Interested in pursuing scholarship in teaching and learning? The team behind the Office of Medical Education Research and Evaluation (MERE) at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine can provide expert consultation on behalf of the Center for Medical Education. Additionally, evaluative scientists are on hand to provide important guidance and data analysis for program evaluation.
MERE Overview
MERE oversees the evaluation of the MD University Program curriculum, Joint Clinical Program, Graduate Education Office, and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Members of the office’s personnel have expertise in program evaluation, educational evaluation (including curriculum and training grants), evaluation planning, quantitative and qualitative research methods, educational statistics, measurement, assessment, psychometrics, and data collection and management. The various skills of the MERE team promote evaluation techniques that consider a program’s progress, success, areas for improvement, impact, and outcomes.
MERE will offer consultations, pre-award, and post-award services to individuals from the School of Medicine, broader university community, and surrounding organizations. Stay tuned for additional information on MERE offerings and anticipated service rates in the near future.
Learn more about submitting grants/projects related to medical education.
MERE Consultations
Please contact us at som_mere@case.edu if you would like to schedule a consultation about a medical education research project through the Center for Medical Education. We ask that you provide a brief description of the question and include any relevant information from the published literature.
We encourage academic pursuits in medical education and are happy to provide editorial review, recommendations about appropriate academic journals for publication, and other guidance. An annotated description of where to publish medical education is available for review.
Recruiting Medical Students as Participants
The Medical Education Research Committee (MERC) is responsible for reviewing educational research studies that intend to recruit medical students from Case Western Reserve University’s University Program to serve as participants. MERC reviews requests for the following criteria:
- Investigators have mitigated the level of risk, potential conflict, or harm to students;
- Participation in the study has limited disruption to students and their commitment as a medical student; and
- The project is relevant and timely and does not duplicate existing study requests.
Want to recruit medical students for your educational study? Complete all sections of the MERC Review Request Form.
To submit your form or for all other inquiries, contact som_merc@case.edu.
Medical Education Data Registry
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has established a data registry approved as exempt by the university’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), titled “Longitudinal Evaluation of CWRU School of Medicine’s Curriculum.” All data included in this registry are de-identified when used for educational research purposes.
The data in the registry are part of a data warehouse that enables faculty, staff, and students to:
- Determine the extent to which the School of Medicine fulfills its educational mission and reaches its goals.
- Identify areas of curricular success and those requiring improvement.
- Contribute broader understanding of teaching and learning in medicine.
- Examine curriculum delivery in order to maintain quality standards and to ensure compliance with accreditation/licensure requirements.
- Enhance understanding the effectiveness of teaching and methods that support learning.
- Disseminate findings and lessons learned from School of Medicine program evaluation activities to other medical education professionals through presentations and publications.
The data registry consists of:
- De-identified, longitudinal database of learning, performance, quality assurance, and practice assessments of School of Medicine students;
- Student outcomes data and curriculum data
Faculty interested in conducting medical education research may request de-identified data from the Medical Education Data Registry (STUDY20211086). The Data Registry is a secured collection of data from required curricular activities, such as end of block and rotation surveys and student assessment performance. All requests for de-identified data are reviewed by MERC. If your study includes activities not covered outside of accessing data in this registry, you must obtain IRB approval for your research. For research which only includes data from this registry, additional IRB approval is not required.
Complete all sections of the MERC Data Registry Request Form.
To submit your form or for all other inquiries, contact som_merc@case.edu.
Learn more about the data registry and how it can work for you.
To request use of the data for research purposes, complete the MERC Data Registry Request Form and/or email som_merc@case.edu.