The Irish Network of Medical Educators was founded in 2008 with the aim of enhancing medical education on the island of Ireland by bringing together individuals and organisations with an interest in and responsibilities for medical and healthcare education. The organisation began as a collaboration between the seven undergraduate medical schools on the island of Ireland. It has since developed into a de facto collaboration between postgraduate colleges and undergraduate schools. There are also an increasing number of participants in INMED who come from a variety of health professions other than medicine.
The success of the organisation’s Annual Scientific Meeting has steadily grown and is a core feature of the organisation’s annual business along with 2-3 one day educational symposia and the introduction this year of research and travel bursaries. The organisation has developed a new website to promote its activities (www.inmed.ie). All of this has been achieved through the voluntary efforts to help professional educators around Ireland. Initially, this was done on an ad hoc basis and more recently the efforts have been co-ordinated with the establishment of the INMED executive. INMED has operated a de facto membership based on attendance at the annual scientific meeting and the symposia. It is now considering establishing a formal membership scheme.
Website: www.inmed.ie
Contact: Peter Cantillon – peter.cantillon@nuigalway.ie
Mission Statement:
The Irish Network of Medical Educators seeks to enhance medical and health professional education on the island of Ireland by bringing together individuals and organisations with an interest in and responsibilities for the education of health professionals.
INMED seeks to:
a) Promote the highest quality of medical and health professions education in all its constituent institutions.
b) Provide opportunities for professional development for health professional educators.
c) Provide a central means of sharing educational resources between individual and institutional members.
d) Encourage and support robust health professional education research.
e) Inform and advise on health professional education.
f) Develop supportive and influential relationships with other relevant national and international organisations in health professional education.
CURRENT STATUS
INMED is a voluntary organisation dedicated to improving the quality of health professions education in Ireland through the promotion of faculty development and research. The organisation has a board which was established based on representation from each of the founding institutions in 2008. The INMED executive was established in 2012 in response to an observation that there was a requirement for continuity between annual scientific meetings. The executive was appointed by the board following nominations. The INMED board meets once a year at the AGM and has grown to include members from postgraduate colleges. INMED has a constitution which was loosely based on the ASME constitution; while the constitution was appropriately worded, it is clear that INMED as it currently operates is not quite aligned to the stipulations of the constitution. It is also clear that if INMED is to achieve charitable status, (something that it urgently needs to do), it needs to clarify its own governance and accountability procedures.
From a standing start INMED now offers the following:
1. An annual scientific meeting over 2 1/2 days. That includes a full preconference day. The conference attracted 200+ delegates in 2013
2. Two faculty development symposia per annum, allowing focused attention to particular topics in health professions education/research. These are situated in host institutions and attract between 30 and 80 delegates each time
3. A biannual newsletter that updates and INMED mailing list about health professional education development in Ireland and elsewhere
4. Research and travel grant bursaries
5. A dedicated INMED website with the potential to support the running of conferences, symposia, grant applications, as well as provide resource areas for members
In a relatively short period, INMED has become the pre-eminent health professions education collaborative grouping on the island of Ireland. However, it remains an organisation that is resourced and run by volunteers. It has no dedicated administrative support. It is not financially secure as it depends entirely on the income achieved at the annual scientific meeting and symposia.
GOVERNANCE AND ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
The governance of INMED is described in its constitution,
The current organisational structure can be characterised as follows:
1. The INMED Board and interested parties, (the de facto membership) coalesce once a year at the AGM to review issues raised by the executive and work to an agenda set by the executive
2. The Board members act as advocates for INMED within their own institutions
3. The INMED Executive carries out all of the administrative, strategic and operational functions of INMED and form half of the organisational team for each annual scientific meeting
4. The host institution organisational team members make a considerable contribution to running the annual scientific meeting, but do not contribute otherwise contribute to INMED unless coincidentally members of the board
