As we approach our 12th annual meeting this July, I am delighted by the vitality of IAMSE. This is because of the membership and their energy and involvement in the association. The meeting this year in Salt Lake City will mark a new milestone in our development. This year we will incorporate the former ‘Slice of Life’ group into our fold. This group, in which many IAMSE members were also involved, will bring a strong technology perspective to our family. In addition, the Team Based Learning group will be a part of our IAMSE meeting. The TBL group represents another instructional strategy that fits well within our mission of “…sharing current and innovative means to teach the sciences fundamental to medicine and health”. These new additions to our meeting program are built upon the successful relationship we have had for some years with the Pathology educators, GRIPE. The 2008 Program committee has worked diligently to meld all of these into an engaging and productive gathering. We certainly hope all of you will be with this July. Check out the meeting program for details (www.iamse.org/conf/conf12/index.htm)
Also occurring at the Salt Lake meeting will be the installation of our new board members following the Spring election. We are excited to introduce the new members to the Board: Peter de Jong, Kathryn McMahon, Mathew Gwee, Ferhan Girgin Sagin and William Jeffries. They will join the re-elected members: Veronica Michaelsen, Jack Strandhoy, Peter Anderson, and Bruce Newton as well as the current members: Mark A.W. Andrews, Deborah Barr, Floyd Knoop, Susan Pasquale, Frazier Stevenson and John Szarek, Ph.D. They along with the rest of the Board will provide our leadership for the coming years. The new officers will be elected from the Board at the meeting in July. Deserving special thanks go to the ‘retiring’ Board members Sheila W. Chauvin, Jerome Rotgans and Giulia A. Bonaminio, our Past president.
In addition to the changes in the Board and officer selection process, the meeting this July will bring my term as President to an end. As I look at where IAMSE is today, I am filled with pride. We have seen an energy and enthusiasm in our membership through activities and projects of the committees that bodes very well for our future. We have been invited to participate and contribute with a number of other medical education groups, including: AMEE, AAMC, AACOM, CGEA and The Generalists in Medical Education. These collaborations have fostered interactions with other groups as well, such as the Alliance of Clinical Educators. Our project, Flexner Revisited, examining the role and value of the basic sciences in medical education, has increased our credibility and visibility tremendously. We have developed a long relationship with our sister organization, AMEE, and through that have established a presence in Europe. The Essential Skills for Medical Educators (ESME) program, which we offer as part of our annual meeting, is testimony to this collaboration. Building on this international theme, we are well on our way to what looks to be a very exciting IAMSE meeting in Leiden, The Netherlands, in 2009. I addition to a European perspective, we have developed relationships and a presence, again through our active members, in the Middle East and Asia.
Our committee structure has served us well as a vehicle for member involvement. Through their activities, we have developed a collaboration to promote and develop new features for the HEAL resources, which will be showcased at the July meeting in Salt Lake City. Our Webcast audio seminar series has continued to be a success. The Membership and Development committees have initiated some important projects that will be of benefit and enjoyable for all. Note that we are going to once again have the ‘silent’ auction at the Annual meeting with the proceeds to be used for travel support for junior faculty. We will have several award recipients to be recognized for their contributions and excellence as medical educators. Our Journal, JIAMSE, has initiated several changes with the publication of supplemental theme issues. Further, the Editorial and Publication committee are continuing their quest for indexing of the Journal.
As you can see, we have accomplished much and are more than meeting our mission of advancing “medical education through faculty development and to ensure that the teaching and learning of medicine continues to be firmly grounded in science”. Most importantly, none of this could occur without the commitment, efforts and energy of all of those who are IAMSE. We have much to be proud of and even more to do.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your President for the past two years- it has been a pleasure and an honor. I am looking forward to seeing all of you at the 12th Annual IAMSE meeting in Salt Lake City this July.