Postdoctoral Fellow Program in Medical Education Research
Background:
The Medical Council of Canada (MCC) is willing to support at least one Postdoctoral Fellow at a Canadian medical school.
New Ph.D. graduates from measurement, evaluation, medical education programs, or related programs but with an interest in medical education often need a year or two of practical experience to hone their trade/skills before embarking upon a full-time career.
Canadian medical schools are invited to put forward a proposal to the MCC on how their school could benefit from an MCC Postdoctoral Fellow and how that Fellow would benefit from being at their school. The proposals will be adjudicated by weighing the benefits to both the Fellow and the school. The selected school would then receive funding for a postdoctoral position. The MCC would contribute $48,000 per year toward the Fellow’s salary/support. In addition, the MCC would also contribute $4,000 to be used for travel/housing for the Fellow to venues where peer-reviewed papers or academic presentations were being made by the Fellow (preferably within, but not restricted to, North America). In addition, the Fellow would become a member of a virtual network of experts which could assist the Fellow with measurement and research problems and/or issues arising during the fellowship tenure. A suitable candidate must hold a Ph.D./Ed.D. (or equivalent) by 1 July of the year the fellowship is awarded or have a letter from the Dean or Supervisor with the assurance the postdoctoral candidate will be defending his or her dissertation by October of the year the fellowship was being awarded.
In the (rare) instance where the candidate was unsuccessful in defending his or her dissertation, the candidate would be asked to withdraw from the MCC Postdoctoral Fellow Program at that time and reapply once the dissertation was successfully defended.
The medical school would be responsible for recruiting and selecting a suitable Fellow for their program. In addition, the medical school would be responsible for providing the Fellow with a suitable office, use of a computer, associated hardware/software, and any benefits that would be applicable for a given university. Please note, there are no provisions for the university to levy an administration overhead charge on managing these monies.
The school would be asked to submit a short report to the MCC at the end of each 12-month period outlining how the monies had been spent and include a brief outline of the activities the Fellow was involved in. Copies of any presentations and/or publications that arose from the Fellow’s tenure at the school should also be included.
Call for proposals:
Interested Canadian medical schools are invited to submit their proposal to the Research and Development Committee care of Dr. David Blackmore, Director of Research and Development at the MCC.
Proposal format:
The proposal should outline what a Postdoctoral Fellow could do for the school and include a description of how
the school would help mentor them. The proposal must indicate if the school is interested in a one or a two-year appointment, the procedure by which
the school would recruit a suitable candidate, and outline the planned activities and educational objectives during the
Fellow's tenure. The proposal must also include a list of proposed mentors and name the project leader who would be responsible for ensuring the success of the fellowship program. The length of the proposal should not exceed five (5) typewritten pages. Appendices are acceptable if applicable to your proposal. Each proposal must be accompanied by a letter from the Dean indicating
that he/she has read the proposal and supports it. Please keep in mind, the MCC is trying to increase the capacity of Canadian medical schools to engage in medical education research in general and in the field of assessment in order to further its vision of striving for the highest level of medical care for Canadians through excellence in the evaluation of physicians.
Timelines:
The proposal should be received at the MCC by 1 April 2008. The proposals will be adjudicated by MCC staff, members of the MCC Research and Development Committee, and/or other expert adjudicators as deemed necessary by the MCC. All decisions made by the MCC and its committees are final and are non-negotiable. The successful school(s) would be notified in May 2008 with funding beginning at the time the successful school(s) begins to recruit and appoint an appropriate candidate.
Usually the start time would be 1 July of a given year; however, this can be adjusted to accommodate a given program. In the event a Fellow did not complete a full postdoctoral program due to unforeseen events, the monies would be prorated with unspent amounts returned to the MCC.
Suggestions:
As this is a new program being supported by the MCC, comments and suggestions on how to ensure this program’s success would be welcome. The aim is to continue to support the future of medical education research efforts in Canada and at Canadian medical schools.
Questions should be addressed to Dr. David Blackmore (dblackmore@mcc.ca), Director of Research and Development, or Ms. Lauren Copp (lcopp@mcc.ca), Administrative Assistant, Research and Development.
