Useful Links

Bibliographic Databases

Use the following websites to search academic journal content by subject. Websites marked “OA” indicate an emphasis on Open Access resources, for which full text is freely available.

• Bioline International OA
• Open access to peer-reviewed bioscience journals published in developing countries. Journals contain timely research on public health, international development, tropical medicine, food and nutritional security, and biodiversity.
• BioMed Central (BMC): The Open Access Publisher OA
• Open access science, technology, and medicine (STM) publisher. Journals include general titles BMC Biology and BMC Medicine alongside specialist journals that focus on particular disciplines.
• BIREME/PAHO Virtual Health Library
• Data on scientific, legal, technical, and factual health information.
• The Cochrane Library
• An international network providing systematic reviews of primary research in human health care and health policy.
• Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) OA
• An on-line digital library of education research and information. Collection includes journal articles, books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers, and other education-related materials.
• Global Health Library (GHL)
• Developed by the WHO, the GHL provides access to global and regional indexes of scientific and technical literature.
• Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) OA for developing economies
• Provides free or very low cost on-line access to major journals in biomedical and related social sciences for local, not-for-profit institutions in developing countries.
• HighWire Press, Stanford University OA for developing economies
• Free on-line access to a list of selected journals for readers from developing economies.
• medIND, Biomedical Journals from India
• Peer-reviewed Indian biomedical literature.
• OpenMED, National Informatics Centre, India OA
• Open access archive of both published and unpublished documents having relevance to research in areas of medical and allied sciences, such as biomedical, medical informatics, dental, nursing, and pharmaceutical sciences.
• PubMed
  • PubMed Central OA
  • United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.

Bibliographic Directories

The following websites contain lists of academic journals for the health professions. Websites marked “OA” indicate an emphasis on Open Access resources, for which full text is freely available.

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) OA
• Open access journals covering all topics and languages.
• Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research Free Medical Journals OA
• Free medical journals spanning a wide range of topics in English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian.
• Health Sciences Online (HSO)
• A virtual learning center that provides free, on-line links to courses and references in medicine, public health, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, basic sciences, and other health sciences disciplines.
• LivRe Portal to Free Access Journals (Brazil) OA
• Free access to journals on the Internet in Portuguese.
• Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
• Composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences, the SSRN e-library includes an Abstract Database containing abstracts on scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers, and an Electronic Paper Collection containing downloadable full text documents.
• Stanford School of Medicine LaneConnex Global Health Portal
• Provides global resources including databases, journals, and websites on different regions.

Survey Tools

The following websites provide web-based software for surveys.

• FreeOnlineSurveys.com
• Provides a free account that allows customers to create a survey of up to 20 questions and receive up to 50 responses over a ten-day period, providing a variety of ways to distribute surveys and collect and analyze results.
• QuestionPro
• An on-line research tool that deploys both web-based and e-mail surveys, providing a variety of analysis tools. Allows for the integration of multimedia tools, office software, and SPSS.
• StatPac Survey
• A package of three professional survey software programs for processing surveys, providing on-line surveys, calculating basic statistics, and performing advanced statistical analysis.
• SurveyMonkey
• An on-line research tool that enables users to create their own web-based surveys, providing a wide range of choices in how to design the survey, how to get responses, and how to analyze results.

• BiomedExperts
• An on-line community that allow scientists and researchers across organizations and nations to share data and collaborate with each other by creating profiles for the authors who have published articles in PubMed over the last ten years.
• Community of Science (COS)
• A resource that allows researchers to showcase their work, conduct research, and identify potential collaborators among scholars from universities, corporations, and nonprofits in more than 170 countries.
• ResearchGATE Scientific Network
• A professional network for scientists to connect with colleagues, build their own scientific network, and discover new methods, papers, and job opportunities.

Curriculum Planning, Assessment, and Teaching Strategies

The following websites provide resources for educator development, course design, and planning.

