I want to express my excitement about joining the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) as the Director of Educational Technology and Standards and convener of the MedBiquitous (MedBiq) Community. I am humbled and honored to take on the transition of MedBiq as a program of the AAMC and want to acknowledge the leadership that Valerie Smothers and Peter Greene provided at Johns Hopkins over the years.
I have been involved with and have explored the intersection of the medical education and educational technology communities for several years. I look forward to strengthening existing relationships and developing new ones as MedBiq is now positioned within a national organization. It is important to emphasize that, despite MedBiq’s new home within an association focused on medical education, the standards are intended to scale across the health professions. The original charge of being international and focused on the health professions remains unchanged.
Opening Priorities
Although my tenure has only just begun, I do have some “out of the gate” goals and updates for the program. My first goal is to invigorate community engagement. As a MedBiq participant for many years, one of the hallmarks has been engaging with a community of individuals with a shared purpose and commitment to developing systems for the interoperability of educational technology. We will continue the strong tradition of community involvement in the development, implementation, and scholarship of health professions education technology interoperability.
To support this effort, we will resume the annual MedBiquitous conference in June 2020, which will convene in New York as a one-day event in conjunction with the annual AAMC Group on Information Resources (GIR) Information Technology in Academic Medicine meeting. Planning will begin shortly, and as details and the agenda emerge, I will share with you.
In addition to community engagement, my other opening priority is to ensure successful transition of MedBiq to the AAMC. I thank Anne Farmakidis and Dr. Alison Whelan for entrusting me with this task. We are actively working with business development and other teams at the AAMC to ensure that all appropriate pieces are in place. As we finalize this transition, we will continue to hold to the core commitment of MedBiquitous “to develop and promote technology standards for the health professions that advance lifelong learning, continuous improvement, and better patient outcomes.”
To ensure the community’s voice is present in MedBiq’s future, we will convene a visioning meeting this fall with AAMC staff and invited MedBiq stakeholders. The output of this meeting will help to set a community driven vision for the future of MedBiquitous and health professions education data exchange standards.
Thank you for the warm welcomes received from many of you. I invite AAMC staff, the MedBiq community, new and old, and others who are interested to join us as we continue to LEARN and grow together. Please consider how you might SERVE the community by participating in MedBiq workgroups or committees. Together, we will LEAD MedBiquitous into a bright future with the AAMC.
Best regards,
Johmarx Elijah Patton, MD, MHI