Department of Medical Education

The mission of the DME is to advance the theory and practice of health professions education with the ultimate goal of improving the care of patients. We achieve this mission locally, nationally, and around the world, through cutting-edge research in education and related disciplines, through outstanding educational programs that develop leaders and scholars, and through expert collaboration, consultation, and service with the University of Illinois College of Medicine, the University of Illinois System, and other organizations.

In 2019, DME celebrates our 60-year landmark. The Summer of 2019 marks our 20th year of our Master of Health Professions Education annual conference. DME is the oldest continuously operating department devoted to medical education. Advances made by our department over the past 60 years are reflected in curriculum and evaluation, instruction, assessment, medical humanities, clinical reasoning and decision making, and patient safety and leadership.

George R. Miller, MD | Founder of the Department of Medical Education (1987-)

Formerly the Center for Educational Development (1970-87), and the Office of Research in Medical Education (1959-70)

“…no single assessment method can provide all the data required for judgment of anything so complex as the delivery of professional services by a successful physician. And so let me begin by suggesting a framework within which that assessment might occur.

Does – Shows How – Knows How – Knows.” (aka Miller’s Pyramid) (Miller, 1990)

Christine H. McGuire-Masserman, MA | Professor

“I sat down with Fellows from the Heart Association, and I said: When a patient comes in to see you and says, I hurt, what is the first thing you do?…. I tried to make them talk about what were the differences that led them to say one thing or the other, and out of that we made management problems.” (McGuire, in Harris & Simpson, 2005)

“[Patient Management Problems (PMPs), objective written simulations of clinical problem solving,] for over 25 years played a major role in certifying examinations not only in medical schools and specialty boards, but also in many other health professions.” (McGuire, 1995)

Arthur S. Elstein, PhD | Professor Emeritus

“… the single most critical factor […] is the phenomenon of case specificity of performance. […] The performance of individual physicians varies considerably from case to case. Thus it is difficult to speak of good physicians without specifying the domain of problems for which they are good. […] The differences between experts and weaker problem solvers are more to be found in the repertory of their experiences, organized in long-term memory, than in differences in the planning and problem-solving heuristics employed.” (Elstein, Shulman & Sprafka, 1978)

Georges Bordage, MD, MSc, PhD | Professor Emeritus

“Measurement of competence might be more valid if each problem focused on a few specific and highly relevant elements critical to the resolution of the problem: its key features. Scoring criteria could then be defined which reflect performance on only this limited number of key features. […] The best estimates of the number of problems required come from analyses of PMP examinations….” (Bordage & Page, 1987)

“How specific is case specificity? The main source of error variance was items [questions] within cases, not cases, and the optimal strategy in terms of enhancing reliability would use cases with 2–3 items [key features] per case.” (Norman, Bordage, Page & Keane, 2006)

References:

• Miller GE. The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Academic Medicine. 1990 Sep 1; 65(9):S63–7.
• Harris IB, Simpson D. Christine McGuire: At the heart of the maverick measurement maven. Advances in Health Sciences Education. 2005 Mar 1; 10(1):65–80.
• McGuire CH. Reflections of a maverick measurement maven. JAMA. 1995 Sep 6; 274(9):735–40.
• Elstein AS, Shulman LS, Sprafka SA. Medical Problem Solving: An Analysis of Clinical Reasoning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978.
• Bordage G, Page G. An alternative approach to PMPs: The “Key Features” Concept. In Hart IR, Harden RM (Eds.), Further Developments in Assessing Clinical Competence. Montreal: Can-Heal Publications 1987; 57–75.
• Norman G, Bordage G, Page G, Keane D. How specific is case specificity? Medical Education. 2006 Jul; 40(7):618–23.