Our Association is a robust and diverse set of educators, students, researchers, medical professionals, volunteers and academics that come from all walks of life and from around the globe. Each month we choose a member to highlight their academic and professional career and see how they are making the best of their membership in IAMSE. This month’s Featured Member is Doug McKell.
Doug McKell
Adjunct Assistant Professor
College of Population Health
Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
How long have you been a member of IAMSE?
I have been a member of IAMSE for 6 years, ever since Bonny Dickinson, one of my Medical Education classmates at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, invited me to attend my first IAMSE Annual Conference in Roanoke, VA, in 2019.
Looking at your time with the Association, what have you most enjoyed doing? What are you looking forward to?
The highlight of my membership experience has been the opportunity to meet with many talented IAMSE community members with a wide range of medical and health professional expertise. I have been amazed by the strong volunteer commitment of members serving on various committees and programs. Participating in the WAS Seminar series Committee, the Annual Program Committee, and the Virtual Forum Program Committee has allowed me to meet many of these dedicated IAMSE members. As a result, I continue to learn more about the challenges – and opportunities – in health professions education. I have expanded my research interests to consider new approaches to educating health professionals, specifically in applying Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health to training health professionals.
What interesting things are you working on outside of the Association right now?
For the past 6 months, I have focused on designing ways to integrate digital assistants, AI Chatbots, into graduate courses I teach for residents, practicing physicians, pharmacists, and advanced practice nurses. I want to better understand the implementation barriers to their use, in addition to the potential benefits to students and faculty. This quest has taken me deeper into understanding Competence-Based Education, Self-Directed Learning, Critical Reasoning, Human-Computer interface, Universal Design for Learning, and Professional Identity Formation, all areas of IAMSE members’ expertise.
As the Lead of the IAMSE AI Community of Growth (CoG), what have you gotten out of leading the CoG since it began, and what is your favorite part about being the Lead of the AI CoG or the AI CoG in general?
The expanding network of IAMSE members interested in responsible AI use continues to challenge me to consider how, when, and especially for what purpose we adopt any AI technology or specific tool. My two AI Community of Growth collaborators, Drs. Lise McCoy and Diego Niño have been valuable collaborators in developing and leading the AI CoG since it began as an early morning interest group at the 2023 IAMSE Cancun Annual Meeting. IAMSE members continue to join the AI CoG listserv and attend our monthly Zoom discussions. It has become a terrific professional community of over 100 members that continues to strengthen network collaboration, research interests, and informal information sharing about AI in health professional education.
Anything else that you would like to add?
I am grateful for the warm welcome I received joining IAMSE and the opportunity to be on several committees. I also want to thank the IAMSE leadership of Drs. Peter de Jong and Carol Nichols for their vision to create the AI CoG and their ongoing support. I continue to benefit personally and professionally from the IAMSE leadership, especially their support of the AI Community of Growth and the recently published AIAMSE AI Needs Assessment on AI’s Impact on Medical Education survey (SharedIt link: https://rdcu.be/d0gVj). We plan to repeat this survey in 2025 to help provide the IAMSE members with additional information about the rapidly changing AI landscape in health professions education. Finally, a new AI Certificate program for IAMSE members will be available at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Calgary in response to the need for coordinated skill-based AI information.