Inspired by the Harvard Business Review Cases and led by Dr. Teresa Chan (@TChanMD) and Dr. Brent Thoma (@Brent_Thoma), the MEdIC Series puts difficult medical education cases under a microscope. On the fourth Friday of the month we will pose a challenging hypothetical dilemma, moderate a discussion on potential approaches, and recruit medical education experts to provide “Gold Standard” responses. Cases and responses will be made available for download in pdf format – feel free to use them!
Our Purpose
The purpose of the MEdIC series is to create resources that allow you to engage in ‘guerrilla’ faculty development – enticing and engaging individuals who might not have time to attend faculty development workshops to think about challenging cases in medical education. We hope to support our readership’s development by creating Expert Peer Reviewed content featuring prominent thinkers in emergency medicine (and beyond) on key topics.
Want to Submit a Case?
If you’re a medical educator with a pedagogical problem, we want to get you a MEdiC. Send us your most difficult dilemmas (contact us) and help the rest of us to bring our teaching game to the next level.
Click here for the Case Author Guidelines.
Season Five Cases (2017-2018)
Case 5.1: The Case of the Discriminatory Patient Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.2: The Case of the Difficult Debrief Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.3: The Case of the M&M Shame Game Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.4: The Case of the Technology-Challenged Academic Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.5: The Case of the Night Shift Stimulants Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.6: The Case of the Post-Paternity Leave Blues Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.7: The Case of the Orphaned Patient Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.8: The Case of the Case of the Overwhelmed Senior Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 5.9: The Case of the Medication Mishap Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Season Four Cases (2016-2017)
Case 4.1: The Case of the Cognitive Overload Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.2: The Case of the Overly Attentive Attending Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.3: The Case of the Fatiguing Fourth Year Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.4: The Case of the Resident At Risk Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.5: The Case of Shifting Expectations Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.6: The Case of the Lazy Learners Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.7: The Case of the Solo Senior Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.8: The Case of the Failure to Fail Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Case 4.9: The Case of the Competency Conundrum Case Post Wrap Up Post PDF Link
Season Three Cases (2015-2016)
| Case | Original Post | Wrap Up Post | PDF link |
| Case 3.1: The Case of the FOAM promotion | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.2: The Case of the Patient with a No Learner Policy | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.3: The Case of the Cackling Consulting Resident | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.4: The Case of the Awkward Assessors | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.5: The Case of the Catastrophic Classroom | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.6: The Case of the Pimping Physician | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.7 : The Case of the Fibbing First Year | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.8 : The Case of the Terrible Code | Link | Link | |
| Case 3.9: The Case of the Honorary Authorship | Link | Link |
Season Two Cases (2014-2015)
| Case | Original Post | Wrap Up Post | PDF link |
| Case 2.: The Case of the Backroom Blunder | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.: The Case of the Debriefing Debacle | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.: The Case of the Ebola Outbreak Ethics | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.: The Case of the Late Letter | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.: The Case of Breaking Bad News Badly | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.6: The Case of the Returning Traveller | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.7: The Case of the Financial Fiasco | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.8: The Case of the FOAM Faux Pas | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.9: The Case of the Flirtatious Patient | Link | Link | |
| Case 2.1: The Case of the Unseasoned Senior | Link | Link |
Season One Cases (2013-2014)
| Case | Original Post | Wrap Up Post | PDF link |
| Case 1.1: The Case of the Difficult Consult | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.2: The Case of the Facebook Faceplant | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.3: The Case of the Woman in White | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.4: The Case of the New Job Negotiations | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.5: The Case of the Magnificent Mentor | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.6: The Case of the Terrible Teammate | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.7: The Case of the Culture Clash | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.8: The Case of the Not-so-Humorous Humerus | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.9: The Case of the Unexpected Outcome | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.10: The Case of the Exasperated Educator | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.11: The Case of the Justified Junior | Link | Link | |
| Case 1.12: The Case of the Absentee Audience | Link | Link |
Free e-Books: MEdIC Compilations for Seasons 1-4
Check out the free books available for this and more for the ALiEM MEdIC series in the ALiEM Library.
