Medic One Funded Projects

ASME Researching Medical Education Conference 
Dr Alistair Dewar

In November 2014, I was fortunate to attend the ‘Researching Medical Education’ conference in London, organised by the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) - ASME’s aim is to “offer courses and conferences which will educate, enrich and develop all those who attend.”

I’m currently working with the Resuscitation Research Group at RIE to complete a medical doctorate through the University of Edinburgh. We’re analysing the non-technical skills or human factors that affect the performance of a team of paramedics as they attend to patients suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, as recorded by the video cameras attached to their uniforms. Once we’ve audited their performance, we’ll try to work out the areas requiring improvement, and then design some new training and education programmes for them. We aim to achieve an enhanced team performance, and, in the long run, save more patients’ lives.

The ASME conference included a number of workshops which have proved incredibly useful as I start out, particularly around the design of a research project and the use of different education interventions and methodologies – topics ranged from ‘how to write a research question’ to ‘the use of video in education’, as well as two inspiring keynote speakers, whose passion for change within the NHS through medical education was great to hear.

My thanks to the Medic One trust for their generous grant, which facilitated my attendance at the ASME conference.