MEdIC Series: The Case of the Cackling Consulting Resident

Welcome to season 3, episode 3 of the ALiEM Medical Education in Cases (MEdIC) series! Our team (Brent Thoma, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Tamara McColl, Eve Purdy, and Teresa Chan) is pleased to welcome you to our online community of practice where we discuss difficult medical education cases each month. As usual, the community discussion will be reviewed using qualitative research methods to produce a curated summary that will be combined with two expert responses to create a functional teaching resource.

This month’s case features a problem that educators face when interacting with off-service residents. What is the role of an attending on one service when dealing with residents providing care from another discipline? Does it take a whole village to raise a resident? Please read the case and join in the discussion below!

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By Eve Purdy, BHSc MD|2017-01-20T12:30:40-08:00Dec 4, 2015|MEdIC series|

ALiEM Bookclub: Beyond the ED – Recommendations by Dr. Shannon McNamara

As a busy Emergency Physician, I find that I am always happier when I have a mystery novel to read during my free time. I’ve been a mystery fan since I was a kid, growing up on Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown. Below I’d like to share some of my favorites. These authors are chosen for quality and readability with a preference for the prolific. If you like one of their books, you will likely find ten more.

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By Shannon McNamara, MD|2026-06-16T16:08:21-07:00Nov 20, 2015|Book Club|

ALIEM Bookclub – Let Me Heal: The Opportunity to Preserve Excellence in American Medicine

As a practicing Emergency Medicine physician, I have spent almost the last decade of my life immersed in a culture of medical education. Actually, not quite accurate, as I have spent my life since middle school years either studying for one standardized test to another, or buffing my CV with medical related volunteering experiences in pursuit of my medical aspirations. Even prior to beginning medical school, I was drawn to the culture of medicine, what I saw as a commitment to altruism, and dedication to preserving patient health and quality of life.

In my actual training, most apparent during those grueling residency years, I was exposed to another culture of medicine; this period of my life was composed of fatigue, imposter syndrome, fear that my actions or ineptitude could directly cause patient harm or death. These emotions and feeling were just as present as my desire to heal and serve. I know that my experience is not unique, but what I didn’t know was the fascinating history of how this culture of medicine, and medical education has evolved since before the original establishment of residency education at Johns Hopkins in 1889. As the famous quote states, “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”, which underlies the importance of reading and reflecting upon Let Me Heal: The Opportunity to Preserve Excellence in American Medicine by Dr. Kenneth M. Ludmerer [Link].

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2018-01-30T01:57:04-08:00Nov 17, 2015|Book Club, Medical Education|

The quality checklists for health professions blogs and podcasts

The use of blogs and podcasts within health professions education is rapidly increasing, especially among emergency medicine and critical care learners [1-5]. However, there are no standardized quality assessment methods for the learners and educators that use and produce them. This dilemma led the MedEdLife Research Collaborative to launch a research agenda with the goal of developing a tool to assess the quality of blogs and podcasts. This was done through the series of studies that are presented in this blog.

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By Quinten Paterson|2026-06-16T16:08:06-07:00Nov 12, 2015|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

MEdIC Series | Case of the Patient with a No Learner Policy – Expert Review and Curated Commentary

Last week, we launched the second case of the ALiEM MEdIC series third season. The Case of the Patient with a No Learner Policy hit close to home for some of our regular contributors and many new ones. We are proud to present the Curated Community Commentary of the case discussion along with the opinion of our 2 experts. Thank-you again to all our experts and participants for contributing again this week to the MEdIC series.

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By Brent Thoma, MD MA|2020-04-20T19:48:13-07:00Nov 6, 2015|MEdIC series|

8 Tips On How To Run An Awesome Works-in-Progress Meeting

Do you have 27 projects up in the air but none of them submitted for publication yet? (Guilty!) Have a great project in the works but can’t get past one sticky detail? (Been there!) Need help navigating a finicky IRB? (Yuck!) CV just looking a little threadbare? (Hangs head in shame.) You need a Works-in-Progress (WIP) meeting!

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By Benjamin Schnapp, MD|2017-05-23T17:01:11-07:00Nov 1, 2015|Expert Peer Review (Non-Clinical), Medical Education|

MEdIC Series | Case of the Patient with a No Learner Policy

Welcome to season 3, episode 2 of the ALiEM Medical Education in Cases (MEdIC) series! Our team (Brent Thoma, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Tamara McColl, Eve Purdy, and Teresa Chan) is pleased to welcome you to our online community of practice where we discuss difficult medical education cases each month. As usual, the community discussion will be reviewed using qualitative research methods to produce a curated summary that will be combined with two expert responses to create a functional teaching resource.

This month’s case features a problem that many of us have seen in our day-to-day practice: a patient with a strict no learner policy who refuses to be assessed by anyone other than the attending physician. With much of the care in teaching hospitals delegated through fellows, residents, and medical students at various stages of training, how would you address this problem? Please read the case and join in the discussion below!

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By Brent Thoma, MD MA|2017-01-20T12:30:39-08:00Oct 30, 2015|MEdIC series|