• ACGME Outcome Project
• A long-term initiative that puts an emphasis on educational outcomes in the accreditation of medical residency education programs.
• ALPS Reflect
• A tool that facilitates reflection on general features of education, classroom activities, and self-assessment.
• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Knowledge Media Laboratory
• Helps teachers, faculties, programs, and institutions collectively advance teaching and learning by exchanging educational knowledge, experiences, ideas, and reflections through various technologies and resources.
• Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH)
• A nonprofit organization that promotes health through partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions through service-learning, community-based participatory research, broad-based coalitions, and other partnership strategies.
• Designing a Teaching Portfolio, Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence (PDF)
• An annotated list of some useful readings and general guidelines on the topic of teaching portfolios.
• Distance Learning for Health: What Works. A Global Review of Accredited Post-Qualification Training Programmes for Health Workers in Low and Middle Income Countries (PDF)
• Summarizes findings of a global review by the London International Development Centre (LIDC) to identify patterns of success and impact, and outline likely trends, in the nature and provision of distance learning for health (DL4H) in low and middle income countries with a view toward informing future policy, research, and investment.
• Faculty Mentoring Guide, Virginia Commonwealth University
• A guide to encourage mentoring activities; a series of suggestions based on research concerning mentoring in health care, academia, and business.
• Fundamentals of Assessment in Medical Education (FAME) Course
• A basic-level course on educational assessment, designed for those who are members of medical faculties and are likely to be relatively new to teaching and assessment. Instruction concentrates on the application of assessment principles to assessment problems.
• Institute for International Medical Education (IIME) Global Minimum Essential Requirements in Medical Education
• A set of core competencies that encompass all important domains of medical practice. Specifies the knowledge, skills, professional attitudes, and behavior of universal value to the practice of medicine.
• International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Web Seminars
• Shares current and innovative means for teaching the sciences fundamental to medicine and health and provides a forum for discussion of issues affecting medical science education and educators.
• National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Item Writing Manual
• Provides an overview of item formats, concentrating on the traditional one-best-answer and matching formats, aiming to help faculty members improve the quality of the multiple-choice questions written for their examinations.
• The Johns Hopkins Center for Technology in Education Digital Portfolio
• A web-based assessment and presentation application that allows users to demonstrate their capabilities and achievements in relation to a predetermined set of principles or standards.
• WFME Global Standards for Quality Improvement – Basic Medical Education (PDF)
• An overview of the World Federation for Medical Education’s (WFME) standards for basic medical education, including the standards for educational programs, assessment of students, educational resources, program evaluation, and governance and administration.
• WFME Global Standards for Quality Improvement – Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of Medical Doctors (PDF)
• An overview of the World Federation for Medical Education’s (WFME) standards for CPD, including standards for learning methods, educational context and resources, and evaluation of methods and competencies.
• WFME Global Standards for Quality Improvement – Postgraduate Medical Education (PDF)
• An overview of the World Federation for Medical Education’s (WFME) standards for postgraduate medical education, including standards for training process, assessment of trainees, evaluation of training process, and governance and administration.

Teaching Materials

The following websites provide access to tools that can be used in the classroom, such as textbooks, lectures, and digital teaching modules.

• AAMC MedEdPortal
• A free peer-reviewed publication service and repository for medical and oral health teaching materials, assessment tools, and faculty development resources.
• African Medical & Research Foundation (AMREF) Training and Health Learning Materials
• Provides various databases to search for books, videos, publications, articles, images, and journals.
• Baylor College of Medicine Online CME
• Provides free on-line CME activities related to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, medical ethics, pediatrics, surgery, and women’s health.
• BMJ Learning
• On-line continuing professional development and training courses containing various kinds of interactive CME and training modules.
• Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health (CES4Health.info)
• A free, on-line mechanism for peer reviewing, publishing, and disseminating products of health-related, community-based scholarship that are in forms other than journal articles.
• Education Scholar Fee Required
• A web-based program for improving instructional skills for educators in the health professions.
• Expanded Textbook and Instructional Materials Program (PALTEX) Latin America only
• Provides books and instruments to students and health professionals; publishes and distributes manuals and other materials focused on the needs of health service personnel at all levels of the health system.
• Free Books 4 Doctors
• Promotes free access to medical books.
• Free Medical Journals
• Provides free on-line journals classified according to medical topics, available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
• Global Health eLearning Center
• Provides flexible Internet-based courses in key public health areas with access to important up-to-date technical information.
• Health Education Assets Library (HEAL)
• A digital repository that allows medical educators to discover, download, reuse, and discuss medical education resources and methods.
• Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE)
• An on-line research journal employing visualization to increase reproducibility and transparency in biological sciences.
• Knowledge Weavers Project, University of Utah Health Sciences Center
• Multimedia resources, including tutorials, interactive cases, animations, and other multimedia methods of delivery, to support health sciences education.
• PAHO Virtual Campus of Public Health (Campus Virtual de Salud Pública)
• On-line educational tool of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for networked learning in the region of the Americas.
• Portal of Geriatric Online Education (POGOe)
• A free public repository of educational materials in various e-learning formats, including lectures, exercises, virtual patients, case-based discussions, and simulations.
• Pearson Custom Library: Allied Health
• An on-line book-building program where an educator can browse and preview the selections available and tailor a textbook to fit the individual needs of a specific course or specific students in Allied Health.
• Pearson Custom Library: Pearson Custom Education
• An on-line book-building program where an educator can browse and preview the selections available and tailor a textbook to fit the individual needs of a specific course or specific students in Education.
• Supercourse
• A repository of lectures on global health and prevention designed to improve the teaching of prevention.
• The Residents’ Teaching Skills Website, University of California, Irvine
• An on-line collaboration for resident teachers to learn and improve teaching skills through sharing, watching teaching videos, and acknowledging what other teachers are doing.
• Tufts OpenCourseWare
• A joint project with MIT that offers free access to certain course content on-line, in an effort to share knowledge and make the best educational use of the internet’s potential.

