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During their studies to become medical professionals, all students are obliged to become familiar with various aspects of primary care. The aim is to provide all students with a high quality training which ensures the best possible cooperation across all sectors of the medical system. Primary care comprises the primary use of the medical service by an unfiltered set of patients as well as continued patient care -- including home-care. This position paper was developed together with representatives of the German Society of University Teachers of General Practice (GHA), the German Society for Ambulatory General Paediatrics (DGAAP), the German Society of General Practice and Family Medicine (DEGAM) and the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM). It includes recommendations for teaching in the field of primary care in four different types of internships such as preclinical work experience ("Hospitation"), 4-week clinical traineeships of a casual nature ("Famulatur") and 2-week courses of structured and assessed clinical training ("Blockpraktikum") as well as a broad-based 4-month elective clinical placement in the final year (known as a practical year, "PJ"). The recommendations encompass structural and process criteria for internships in different general practices. In addition, for the first time recommendations for teaching on campus -- in the fields of generalmedicine, paediatrics, numerous cross-sectional areas and other clinical fields, but also for clinical skills training -- are set down here. In this position paper the intention is to demonstrate the possible ways in which more aspects of primary care could be integrated into undergraduate medical training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in medical education have created increasing challenges for medical teachers which is why the majority of German medical schools already offer educational and instructional skills trainings for their teaching staff. However, to date no framework for educational core competencies for medical teachers exists that might serve as guidance for the qualification of the teaching faculty. Against the background of the discussion about competency based medical education and based upon the international literature, the GMA Committee for Faculty and Organizational Development in Teaching developed a model of core teachingcompetencies for medical teachers. This framework is designed not only to provide guidance with regard to individual qualification profiles but also to support further advancement of the content, training formats and evaluation of faculty development initiatives and thus, to establish uniform quality criteria for such initiatives in German-speaking medical schools. The model comprises a framework of six competency fields, subdivided into competency components and learning objectives. Additional examples of their use in medical teaching scenarios illustrate and clarify each specific teaching competency. The model has been designed for routine application in medical schools and is thought to be complemented consecutively by additional competencies for teachers with special duties and responsibilities in a future step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the competency-based frameworks for postgraduate medical training by the Committee on Postgraduate Medical Training of the German Society for Medical Education, a medical organization. The basis of the competence is cognition, clinical skills and personal attitudes. Entrustable professional activities in training and formative assessment are integrated in the theory of competency-based training and the patient-centred practice in the clinical context.

Objectives: Medical education is gaining in significance internationally. A growing interest in the field has been observed in German-speaking countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) since the early 2000s. This interest is not, however, reflected in an increase in the number of publications on medical education of German-speaking authors in international professional journals. The following investigation examines the potential use of active participant numbers of German-speaking researchers at AMEE conferences as a means of measuring said development. Methods: The AMEE conference proceedings fromthe categories poster presentations, short communications, research papers and plenary presentations from the years 2005-2013 were examined for evidence of Austrian, German and Swiss participation. The abstracts were subsequently analysed in terms of content and categorised according to study design, methodology, object of study, and research topic. Results: Of the 9,446 analysed abstracts, 549 contributions show at least one first, last or co-author from Austria, Germany or Switzerland. The absolute number of contributions per conference varied between 44 in 2010 and 77 in 2013. The percentage fluctuated between 10% in 2005 and 4.1% in 2010. From the year 2010 onwards, however, participation increased continually. The research was predominantly descriptive (62.7%). Studies on fundamental questions of teaching and learning (clarification studies) were less frequent (4.0%). For the most part, quantitative methods (51.9%) were implemented in addressing subjects such as learning and teaching methods (33%), evaluation and assessment (22.4%) or curriculum development (14.4%). The study population was usually comprised of students (52.5%). Conclusions: The number of contributions from Austria, Germany and Switzerland peak at the beginning and at the end of the evaluated period of time. A continual increase in active participation since 2005 was not observed. These observations do not reflect the actual increase of interest in medical education research in German-speaking countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) often involve a considerable amount of resources in terms of materials and organization since the scores are often recorded on paper. Computer- assisted administration is an alternative with which the need for mater-ial resources can be reduced. In particular, the use of tablets seems sensible because these are easy to transport and flexible to use. Aim: User acceptance concerningthe use of tablets during OSCEs has not yet been extensively investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate tablet-based OSCEs from the perspective of the user (examiner) and the student examinee. Method: For two OSCEs in Internal Medicine at the University of Heidelberg, user acceptance was analyzed regarding tablet-based ad-ministration (satisfaction with functionality) and the subjective amount of effort as perceived by the examiners. Standardized questionnaires and semi-standardized interviews were conducted (complete survey of all participating examiners). In addition, for one OSCE, the subjective evaluation of this mode of assessment was gathered from a random sample of participating students in semi-standardized interviews. Results: Overall, the examiners were very satisfied with using tablets duringthe assessment. The subjective amount of effort to use the tablet was found on average to be "hardly difficult". The examiners identified the advantages of this mode of administration as being in particular the ease of use and low rate of error. Duringthe interviews of the exam-inees, acceptance for the use of tablets during the assessment was also detected. Discussion: Overall, it was found that the use of tablets during OSCEs was well accepted by both examiners and examinees. We expect that this mode of assessment also offers advantages regardingassessment documentation, use of resources, and rate of error in comparison with paper-based assessments; all of these aspects should be followed up on in further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The decision having the most serious consequences for a