Recently there was an article published on the blog of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) from Memorial University’s Faculty of Medicine. I think the article was less than open and it lacked balance in its propaganda about the … Continue reading
Minimum Unit Pricing for Alcohol
It is disappointing to see even limited medical support for legislation for putative public health benefits. There is an impression that some doctors are too keen to resort to legislation to enforce their views on the public when it is … Continue reading
University Rankings
I have had several productive visits to the Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University and to Mount Allison University in 2016 and 2017. The Maclean’s university rankings for 2018 were announced during my recent visit in October and I could fully … Continue reading
The Rise of Cosmopolitanism in the Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University?
Background I have recently returned from a visit to the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University, Newfoundland. One of the purposes of the visit was to follow up the audit projects on (a) social accountability and (b) student engagement. In … Continue reading
Student Engagement: Oxymoron and Patronage
Background: Student engagement in the medical school has the aims of improving the curriculum, the learning environments, students’ motivation and their active citizenship (Hardy, 2009; Zepke & Leach, 2010). The process of auditing activities … Continue reading
Case Study of Apparent Failures of Governance
There is an award process for excellence in social accountability by a medical school that is organised through the ASPIRE project under the auspices of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE). The … Continue reading
Organ transplantation: opt out or lose out.
There are less than two months until the Welsh Assembly Government will have the power to remove the organs from a person’s body after death without informed consent if the person is an adult living in Wales. The next of … Continue reading
Small steps on a long road
My work in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) has progressed well as regards the independent projects in the MD program. In my experience these projects have enabled learners to show their autonomy in research projects … Continue reading
Communications research
The work with educators in veterinary medicine continues to be stimulating and productive. It is not without its controversies involving issues of morality and ethics, philosophy, and empathy, even political theory. For example, two posters at the annual Veterinary Education … Continue reading
Canadian Conference on Medical Education, Vancouver
This conference had about 1,700 participants and in recent years it has increased its credibility as a meeting place to discuss all aspects of medical education. On the positive side it was productive to discuss the use of the arts, … Continue reading