Cohort Selected for New NBME Medical Education Research Fellowship

Bringing Medical Educators Together to Advance Vital Assessment Efforts

Eight medical educators from around the country were selected to participate in the very first cohort of the Strategic Educator Enhancement Fund (SEEF) Medical Education Research Fellowship, a highly competitive opportunity sponsored by NBME. These individuals bring a range of medical education experience to this inaugural cohort.

The Fellowship provides an opportunity for US medical school faculty who are committed to developing innovative approaches to enhance the assessment of individuals across the continuum of medical education, and within active independent practices. During this two-year fellowship, the fellows will collaborate with like-minded colleagues who share an interest in assessment-focused scholarship.

One fellow, Todd Guth, MD, hopes to reimagine the assessment of clinical reasoning.

“I’m really looking forward to collaborating with people from different institutions who have interests in clinical assessment—and how we can do that better—especially in the realm of clinical reasoning,” Guth said. “We should get at assessing clinical reasoning in a robust way without feeling like we have to break the bank and be able to do it at scale. That’s the challenge.”

To optimize the fellows’ learning and progress, Larry Gruppen, PhD, and Jennifer Kogan, MD, will serve as the Fellowship’s Senior Mentor and Co-Mentor, respectively. Gruppen is a Professor in the Department of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School. Kogan is a Professor of Medicine as well as the Associate Dean for Student Success and Professional Development at University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Both Gruppen and Kogan are internationally recognized for their contributions to medical education.

Designed primarily as a virtual Fellowship, this research opportunity will gather the entire collaborative cohort quarterly through web-conferencing, for now, and when state and local guidelines permit, at NBME’s Philadelphia office in person. Through this unique structure, SEEF fellows are expected to develop a research protocol and research program for assessment of clinical reasoning, critical thinking and/or diversity/bias and disparities in assessment.

In 2019, The SEEF Selection Committee opened the application process and received a total of 52 letters of intent from interested educators at US medical schools. The applicants were required to include a letter of support from their medical school because the respective medical school is supporting 10% of the Fellows’ time to participate. From there, the committee carefully evaluated applicants and selected the eight finalists based on their outstanding experiences and accomplishments and accounted for geographic and medical specialty distribution as well. Monica Lypson, MD, who served as Selection Committee Chair, believes that the impact of this Fellowship will be felt at the individual, health care institution and system levels.

“This research opportunity will highlight the importance of assessment across the medical education continuum,” Lypson said. “It will also emphasize the diversity of medical education skills and the wide range of specialties each individual will bring to the table. Fellows will develop expertise in assessment and be able to take it back to their local institutions.”

Below are the names and affiliations of the individuals selected for the SEEF inaugural cohort:

[In Alphabetical order]

Todd Cassese, MD, Albert Einstein University School of Medicine

Shimae Fitzgibbons, MD, Med Star Georgetown University Hospital

Todd Guth, MD, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School

Ofelia Martinez, MD, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine

Aimee Medeiros, PhD, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

Nora Osman, MD, Harvard Medical School

Danielle Roussel, MD, University of Utah School of Medicine

Rachel Wolfe, MD, Wake Forest School of Medicine

To learn more about this new Fellowship opportunity, view the program information on NBME Contributions.