student taking an assessment is the one to pass or fail that student. For this reason, the reliability of the pass/fail decision must be determ-ined for high quality assessments, just as the measurement reliability of the point values. Assessments in a particular subject (graded course credit) are often composed of multiple components that must be passed independently of each other. When "conjunctively" combining separate pass/fail de-cisions, as with other complex decision rules for passing, adequate methods of analysis are necessary for estimating the accuracy and consistency of these classifications. To date, very few papers have ad-dressed this issue; a generally applicable procedure was published by Douglas and Mislevy in 2010. Using the example of an assessment comprised of several parts that must be passed separately, this study analyzes the reliability underlying the decision to pass or fail students and discusses the impact of an improved method for identifying those who do not fulfill the minimum requirements. Method: The accuracy and consistency of the decision to pass or fail an examinee in the subject cluster Internal Medicine/General Medi-cine/Clinical Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg's Faculty of Medicine was investigated. This cluster requires students to separately pass three components (two written exams and an OSCE), whereby students may reattempt to pass each component twice. Our analysis was carried out using the method described by Douglas and Mislevy. Results: Frequently, when complex logical connections exist between the individual pass/fail decisions in the case of low failure rates, only a very low reliability for the overall decision to grant graded course credit can be achieved, even if high reliabilities exist for the various components. Forthe example analyzed here, the classification accuracy and consistency when conjunctively combiningthe three individual parts is relatively low with K=0.49 or K=0.47, despite the good reliability of over 0.75 for each of the three components. The option to repeat each component twice leads to a situation in which only about half of the candidates who do not satisfy the minimum requirements would fail the overall assessment, while the other half is able to continue their studies despite having deficient knowledge and skills. Conclusion: The method put forth by Douglas and Mislevy allows the analysis of the decision accuracy and consistency for complex combin-ations of scores from different components. Even in the case of highly reliable components, it is not necessarily so that a reliable pass/fail decision has been reached - for instance in the case of low failure rates. Assessments must be administered with the explicit goal of identifying examinees that do not fulfill the minimum requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Course evaluations are often conducted and analyzed well after the course has taken place. By usinga digital audience response system (ARS), it is possible to collect, view and discuss feedback during or directly following a course or lecture session. This paper analyzes a student evaluation of a lecture course with ARS to determine if significant differences exist between the results of the ARS lecture evaluation and those of the online evaluation at the end of the semester. In terms of the overall evaluation, consideration is given to the level of students' prior knowledge, the presentation of the lecture material by the lecturers and the relevance of the lecture topic for students. Method: Duringthe 2011-12 winter semester, the lecture on Pediatrics at the Freiburg Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (Zentrum für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin (ZKJ) Freiburg) was evaluated using ARS. Thirty-four lectures were evaluated by an average of 22 (range 8- 44) students, who responded to four questions each time an evaluation took place. Results: On a 6-point Likert scale (1=very good to 6=deficient), the students rated their level of preparedness with a mean of 3.18, the presentation of the lecture with 2.44, and the relevance of the lecture topic with 2.19. The overall evaluation of the lecture course by means of ARS resulted in 2.31. The online evaluation conducted at the end of the semester yielded a score of 2.45. Highly significant correlations were seen between the results of the ARS for the overall evaluation, assessment of prior knowledge, lecture presentation, and the estimated relevance of the lecture topic. Conclusion: The use of ARS is suitable for immediate evaluation of lectures, in particular regardingtimely feedback for the individual lecturerlecturers. In comparison with an end-of-term evaluation, ARS yielded a better assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present our 5-year-experience with a large-scale mentoring program for undergraduate medical students at the Ludwig Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU). We implemented a two-tiered program with a peer-mentoring concept for preclinical students and a 1:1-mentoring concept for clinical students aided by a fully automated online-based matching algorithm. Approximately 20-30% of each student cohort participates in our voluntary mentoring program. Defining ideal program evaluation strategies, recruiting mentors from beyond the academic environment and accounting for the mentoring network reality remain challenging. We conclude that a two-tiered program is well accepted by students and faculty. In addition the online-based matching seems to be effective for large-scale mentoring programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Interprofessional collaboration leads to an improvement in health care. This call for increased interprofessional collaboration has led to national and international recommendations for interprofessional learning and education. The GMA has taken up this challenge and has implemented a working group on "interprofessional education in the health professions" to address this topic. The terminology used to describe collaboration among the health professions seems to vary and does not reflect any clear consensus. The aim of this paper is to identify the different terms used to describe collaboration between health professions and to analyse their use in German journals. Methods: The terms frequently used to describe collaboration between health professionals were identified and defined. German medical journals were then pragmatically analyzed regarding the use of the terms interprof* and interdiszip*. Results: The German terms for interprofessional and interdisciplinary were not used consistently in the journals reviewed. Conclusion: There seems to be no agreement on the use of terms to describe the collaboration between health professions. Consistent terminology should be used as a basis for promoting collaboration and improving understanding among the parties involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: The dissection course is an essential part of preclinical medical education. At the Medical Faculty of Duesseldorf, an education concept has been developed with the aim, to reflect with students their experiences and to support them in dealing with the donor and preparation. The aim of this paper is to present the concept. Method: The education concept had a peer group approach. It comprised a lecture, a small group seminar and an online diary as core element. Finally, the concept was evaluated. Results: Approximately one sixth of students made use of the online diary. Selected entries are presented here. Also, one sixth of students took part in the evaluation. They rated the activity as helpful to prepare for the dissection course. Discussion: The education concept could be a corner stone of a longit- udinal training to promote the adequate encounter with topics such as dying and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]