EDUCATION To the point: medical education reviews— ongoing call for faculty development Nancy Hueppchen, MD; John L. Dalrymple, MD; Maya M. Hammoud, MD; Jodi F. Abbott, MD; Petra M. Casey, MD; Alice W. Chuang, MD; Amie Cullimore, MD; Katrina R. Davis, MD; Lorraine Dugoff, MD; Eve L. Espey, MD; Joseph M. Kaczmarczyk, DO; Francis S. Nuthalapaty, MD; Edward Peskin, MD; Archana Pradhan, MD; Nadine T. Katz, MD; Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics Undergraduate Medical Education Committee T his article, part of the ongoing To the Point: Medical Education Re- views series produced by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstet- rics (APGO) Undergraduate Medical Education Committee (UMEC), reviews the literature and discusses best practices regarding faculty development in medi- cal education with a special focus on fac- ulty development within the field of ob- stetrics and gynecology. Although most faculty learned to teach by observing their teachers and mentors, formal training in educational methods has been absent in the curricu- lum of most training programs until re- cently. Recognizing this deficit in formal training, medical education organiza- tions over the past 2 decades have de- signed numerous train-the-trainer op- portunities, yet there remains a need to reach out to more faculty than the self- selected few who regularly attend these well-designed programs. Many descrip- tive articles have been written about fac- ulty development curricula, satisfaction of the participating faculty, and self-re- ported change in teaching behaviors as a result of participation. 1,2 The international group, Best Evi- dence in Medical Education Collabora- tion, published a systematic review of faculty development initiatives seeking evidence that these programs supported outcomes beyond participant satisfac- tion. 3 Yet there remains a paucity of higher-level evidence documenting the effect of comprehensive faculty develop- ment programs on learners’ outcomes. Evidence-based methodology in faculty development exists more in the realm of individual skills and behaviors, rather than evaluation of comprehensive fac- ulty development curricula. The purposes of this article was the fol- lowing: (1) define the qualities of an ex- cellent medical educator, (2) discuss ex- pectations of medical school faculty teaching, (3) review the elements of a comprehensive faculty development program, and (4) suggest possible out- come measures for the evaluation of such programs. Defining the qualities of an excellent medical educator The qualities and skills of an excellent medical educator have been outlined in existing faculty development literature. In 2008, Rogers described faculty and learner definitions of an effective teacher titled, The Seven Habits of Highly Effec- tive Medical Educators, as Table 1 de- scribes (excerpt with permission from R. L. Rogers’ lecture given at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Society for Aca- demic Emergency Medicine). Academic medical faculty defined effective teachers as good role models, showing respect for learners, having enthusiasm for teach- From the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (Dr Hueppchen), University of California-Davis, Davis, CA (Dr Dalrymple), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (Dr Hammoud), Boston University, Boston, MA (Dr Abbott), Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN (Dr Casey), University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (Dr Chuang), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (Dr Cullimore), University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AK (Dr Davis), University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (Dr Dugoff), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (Dr Espey), Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia, PA (Dr Kaczmarczyk), Greenville Hospital System, Greenville, SC (Dr Nuthalapaty), Hawaiian Health Systems Corp, Honolulu, HI (Dr Peskin), University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey- Robert Wood Johnson-New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ (Dr Pradhan), and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY (Dr Katz). Received Dec. 15, 2010; revised Feb. 23, 2011; accepted Feb. 28, 2011. Reprints not available from the authors. 0002-9378/$36.00 © 2011 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2011.02.070 This article in the To the Point series will focus on best practices regarding faculty devel- opment in medical education in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Faculty develop- ment is an essential component in achieving teacher and learner satisfaction as well as improving learner outcomes. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education requires med- ical school faculty to have the capability and longitudinal commitment to be effective teachers. Although many programs have been created to address faculty development, there remains a paucity of literature documenting the impact of these programs on learner outcomes. We reviewed the qualities of an excellent medical educator, expectations regarding medical school teaching faculty, elements of comprehensive faculty develop- ment programs, and outcome measures for evaluating the effectiveness of these programs. Key words: faculty development, medical education, program evaluation www.AJOG.org Reviews SEPTEMBER 2011 American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 171