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Background: Despite the apparent benefits to teaching, many faculty members are reluctant to participate in medical education research (MER) for a variety of reasons. In addition to the further demand on their time, physicians often lack the confidence to initiate MER projects and require more support in the form of funding, structure and guidance. These obstacles have contributed to a decline in physician participation in MER as well as to a perceived decay in its quality. As a countermeasure to encourage physicians to undertake research, the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa implemented a programme in which physicians receive the funding, coaching and support staff necessary to complete a 2-year research project. The programme is intended primarily for first-time researchers and is meant to serve as a gateway to a research career funded by external grants. Since its inception in 2010, the Program for Innovation in Medical Education (PIME) has supported 16 new clinician investigators across 14 projects.Methods: We performed a programme evaluation 3 years after the programme launched to assess its utility to participants. This evaluation employed semi-structured interviews with physicians who performed a research project within the programme.Results: Programme participants stated that their confidence in conducting research had improved and that they felt well supported throughout their project. They appreciated the collaborative nature of the programme and remarked that it had improved their willingness to solicit the expertise of others. Finally, the programme allowed participants to develop in the scholarly role expected by family physicians in Canada.Conclusion: The PIME may serve as a helpful model for institutions seeking to engage faculty physicians in Medical Education Research and to thereby enhance the teaching received by their medical learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the reliability and consistency of objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) raters' marking poses a continual challenge in medical education. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an e-Learning training module for OSCE raters who participated in the assessment of third-year medical students at the University of Ottawa, Canada. The effects of online training and those of traditional in-person (face-to-face) orientation were compared. Of the 90 physicians recruited as raters for this OSCE, 60 consented to participate (67.7%) in the study in March 2017. Of the 60 participants, 55 rated students during the OSCE, while the remaining 5 were back-up raters. The number of raters in the online training group was 41, while that in the traditional in-person training group was 19. Of those with prior OSCE experience (n= 18) who participated in the online group, 13 (68%) reported that they preferred this format to the in-person orientation. The total average time needed to complete the online module was 15 minutes. Furthermore, 89% of the participants felt the module provided clarity in the rater training process. There was no significant difference in the number of missing ratings based on the type of orientation that raters received. Our study indicates that online OSCE rater training is comparable to traditional face-to-face orientation.