News Briefs: Professional Resources Updates

This roundup includes the following updates on professional resources available:

Family medicine educators can take advantage of an updated version of an online teaching and assessment resources repository first launched in 2006 by the Association of American Medical Colleges, or AAMC. The free service, known as MedEdPORTAL 2.0, provides enhanced access to peer-reviewed educational materials for medical and dental clinicians.

Improvements to the AAMC resource include a fully integrated content and digital asset management system and other enhancements that allow users to download a much greater proportion of the resources available from MedEdPORTAL. Specifically, 90 percent of the repository's 1,300 publications can be downloaded directly from the MedEdPORTAL Web site or by linking to external Web sites. The other 10 percent have special considerations and will continue to be disseminated by MedEdPORTAL staff members.

MedEdPORTAL 2.0 also boasts a stronger search engine than the original version, permitting searches through a greater number of metrics and within varying publication formats, such as PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and PDFs.

In addition, the MedEdPORTAL Web site update now permits the collection and dissemination of a variety of end-user data that authors can use to learn the impact of their materials.

The Association of American Medical Colleges, or AAMC, has released its 2010-11 Medical School Admission Requirements, or MSAR, guidebook.

Considered a primary source of information on all U.S. and Canadian medical schools, the MSAR provides medical school applicants with up-to-date information on newly accredited medical schools. It also provides information on application procedures and deadlines; the role of selection factors, such as Medical College Admission Test scores; medical school class profiles; program costs and financial aid; M.D./Ph.D. and other combined degree programs; graduates' specialty choices; and current licensing exam policies.