AMEE Faculty Development Committee Meeting at the AMEE 2017 conference in Helsinki / Finland

In February 2017, AMEE created the Faculty Development Committee. AMEE committees are instituted by the AMEE Executive Committee in order to promote AMEE’s activities in specific areas. Each AMEE Committee is designed to contribute to AMEE’s mission of advancing best practice and excellence in medical education.

The tasks of the Faculty Development Committee tasks include:

• to advance best practice and excellence in the development of health professional academic faculty across the globe,
• to provide advice to the AMEE Executive Committee and AMEE staff on the area of faculty and health professional educator development,
• to promote scholarly work in faculty and health professional educator development to and among the membership of AMEE,
• to oversee the selection of sites and appointment of conference organising committees for biennial International Conferences on Faculty Development in the Health Professions into the future,
• to develop and deliver a symposium on a current topic in faculty and health professional educator development at each AMEE conference that is not associated with an International Conference on Faculty Development in the Health Professions,
• to consider and develop other global and regional activities to support and advance faculty and health professional educator development,
• to keep AMEE members informed about current issues and events in faculty and health professional educator development through MedEdWorld and MedEdPublish.

Yvonne Steinert, Canada, chaired the first AMEE Faculty Development Committee Meeting, on 28 August in Helsinki. Next to the chairperson, Eliana Amaral (Brazil), Miriam Boillat (Canada), Amy Dionne (Canada), Dave Irby (USA), Outi Kortekangas (Finland), Pat O’Sullivan (USA), Gary Rogers (Australia), Dujeepa Samarasekera (Singapore), Howard Tandeter (Israel) and Peter Dieter (Germany), representing AMSE, were present. In the meeting topics such as the next Faculty Development Conference, roles of the committee members, feedback from the exhibition booth at the AMEE conference and the development of a working plan were discussed. In particular, AMSE will use its membership in the Committee to assist the Deans and faculty members in their role in Leadership and Faculty Development.