Team Based Learning

• Team-Based Learning (TBL)
• Provides basic knowledge on how to apply TBL methods. Includes a TBL Collaborative for discussion of current TBL hot topics, and a TBL Listserve.
• Team-Based Learning Collaborative (TBLC)
• Collaborative resources, including discussions on current topics in TBL. TBL Case Bank only accessible for TBLC members.
• Baylor College of Medicine Team Based Learning
• Provides background information, internet-based resources on TBL, and a rationale for using TBL in medical education.
• Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine Team-Based Learning (TBL)
• Free access to articles, books, modules, posters, videos, and websites of TBL theories and application.

• Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Minnesota
• Provides faculty with information about active learning, course design, lecturing, and grading.
• Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
• Provides resources for the health professions community, including a general educational resource center, web sources on traditional teaching, active learning strategies, clinical teaching and education, educational and instructional technology, student evaluation, assessment, and career development.
• Fundamentals of Assessment in Medical Education (FAME) Course
• A basic-level course on educational assessment, designed for those who are members of medical faculties and are likely to be relatively new to teaching and assessment. Instruction concentrates on the application of assessment principles to assessment problems.
• Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP)
• Conducts research on the past, present, and future roles of professionalism in guiding individual behavior and collective action. Relevant for physicians, leaders of medical organizations, policy analysts, public officials, and consumers.
• Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence
• Faculty resource that includes workshops and programs, tools and tips for teaching and learning, information on teaching support grants, and information for TA and graduate instructors.
• Program for Faculty Development, McMaster University
• Offers various programs and workshops aimed at improving teaching effectiveness, works with interprofessional academic units to assist with curriculum and course development activities, and offers on-site consultations.
• Teacher and Educational Development (TED), The University of New Mexico School of Medicine
• Facilitates and promotes the development of highly skilled educators and learners through scholarship, leadership, and innovation.
• The Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University
• Provides training and resources for teachers, teaching assistants, and students to improve teaching and learning skills.

The following websites provide other information for health professions educators.

• Academic Medicine Classics
• A collection of articles published in the journal since 1990 that have been cited 50 or more times.
• Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME)
• Systematic reviews of medical education topics summarizing the best evidence available.
• Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain
• A brief orientation of the different levels a learner would experience during learning.
• Clinical Genetic Education Resources
• Resources on genetics curricula, courses, cases, exams, conferences, and other related information.
• International Handbook of Research in Medical Education
• A review of current research findings and contemporary issues in health sciences education with an orientation toward research evidence as a basis for informing policy and practice in education.
• MedEdCentral
• A broad, international database on medical education and related health care professions built on the wiki principle. Includes information on books, conferences, courses, journals, schools, and organizations.
• MedEdWorld
• An international network through which organizations, medical schools, and individual teachers can share ideas, experiences, and expertise and collaborate in the further development of medical education.