The AMEE Research Committee: Initiatives to stimulate research and practice

The past two decades have seen tremendous changes in medical education. Examples include the increasing emphasis on clinical skills assessment, more appropriate methods for teaching and learning using theory-driven practice, greater emphasis on the development and assessment of competencies relevant to the real world of healthcare and a strong emphasis on professionalism to name but a few. We believe that we are developing a new, and perhaps, better breed of health professionals as a result of these and other developments. However, are we sure or do we know if that is true, are we confident in the new methods and innovations introduced, can they be improved or, indeed, may they be producing something different from what we intend?

We would contend that much progress has been made in terms of collecting evidence to underpin medical education but much of what we did in the past, and still do now, was or is not based on substantial research or the use of specific theories (Gibbs et al. Citation2011). Gaps still remain and some of the research to date still provides more questions than answers. To gather further evidence, we need further research.