MedEd Insights

What happens before a medical student fails? Medical education has become increasingly adept at identifying learners at risk for poor outcomes on high-stakes exams like USMLE Step 1. But far less attention has been paid to how, or when, institutions should intervene. In this episode of MedEd Insights , we speak with Dr. Meghan Kiefer, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington...

Medical exams are often judged by one gold standard: reliability. More questions, higher precision, stronger defensibility. But what if that metric is optimized for the wrong goal? In this episode of MedEd Insights , host Shankar speaks with Dr. Schauber, Associate Professor of Health Professions Education at the University of Oslo, about a deceptively simple question: If most medical exams are pa...

What happens when doctors stop standing, and start lying in the bed? In this immersive episode of MedEd Insights, we speak with David Engelhard, Director of the Topcare Foundation in the Netherlands, about a striking experiment in medical education: using virtual reality to turn healthcare professionals into patients. Based on his qualitative study, “ You are shaken awake! ” , this conversation ex...

Imposter syndrome has long been framed as a personal flaw, an inner voice whispering that we don’t belong. But what if those doubts aren’t coming from within, but from the system itself? In this episode of MedEd Insights , we speak with Dr. LaDonna, first author of Introducing the intruder paradox: "It's not the imposter syndrome, it's you don't want me in the field" , to exp...

Can AI make letters of recommendation stronger, fairer, and less burdensome? Dr. Deborah Bartz joins MedEd Insights to discuss her team’s pioneering framework for integrating generative AI into LOR writing. Together, we unpack the “why” behind this movement, the “how” of practical workflows, and the “what next” of ethical safeguards and future platforms. This episode is about more than technology;...

Why do some trainees speak out while others stay silent -- and how does resistance evolve over time? In this episode of MedEd Insights , we sit down with Dr. Tasha Wyatt to explore her powerful study, “Stoking the fires of professional resistance: Trainees' efforts across time.” Drawing on rich, longitudinal interviews, Dr. Wyatt reveals how advocacy in medical training is not always loud or v...

In this episode of MedEd Insights , we sit down with a fourth-year medical student from the University of Chicago to dive into OrthoACCESS 2.0, a national orthopaedic surgery curriculum reimagined through a flipped-classroom blended learning model. Recently published in the Journal of Surgical Education , this initiative aims to modernize and standardize how musculoskeletal education is delivered...

In the second episode of MedEd Insights, we sit down with Juliana Magro, a librarian from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, to delve into her recent publication on the integration of Anki flashcards into the undergraduate medical pharmacology curriculum. Her study involved implementing 501 faculty-generated pharmacology flashcards across five modules for 104 first-year medical students, aiming to e...

In this thought-provoking episode, we sit down with a Yale orthopedic resident who recently authored a groundbreaking study examining how medical students learn and study in today’s fast-paced environment. We delve into the key findings of his research, which highlights differences between traditional medical curricula and the evolving needs of students. Join us as we explore innovative strategies...