Medical Education Day at Yale, Enhancing Educator Development and Scholarship, has become an annual campus tradition since its launch in 2013. The tradition continues this year, with a twist—it will be virtual, and expand beyond one day.
The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), which hosts the event, is excited about several benefits of this new format, including increased accessibility. Freed from geographic constraints, Yale health professional school alumni and Yale Physician Assistant Online Program (Yale PA Online) community members can participate more easily. Moreover, virtual access and an expanded time frame may make the sessions more accessible to Yale health care providers busy on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Registration for Med Ed Day is open to Yale faculty, fellows, residents, students, staff, and alumni of the Schools of Medicine (including the Physician Associate (PA) Program and PA Online Program), Nursing, and Public Health. Participants can register for the following sessions, which will be held on June 4 via Zoom: a livestream presentation and Q&A with YSM Dean Nancy Brown, MD; workshops; and oral presentations. Registrants also can request access to the virtual poster session, which will run from June 4 through June 12.
The registration deadline for Med Ed Day is Tuesday, June 2, 11:59 pm, Eastern.
Med Ed Day in the COVID-19 Crisis
Med Ed Day provides an opportunity for members of the Yale health professional community to learn from each other and celebrate the innovation and excellence of health sciences education and its scholarship at Yale. The TLC decided it was important to proceed with Med Ed Day despite the inability to gather in person due to COVID-19.
TLC Director Janet Hafler, EdD, professor of pediatrics and associate dean for educational scholarship, said, “the COVID-19 crisis has required Yale educators to quickly adjust how they teach while meeting the overwhelming clinical demands caused by the pandemic and they have met these challenges with innovative solutions and collaboration. Bringing the health sciences education community together for Med Ed Day seemed especially important against this backdrop. The TLC team is excited to offer our community a diverse selection of educational opportunities, while enabling social distancing.”
The COVID-19 crisis has required Yale educators to quickly adjust how they teach while meeting the overwhelming clinical demands caused by the pandemic and they have met these challenges with innovative solutions and collaboration. Bringing the health sciences education community together for Med Ed Day seemed especially important against this backdrop.
Janet Hafler, EdD, TLC director, professor of pediatrics, and associate dean for educational scholarship
Virtual Poster Session
The TLC organizers deliberated about how best to adapt Med Ed Day’s traditional poster session to a virtual conference. They focused on ensuring it achieved the traditional goals of the poster session— providing a forum for sharing ideas and feedback— while also prioritizing making it accessible to potential presenters and viewers, recognizing that many in the target audience are currently focused on the clinical, research, and academic fronts of the COVID-19 pandemic and/or dealing with other unusual time demands.
During the June 4 – June 12 time frame when the poster session will be available on a virtual platform, viewers will be able to write comments or ask questions about any of the posters on display in an online forum. Authors will monitor the activity on their posters and respond. This extended asynchronous format will allow for meaningful engagement between presenters and the audience, while also providing temporal flexibility.
As in years past, about 70 medical education research or innovations in medical education posters will be on display, including 13 from Medical Education Fellows depicting their fellowship projects. The posters continue to represent a broad cross-section of the Yale education community, including faculty, fellows, residents, staff, and students from a wide range of departments, programs, and centers.
Workshops and Oral Presentations
Med Ed Day traditionally features oral presentations and workshops given by Yale educators who are experts in their field. The TLC is excited for educators, and this year some students, to deliver dynamic and interactive educational experiences in a virtual format, through Zoom. The Med Ed Day website has details on these sessions, as well as information about CME Accreditation.