About 550 registrants from 51 different countries attended the Seventh Ottawa Conference on Medical Education and Assessment in Maastricht. We received 525 abstracts for the conference, divided in thematic poster sessions and platform presentations. Organising the conference was an honour and we tried to meet the high standards of a friendly and relaxed atmosphere which has characterized previous Ottawa conferences. During and after the conference about 250 papers were submitted for publication in the conference proceedings, leaving us little time for a post-conference depression. Despite the large number of papers, the editors have attempted to review and edit the papers as care fully as possible. Occasionally, however, correspondence exceeded reasonable deadlines, preventing careful editing of a small number of the papers. Although we felt that our editorial task was not quite finished, we nevertheless decided to include these papers. We thank the many authors for their enthusiastic and prompt response to - occasionally tedious - editorial suggestions and requests. We are sure that this collective effort has resulted in a book that will make an important contribution to the field of medical education. The editors want to thank Jocelyn Flippo-Berger whose expertise with desk top publishing and perseverance was a great help."

A groundbreaking guide to ensuring quality assurance in the movement toward competency-based medical education Understanding Assessment in Medical Education through Quality Assurance compiles and shares best practices from leading programs from around the globe. Authoritative approaches and processes that have been tested and refined show how to implement quality assurance of written and performance-based assessments in medical education while maintaining regulatory standards. Leading figures in the medical world on this issue, the authors provide specific suggestions and showcase how their methods can be implemented with representative case studies. Medical educators and their students will benefit from this suite of evidence-based QA processes that they can immediately put into action for monitoring and ensuring continuous quality improvement. Understanding Assessment in Medical Education through Quality Assurance: Addresses a key gap in the literature by offering an international confluence of best practices in relation to quality assurance of assessment, both within academic institutions and at national and international accreditation levels Provides insight into international best practice through illuminating case studies Addresses performance-based, workplace-based, and programmatic assessment Outlines the role of technology in the quality assurance of assessment processes Explores ethical considerations and health and safety issues that impact standardization of QA processes

GEOFF NORMAN McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada CEES VAN DER VLEUTEN University of Maastricht, Netherlands DA VID NEWBLE University of Sheffield, England The International Handbook of Research in Medical Education is a review of current research findings and contemporary issues in health sciences education. The orientation is toward research evidence as a basis for informing policy and practice in education. Although most of the research findings have accrued from the study of medical education, the handbook will be useful to teachers and researchers in all health professions and others concerned with professional education. The handbook comprises 33 chapters organized into six sections: Research Traditions, Learning, The Educational Continuum, Instructional Strategies, Assessment, and Implementing the Curriculum. The research orientation of the handbook will make the book an invaluable resource to researchers and scholars, and should help practitioners to identify research to place their educational decisions on a sound empirical footing. THE FIELD OF RESEARCH IN MEDICAL EDUCAnON The discipline of medical education began in North America more than thirty years ago with the founding of the first office in medical education at Buffalo, New York, by George Miller in the early 1960s. Soon after, large offices were established in medical schools in Chicago (University of Illinois), Los Angeles (University of Southern California) and Lansing (Michigan State University). All these first generation offices mounted master's level programs in medical education, and many of their graduates went on to found offices at other schools.