1. www.medev.ac.uk
25 Jul 2014
Medical Education
Taxonomy Research
Organisation

2. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
Background
• HEA medev funded project
• Medical education lacks descriptors for many
concepts and practices
• Descriptors are needed for
– Curriculum description
– Research and analysis of medical education
– Philosophical and ontological studies

3. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
Existing Schemas...
MeSH
European Education Thesaurus
Embase
SNOMED-CT
In-House Systems
British Education Index
ERIC
Glossaries

4. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
METRO.2
Focus on assessment
in medical education

5. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk

6. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
Methods 1
• Initial list of assessment terms created from
instruments described in the Good Assessment
Guide (Open University Centre for Education in
Medicine)
• The list was augmented with terms contributed by
METRO team members, their colleagues, and from
instruments described in Scottish Doctor

7. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
Methods 2
• The terms were organised into a hierarchy divided
into three broad headings
– Test Design
– Test Methods
– Test Process
• Scope notes were created for each term
– Sometimes based on an existing heading
– References to examples of use in the literature included if
possible

8. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
Sample Scope Note
Heading
Logbook
Tree Number (repeatable)
Annotation
Scope Note
At their simplest, logbooks are simple records of clinical experience. Basic logbooks can be
modified however to specify levels of supervision, consecutive patient encounters or assesses’
confidence with regards to particular tasks (Patil NG. Lee P. Interactive logbooks for medical
students: are they useful. Medical Education 2002;36: 672-7)
See Also (repeatable)
Portfolio
Entry Term (repeatable)
Record of Practice
Allowable Qualifiers
ES LJ MA MT ST SN TD
Previous Indexing (repeatable)
History Note

9. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
Methods 3
• Testing for completeness and applicability
– AMEE workshop
• Used the hierarchy to describe two articles
– METRO members’ colleagues
• Posted comments about hierarchy and scope notes on
blog
– Testers (BEME and LTSN-01 volunteers)
• Used the hierarchy to describe 5 supplied objects
• These processes supplied feedback which has led to
revisions of the hierarchy and scope notes

10. 25 Jul 2014
www.medev.ac.uk
Current work…
• Presently assimilating the feedback from our BEME
and LTSN-01 contacts
• Revised hierarchy will be submitted to the National
Library of Medicine
• And after that?
– New subject area for METRO attention?
– Revision of assessment list?
– Submission to another thesaurus?

11. www.medev.ac.uk
25 Jul 2014
http://metro2.blogspot.com/
http://metro2.blogspot.com/