Evidence-based education: Are we just spinning our wheels?

​Professor David Cook
Professor of Medicine and Medical Education in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Friday 11th November 2022, 09:00

 

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Few would argue about the need for "evidence" to guide the transformation of medical education, and the volume of literature is growing rapidly.

But are we making progress or just spinning our wheels?

What will it take to really advance the science of education?

In this session we will take an evidence-based approach to consider the questions we ask, the methods we use, the defensibility of interpretations, and the quality of reporting. We will also contemplate controversies such as the value (cost) of education, polarization in research paradigms, and generalizability across socio-economically diverse settings.

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David A. Cook, MD, MHPE is

• Professor of Medicine and Medical Education in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
• Director of Education Science in the Mayo Office of Applied Scholarship and Education Science
• Research Chair for the Mayo Multidisciplinary Simulation Centre
• A practicing physician specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of complex medicine problems 
• Deputy Editor for the journal Medical Education
• Editorial board member for the journal Simulation in Healthcare
•  Recipient of the Mayo Clinic Distinguished Educator Award, Mayo's highest award in medical education​

Dr. Cook received a B.S. in chemistry from Utah State University and an M.D. from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine before coming to the Mayo Clinic, where he completed residency in Internal Medicine, a fellowship in General Internal Medicine, and joined the staff in 2004. He subsequently completed a Master's degree in Health Professions Education through the University of Illinois at Chicago - Department of Medical Education.

Dr. Cook's research interests include the theory and design of online learning and other educational technologies, the quality of medical education research methods and reporting, clinical reasoning, and assessment of clinical performance. He has developed and studied multiple online courses for residents and medical students, conducted numerous systematic reviews, and published over 220 journal articles and book chapters on medical education topics. He serves as executive secretary to local leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He and his wife Jennifer are the parents of five incredibly wonderful children.