title: A call for outcomes research in medical education.
abstract: The primary goal of medical education is to produce physicians who deliver high-quality health care. Recent calls for greater accountability in medical education and the development of outcomes research methodologies should encourage a new research effort to examine the effects of medical training upon clinical outcomes. The authors offer a research agenda that links medical education and quality of health care and give specific examples of potential research projects that would begin to examine that relationship. A proposed model of patient outcomes research in medical education recognizes the contributory effects of health care system-level factors as well as the continuum of medical education, process measures, and individual training and preparedness to deliver high-quality care. There exists an opportunity to create a research agenda in medical education outcomes research that is multidisciplinary, broad based, and focused on patient-centered outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Washington, Box 354982, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. fchen@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Frederick M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bauchner
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Burstin
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012107:Research Design