Books and Book Chapters

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  How to Approach Medical Education Research

  Stefanie Attardi, Jeff Cross, and Sarah Lerchenfeldt

  Publication Date: 1-1-2025

  Medical education research blends two of the core functions of academic medicine: teaching and scholarship. Its value is increasingly recognized in promotion and tenure decisions, and in the number of funding sources available. Similar to other types of research, it starts with a well-crafted question and a thorough review of the literature. For a successful project, it is critical to select the research design that can best answer the research question, keeping in mind its advantages and limitations. Because the research design must also adhere to ethical principles, working closely with the local Institutional Review Board prior to starting the data collection is recommended. © 2025 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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  We are the Ethics Police

  Abram L. Brummett

  Publication Date: 7-2025

  When speaking colloquially about the role of the clinical ethicist, many ethicists declare, “We are not the ethics police.” However, I argue that if not being the “ethics police” means the ethicist should not give moral recommendations when consulted, then the phrase should be retired because it reflects a confused sense of professional identity. If the ethical watchdogs of the hospital are muzzled in the name of a misguided respect for value pluralism, good medical care will be hindered, and egregiously unethical consequences will result. In this chapter, I argue against this confused colloquialism and instead assert, with important qualifications, that we are the ethics police.

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  Problem-Based Learning and Artificial Intelligence

  Varna Taranikanti and Srineil Vuthaluru

  Publication Date: 1-1-2025

  In the current digital era, significant advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have influenced various fields worldwide, particularly within the health professional education sector. This progress has also percolated into the medical education system, where Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is routinely used as a key pedagogical strategy. In PBL, students are able to fully exert their exploratory skills by solve problems through a student-centered learning approach. PBL also fosters critical thinking and encourages self-directed learning through the inquiry of clinical case scenarios. This chapter investigates the integration of AI, specifically tools like ChatGPT, into PBL frameworks to enhance learning outcomes for medical and other health profession students. By leveraging sophisticated natural language processing capabilities such as large-language models (LLMs). Machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP), AI empowers users to access immediate and accurate information, facilitating independent learning. The discussion encompasses current applications of AI-enhanced PBL in health professional education, and clinical education. Ultimately, the chapter aims to illustrate how AI can revolutionize PBL, fostering more effective and personalized educational experiences in medical training. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

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  Reflexive Modernity and the Sociology of Health

  Jason Adam Wasserman and Brian P. Hinote

  Publication Date: 6-2025

  The analysis and explanation of increasingly complex social phenomena represents one of the foremost challenges of sociological theory. This is particularly important in the sociology of health because definitions of health, mechanisms of disease, the nature of clinical medicine, and the structure of health care delivery are all undergoing fundamental transformations in late modernity. In this chapter, we draw upon the insights of Ulrich Beck (1992, 1994, 1999) to demonstrate the requisite elements of a health sociology “on the move” that can engage the multidimensional and dynamic health-related phenomena of late modernity. We employ Beck’s conceptualization of reflexive modernization to analyze critical developments in the relationship between sociological theory, medicine, and the contemporary landscape of health and illness. Connecting these various developments helps us make sense of a contemporary health landscape that can often feel fractured and chaotic, but which is systematically curated by fundamental social forces

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  Should We Change? The Ethics of Human Enhancement

  Jason Adam Wasserman, Parker Crutchfield, and Abram Brummett

  Publication Date: 6-28-2024

  This book is the first edited volume to present multidisciplinary perspectives on various aspects of changes that humans experience. Relevant for empirical and theoretical work, the handbook will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students across psychology, behavioral sciences and social sciences.