MEdIC News
March 18, 2015 – We are excited to announce that the first ALiEM medical education paper on the ALiEM MEdIC series is now out! Congratulations to Drs. Teresa Chan, Brent Thoma, and Michelle Lin of the MedEdLIFE Research Collaborative for engaging in this form of educational scholarship. Archiving #FOAMed within traditional scholarly avenues such as the prominent journal Academic Medicine is an important step in helping the FOAM community gain academic recognition, and we are happy that some of our ALiEM team have stepped up to help with this.
We are very proud to announce that the ALiEM MEdIC series was selected as a “Top Five What Works” abstract and will be presented from the podium at the International Conference on Residency Education in 2014. Dr. Teresa Chan will represent the ALiEM Team.
On October 25, 2014, Dr. Chan presented the first ALiEM Press production the ALiEM MEdIC E-Book.
Meet Our Team
Series Editors
Tamara McColl, MD FRCPC
Emergency Physician, St. Boniface Hospital, WRHA
Academic Lead, Educational Scholarship
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Manitoba
Latest posts by Tamara McColl, MD FRCPC (see all)
- HOT OFF THE PRESS: Free ALiEM MEdIC Series Book – Volume 5 - August 14, 2020
- MEdIC Series: The Case of the Medication Mishap – Expert Review and Curated Community Commentary - July 20, 2018
- MEdIC Series: The Case of the Medication Mishap - July 6, 2018
Emergency Physician, Hamilton
Associate Professor, McMaster University
Assistant Dean, Program for Faculty Development, McMaster University Ontario, Canada
@TChanMD
Latest posts by Teresa Chan, MD, MHPE (see all)
- The Fall of FOAM - October 19, 2022
- Education Theory Made Practical (Volumes 4 & 5): An ALiEM Faculty Incubator eBook Series - March 2, 2022
- Reading from the Silver Linings Playbook: The ALiEM Connect Project - April 26, 2021
Assistant Editors
S. Luckett-Gatopoulos, MD MSc
McMaster University
Junior Resident Editor, BoringEM.org
Latest posts by S. Luckett-Gatopoulos, MD MSc (see all)
- ALiEM’s Greatest MEdIC Hits for New Academic Faculty: A Curated Collection of 8 Cases - August 4, 2017
- ALiEM’s Greatest MEdIC Hits for New Senior Residents: A Curated Collection of 10 Cases - July 28, 2017
- MEdIC Series | The Case the FOAM Faux Pas – Expert Review and Curated Commentary - May 1, 2015
Eve Purdy, BHSc MD
Student editor at BoringEM.org
Founder of manuetcorde.org
Latest posts by Eve Purdy, BHSc MD (see all)
- ALiEM’s Greatest MEdIC Hits for New Senior Residents: A Curated Collection of 10 Cases - July 28, 2017
- MEdIC Series: The Case of the Fibbing First Year - April 22, 2016
- MEdIC Series | The Case of the Pimping Physician - March 25, 2016
Emergency Medicine Research Director at the University of Saskatchewan
Editor/Author at CanadiEM.org
Latest posts by Brent Thoma, MD MA (see all)
HOT OFF THE PRESS: Free ALiEM MEdIC Series Book – Volume 5
This is a bittersweet moment for the MEdIC Editorial team [+]
HOT OFF THE PRESS | Free ALiEM MEdIC Series Book, Volume 4
It has been more than 5 years since we launched [+]
MEdIC Series: The Case of the Medication Mishap – Expert Review and Curated Community Commentary
Our last case of season 5, The Case of the [+]
MEdIC Series: The Case of the Medication Mishap
Welcome to season 5, episode 9 of the ALiEM Medical Education in [+]
MEdIC Series: The Case of the Overwhelmed Senior Resident – Expert Review and Curated Community Commentary
Our eighth case of season 5, The Case of the [+]
MEdIC Series: The Case of the Overwhelmed Senior Resident
Welcome to season 5, episode 8 of the ALiEM Medical Education in [+]
Emergency Medicine Research Director at the University of Saskatchewan
Editor/Author at CanadiEM.org