2007; 29: 525526

Advancing Medical Education: the new series of

AMEE guides in medical education
TREVOR GIBBS

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Association for medical education in Europe

Very few things are more predictable in medical education

than change; it is part of a working routine for most medical
educators. In as much as it is inevitable, it is also an often
unwelcome visitor; imposing on time, creating seemingly extra
work and interfering with the smooth running and management of an organization. However, change brings about
evaluation, innovation and creativity; it facilitates the reflection
of the old, the inception of the new and the motivation for a
dynamic environment.
But what has this to do with the new AMEE Guides on
Medical Education series?
This edition of the Journal contains the first of a new series
of AMEE Guides, AMEE Education Guide 30, Peer Assisted
Learning: a planning and implementation framework, by
Michael Ross and Helen Cameron, and we hope you will see
that it is a major change from the previous series.
Most of the readers of Medical Teacher and members of the
Association of Medical Education in Europe will be aware of
the previous Guides: most will have read some, if not all and
most will have used them to formulate their teaching and
learning programmes. Feedback from various organisations
has been excellent; it has demonstrated their credibility,
readability, usability, and overall ability to promote effective
practice. Time, nor medical education, however has ever stood
still. Many changes in medical education have occurred over
the last ten years: reflective practice and portfolio learning,
e-learning, situational learning, deliberate practice and new
innovations in assessment, to name but a few. The new AMEE
guide series has been designed to keep its readers up to date
with these changes.
Ross and Camerons Guide on Peer Assisted Learning (Ross
& Cameron, 2007) provides a forum for debate on a relatively
new but little used teaching and learning strategy, which
encapsulates the required quality of teaching within medical
graduates, significantly highlighted by the General Medical
Council (GMC, 2003). By bringing their own enthusiasm,
together with the practical experience gained from their
institutional application, we hope they have captured an
ability to promote the subject whilst providing a template for
its future use and a forum for educational debate; a quality
which we hope forms the basis for future Guides.

As the new AMEE Guide series develops each will become:

. . . a living document that stimulates thinking and
reflective thought on current issues in medical
education, whilst providing practical advice and
support.
To capture an ever increasing body of interested parties,
from various healthcare educators from around the world, the
new AMEE guides will be for:
. the practising teacher who wants information about
teaching methods, assessment, curriculum planning and
other issues in medical education;
. the reflective teacher who wishes to review his/her
contribution to medical education and compare it with
that of others in the field;
. the teacher/researcher who wishes to learn more about a
topic as a stimulus to further studies, research and
evaluation;
. institutions who wish to add to their library
resources relating to medical education, and to have
materials available to support local staff development
initiatives;
. students who wish access to a source of information about
current approaches and methods in medical education,
recognising the trend to involve students in the teaching
process.
In order to address these needs, the new Guides will:
. be practical and up to date, providing information on
current approaches to a range of issues relating to the dayto-day work of the medical teacher;
. be equally useful to those new to medical education, whilst,
by encouraging reflective thought, be stimulating to those
experienced in the speciality;
. adopt a seamless approach to medical education, recognizing the similarities in process between undergraduate,
postgraduate and vocational training and continuing
professional development;
. keep medical education as a primary target, but be of
relevance to other healthcare professions education;

Correspondence: Trevor Gibbs, Association of Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), 484 Perth Road, Dundee, DD2 1LR , UK. Tel: 44 (0) 1382 381
994; fax: 44 (0) 1382 381 987; email: amee@dundee.ac.uk/tjg.gibbs@gmail.com
ISSN 0142159X print/ISSN 1466187X online/07/0605252 2007 Informa UK Ltd.
DOI: 10.1080/01421590701678632

525

T. Gibbs

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For personal use only.

. incorporate underpinning theory where this is relevant and

contribute to an understanding of the more practical aspects
of education. Each guide will have a purposeful and
relevant bibliography;
. reflect an international perspective of the topic and not be
seen as relating only to a particular institutional or
geographical context. The transference of approaches to
teaching and learning into an international arena of diverse
cultures, race and religions will be addressed;
. be living documents capturing the views and experiences
of those engaged in the specialty by inviting their
contributions to the guides. This unique feature will be
achieved through the publication of supplements to the
guides online and in printed format, incorporating additional material, constructive comment and a wider
viewpoint.
AMEE has approached international authors, new and
established in their specific field of education, to facilitate the
development of the Guide series; hoping to be inclusive of
geographical, cultural and institutional variation.
Each guide will first be published in Medical Teacher and
be subsequently followed by the publication of a separate
AMEE Guide. The reader will be able to build up the Guides
into an informative collection of up-to-the-minute views on
medical education.
An important feature of this new guide series is the concept
of supplements, which will provide the reader with a

526

continuing source of information on the topic. Contributions

are welcomed through the supplements to the further
development of this AMEE guide series. If you have
experience in the area, with examples or guidelines from
practice that might be of value to others, we would be pleased
to hear from you. Published supplements will be e-mailed to
those who have purchased the Guide and will be included on
the website and possibly in the text of future editions. Selected
submissions will be published in Medical Teacher. The
supplements will also encourage continuing dialogue between
parties in their field of interest: a characteristic particularly
valued among medical educationists.
This is an exciting time in the development of Medical
Teacher and the AMEE Education Guide series; one that will
stimulate thought and development of shared perspectives
within medical education. However it depends on readers to
make it both stimulating and interactive; it is the readers
opportunity to engage in national and international academic
debate; let their voice and alternative or complementary views
be heard and share our enthusiasm for medical education.

References
General Medical Council (GMC). 2003. Tomorrows Doctors:
Recommendations on Undergraduate Medical Education (London,
General Medical Council).
Ross MT, Cameron HS. (2007). Peer assisted learning: a planning and
implementation framework. Med. Teach. 29:527545.