are under scrutiny by social, governmental, industry, and financial stakeholders. An alphabet soup of accreditation agencies have imposed detailed regulatory requirements on undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. Educational research is coming of age with accumulating empiric data on effective pedagogy. Technologies such as simulation are becoming standard for training and assessment. Medical school, residency, and fellowship curricula around the country are under revision, trying to adapt to a medical future that remains shrouded in mystery. Education has long been central to the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and its members. Education is the primary tool through which the Society advances its mission “To improve health worldwide by advancing research, clinical care, and public health in respiratory disease, critical illness, and sleep disorders.” This finds expression through the annual International Conference; Methods for Epidemiologic, Clinical, and Operations Research (MECOR) and State of the Art courses; and sponsorship of hundreds of other CME courses. Patient education is provided through the Patient Information Series in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. At least four standing committees of the ATS (Education, Patient and Family Education, Training, and Members in Training and Transition) are devoted to educational issues and projects, as is a large portion of the ATS website. This attention and these services are driven by the needs of the membership. In a detailed 2003 survey of the ATS membership, 69% of the responding members reported that teaching was their primary or secondary activity (and principal work activity for 5%)
15 Hall WB, Sparks AA, Aris RM. Vitamin D deficiency in cystic fibrosis [accessed 1 Jan 2014]. 2010. Available from: http://www.hindawi. com/journals/ije/2010/218691/ 16 Abrams SA. Vitamin D requirements of children: “all my life’s a circle”. Nutr Rev 2012;70:201–206. Copyright © 2014 by the American Thoracic Society
(1). Today, more than ever, there is a growing body of knowledge and skills that define the professional medical educator. As criteria for performance-based compensation and promotion for teaching have become more formalized and pervasive (2, 3), the need for additional professional development as educators has increased. Indeed, as healthcare providers and researchers, we are all teachers. This is even reflected in the title of “doctor,” derived from the Latin docēre, to teach. However, it is clearly recognized that we must move beyond “See one, do one, teach one,” which naively assumes we are all automatically qualified and effective teachers. How are we to learn to do this, and do it well, in our modern environment of changing expectations and rising demands? As with any field of medicine or science, we may initially consult the literature. However, this approach could prove challenging. A PubMed title search on “education” returned approximately 10,000 papers from the last 3 years alone. As shown in Figure 1, the annual rate of publication with this title word remained relatively stable for many years, and then began a linear rise around 2004 (immediately following new regulations from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education). If one focuses on publications with “medical education” in the title, the search is somewhat less intimidating, with merely 1,400 publications (and approximately a half-dozen journals dedicated to medical education) in the past 3 years. However, if one focuses further on “education” and “pulmonary,” “critical care,” or “sleep,” the volume of literature contracts starkly. From the more than 52,000 education papers in the past 25 years, a mere 904 address our field. To us, this identifies a need. This recurring series of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, ATS Reports: Medical Education, offers a solution. The series launches in this issue with a fitting topic: how to achieve academic career success as a medical educator. This is a pathway that, historically, has been a challenging way to advance in many research-oriented institutions. Roberts, Schwartzstein, and Weinberger (pp. 254–259) do not minimize the challenges, but they provide practical advice to maximize success for faculty who want to make education the cornerstone of their careers (4). We welcome the submission of high-quality, scholarly works in the field of education in pulmonary and critical care medicine. This includes topical reviews, educational research, or scholarly descriptions of new educational methods. This will provide a forum for the medical educators of the Society—that is all of us—to share ideas and techniques that will keep us at the cutting edges of both medicine and its teaching. Author disclosures are available with the text of this article at www.atsjournals.org.
Figure 1. Annual publications from PubMed search on the title term “education” from 1988–2012.
222
Henry E. Fessler, M.D. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, Maryland
AnnalsATS Volume 11 Number 2 | February 2014
EDITORIALS Tao Le, M.D., M.H.S. University of Louisville School of Medicine Louisville, Kentucky David H. Roberts, M.D. Harvard Medical School Cambridge, Massachusetts
References 1 Schnapp LM, Matosian M, Weisman I, Welsh CH; The American Thoracic Society Membership. A snapshot of pulmonary medicine at the turn of the century: the American Thoracic Society membership. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2003;167:1176–1180.
