The DIME Core Research Unit will: 

• Create an environment that enables innovation and advances in medical education;

• promote and evaluate breakthrough advances in medical education across the medical education continuum, including but not limited to: 

• Clinical skills development;

• Evaluation;

• Professional development;

• Technology-supported education;

• Promote evidence-based medical education to enhance the knowledge and practice of physicians and physicians in training for the improvement of patient care;

• Support inter-professional education; 

• Foster the growth and development of pedagogic research, program development and evaluation, and advanced studies in medical education; 

• Facilitate the translation of pedagogic research findings into educational practices;  

• Support and develop leading edge technological applications to support e-learning, clinical simulation, evaluation, knowledge management and knowledge transfer related to medical education;

• Promote collaborative partnerships to achieve the vision of the core research unit. 

The Core Research Unit will provide infrastructure to promote interactions between the pillars and will promote research and innovation in each. While each of the pillars will provide scholarly educational activities, an emphasis on the scholarship of teaching will be facilitated by the unit. The activities of this research unit will also offer opportunities for interdisciplinary and interfaculty collaboration, especially in the health sciences, recognizing the increasingly important role of teams in our health care system.

The DIME Research Unit will serve as the research and innovation nidus for 4 key pillars of activity in medical education: 

• Simulation and clinical skills development;
• Evaluation;
• Continuing professional development (Master’s of Education; advances in Continuing Medical Education and knowledge translation); and
• Technology assisted learning.