Reprioritizing current research trends in medical education: A reflection on research activities in Saudi Arabia

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

There are numerous efforts to develop research priorities of medical education in Saudi Arabia. Priorities were proposed in 2010 by Dr Al-Khuli’s Chair for Developing Medical Education. A search within PubMed database was conducted at two levels. Results showed diversity and lack of focus. It is important to promote a culture of educational research and scholarship of teaching.

Table 1. Summary of the search results within the PubMed database for papers published worldwide and from Saudi Arabia between October 2010 and December 2013; relating to research domains prioritized by Dr Al-Khuli’s Chair for Developing.

Domain	Research question	Total world-wide published articles	Papers published from Saudi Arabia
Curriculum	1. undergraduate medical curriculum	3145	35
	Non-course (topic) specific)	81	3
	Undergraduate medical curriculum [ti] AND strategies*	2	0
	Undergraduate medical curriculum [tiab] AND strategies**	5	0
	Undergraduate medical curriculum [tiab] AND models	4	0
	2. undergraduate medical curriculum and Saudi Medical Schools	17	17
	3. core learning objectives and medical education (Non-course specific)	3	0
	4. core competencies and medical education (Non-course specific)	14	0
Faculty	Faculty recruitment, retention, selection, and promotion: Different combinations	11	3
	Faculty development and medical education	55 (many reviews)	4
Students	Student admission and performance in medical schools (different combinations)	50	11
Quality Assurance and Accreditation	Saudi National Commission for Academic Accreditation & Assessment	3	3
Within the above domains but are course (topic specific)		Too many	45
Others (not related to the above domains)		Too many	18

Medical Education in Saudi Arabia (Adapted from Al-Shafei et al. 2013).

*[ti] = Title search.

**[tiab] = Title/Abstract search.

Al-Shafei AI, Bin Abdulrahman KA, Al-qumaizi KI, Al-rashed WA, Al-khamees OA, Al-shaqha WM, Obeidat A. 2013. Exciting new ideas in medical education emerged from SIMEC 2012. Med Teach 35:S1–S4

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