Editorials
2 Atasoylu AA, Wright SM, Beasley BW, Cofrancesco J Jr, Macpherson DS, Partridge T, Thomas PA, Bass EB. Promotion criteria for clinician-educators. J Gen Intern Med 2003;18:711–716. 3 Tarquinio GT, Dittus RS, Byrne DW, Kaiser A, Neilson EG. Effects of performance-based compensation and faculty track on the clinical activity, research portfolio, and teaching mission of a large academic department of medicine. Acad Med 2003;78: 690–701. 4 Roberts DH, Schwartzstein RM, Weinberger SE. Career development for the clinician-educator: optimizing impact and maximizing success. Ann Am Thorac Soc 2014;11:254–259. Copyright © 2014 by the American Thoracic Society
223
Editors’ Introduction to ATS Reports: Medical Education The teaching of medicine, like the practice of medicine, has become more complex. Educational outcomes, like clinical outcomes, are under scrutiny by social, governmental, industry, and financial stakeholders. An alphabet soup of accreditation agencies have imposed detailed regulatory requirements on undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. Educational research is coming of age with accumulating empiric data on effective pedagogy. Technologies such as simulation are becoming standard for training and assessment. Medical school, residency, and fellowship curricula around the country are under revision, trying to adapt to a medical future that remains shrouded in mystery. Education has long been central to the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and its members. Education is the primary tool through which the Society advances its mission “To improve health worldwide by advancing research, clinical care, and public health in respiratory disease, critical illness, and sleep disorders.” This finds expression through the annual International Conference; Methods for Epidemiologic, Clinical, and Operations Research (MECOR) and State of the Art courses; and sponsorship of hundreds of other CME courses. Patient education is provided through the Patient Information Series in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. At least four standing committees of the ATS (Education, Patient and Family Education, Training, and Members in Training and Transition) are devoted to educational issues and projects, as is a large portion of the ATS website. This attention and these services are driven by the needs of the membership. In a detailed 2003 survey of the ATS membership, 69% of the responding members reported that teaching was their primary or secondary activity (and principal work activity for 5%)
15 Hall WB, Sparks AA, Aris RM. Vitamin D deficiency in cystic fibrosis [accessed 1 Jan 2014]. 2010. Available from: http://www.hindawi. com/journals/ije/2010/218691/ 16 Abrams SA. Vitamin D requirements of children: “all my life’s a circle”. Nutr Rev 2012;70:201–206. Copyright © 2014 by the American Thoracic Society
(1). Today, more than ever, there is a growing body of knowledge and skills that define the professional medical educator. As criteria for performance-based compensation and promotion for teaching have become more formalized and pervasive (2, 3), the need for additional professional development as educators has increased. Indeed, as healthcare providers and researchers, we are all teachers. This is even reflected in the title of “doctor,” derived from the Latin docēre, to teach. However, it is clearly recognized that we must move beyond “See one, do one, teach one,” which naively assumes we are all automatically qualified and effective teachers. How are we to learn to do this, and do it well, in our modern environment of changing expectations and rising demands? As with any field of medicine or science, we may initially consult the literature. However, this approach could prove challenging. A PubMed title search on “education” returned approximately 10,000 papers from the last 3 years alone. As shown in Figure 1, the annual rate of publication with this title word remained relatively stable for many years, and then began a linear rise around 2004 (immediately following new regulations from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education). If one focuses on publications with “medical education” in the title, the search is somewhat less intimidating, with merely 1,400 publications (and approximately a half-dozen journals dedicated to medical education) in the past 3 years. However, if one focuses further on “education” and “pulmonary,” “critical care,” or “sleep,” the volume of literature contracts starkly. From the more than 52,000 education papers in the past 25 years, a mere 904 address our field. To us, this identifies a need. This recurring series of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, ATS Reports: Medical Education, offers a solution. The series launches in this issue with a fitting topic: how to achieve academic career success as a medical educator. This is a pathway that, historically, has been a challenging way to advance in many research-oriented institutions. Roberts, Schwartzstein, and Weinberger (pp. 254–259) do not minimize the challenges, but they provide practical advice to maximize success for faculty who want to make education the cornerstone of their careers (4). We welcome the submission of high-quality, scholarly works in the field of education in pulmonary and critical care medicine. This includes topical reviews, educational research, or scholarly descriptions of new educational methods. This will provide a forum for the medical educators of the Society—that is all of us—to share ideas and techniques that will keep us at the cutting edges of both medicine and its teaching. Author disclosures are available with the text of this article at www.atsjournals.org.
Figure 1. Annual publications from PubMed search on the title term “education” from 1988–2012.
222
Henry E. Fessler, M.D. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, Maryland
AnnalsATS Volume 11 Number 2 | February 2014
EDITORIALS Tao Le, M.D., M.H.S. University of Louisville School of Medicine Louisville, Kentucky David H. Roberts, M.D. Harvard Medical School Cambridge, Massachusetts
References 1 Schnapp LM, Matosian M, Weisman I, Welsh CH; The American Thoracic Society Membership. A snapshot of pulmonary medicine at the turn of the century: the American Thoracic Society membership. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2003;167:1176–1180.
Editorials
2 Atasoylu AA, Wright SM, Beasley BW, Cofrancesco J Jr, Macpherson DS, Partridge T, Thomas PA, Bass EB. Promotion criteria for clinician-educators. J Gen Intern Med 2003;18:711–716. 3 Tarquinio GT, Dittus RS, Byrne DW, Kaiser A, Neilson EG. Effects of performance-based compensation and faculty track on the clinical activity, research portfolio, and teaching mission of a large academic department of medicine. Acad Med 2003;78: 690–701. 4 Roberts DH, Schwartzstein RM, Weinberger SE. Career development for the clinician-educator: optimizing impact and maximizing success. Ann Am Thorac Soc 2014;11:254–259. Copyright © 2014 by the American Thoracic Society
223
