title: METRO--the creation of a taxonomy for medical education.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is a proven and immediate need for a shared vocabulary for medical education in the United Kingdom, both to support the practice of medical education and the research of medical education practice. It would be inefficient to create a complete and independent vocabulary from scratch, the proposed alternative being to create differential terms between the MeSH and BET vocabularies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Existing schemas were reviewed against the needs of stakeholders. Seed terms were submitted to the METRO work environment, discussed, scoped and voted upon.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A set of procedures, initial terms and recommendations for further development are the principal deliverables from METRO's first phase, while the ongoing second phase will see the creation and testing of an essential branch of descriptors for assessment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Further work in a number of areas will be required and long-term issues of resourcing and sustainability have yet to be substantially addressed to allow for full adoption by the user community.
authors.affiliation: Research Department, Lister Postgraduate Institute, NHS Education for Scotland, Edinburgh, UK. alex.haig@nes.scot.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haig
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ellaway
authors.forename: Marshall
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dozier
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McKendree
mesh_terms: D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods; D019992:Databases as Topic; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D012106:Research; D006113:United Kingdom