MedEdPORTAL

In 2005 the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) developed and launched MedEdPORTAL as a free publishing venue and dissemination portal to support educators and learners as they create and use on-line teaching materials, assessment tools and faculty development resources. As an internationally available service, MedEdPORTAL facilitates sharing of high quality peer-reviewed educational material and promotes collaboration and educational scholarship across institutions.

Examples of MedEdPORTAL publications include tutorials, virtual patients, cases, lab manuals, assessment instruments, faculty development materials, etc. For example, "360-Degree Communication and Professionalism Assessment Instrument" is an evaluation tool designed to provide an assessment of physicians and residents in the Professionalism and Interpersonal & Communication Skills competencies. The tool also evaluates leadership skills and can be used in CME as a competency assessment measure.

Learn about MedEdPORTAL from the comfort of your home or office by participating in a 45-minute interactive Web conference training workshop. View the upcoming workshops here.

The 5 Minute Library Virtual Tour

You can download and watch the Library Virtual Tour on your iPod or sit back and watch it on your computer with QuickTime in less than five minutes. The video will discuss amenities and services available at the Library and highlight each floor.

Getting to know the Medical Center Library just got a bit easier!

Finding Journal Impact Factors

We recently created a short (2:49min) video showing the steps involved in finding an impact factor for a specific journal using the Journal Citation Reports database (JCR). http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/training/jcr/impact_factors

What are impact factors and how could you use them?
JCR provides quantitative tools for evaluating journals. The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a given period of time. It attempts to measure the relative impact, or importance, of a journal within its specific field. Impact factors are useful in applying for tenure, grants, or in deciding where to publish.