Conference Agenda

Background and Aim: Undergraduate clinical education within large healthcare organisations is often delivered across multiple specialties, universities, clinical teams and educational fellows. Although individual teaching activities may be effective, the absence of central oversight can lead to fragmented communication, variable learner experiences, placement overcrowding and inefficient use of educational capacity. This project aimed to develop a transferable model of educational systems leadership that coordinates these parallel structures as a single educational network.

Materials and Methods: A Central Educational Coordination Model was designed and implemented through a Lead Educational Fellow acting as an educational systems coordinator. The role linked students, eight Educational Fellows, clinical teams, university partners and educational governance structures. Core components included learner mapping, shared educational calendars, standardised induction resources, role-allocation frameworks, communication pathways, attendance and escalation processes, and structured support for educators. The model was implemented across Acute Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Care of the Elderly, Rheumatology and simulation-based education.

Results: Central coordination improved organisational visibility of learner distribution and identified periods when approximately 48–54 medical students were placed on site simultaneously. This enabled earlier recognition of placement-capacity pressures, underused teaching opportunities and mismatches between learner demand and educator availability. The model strengthened communication between previously separate stakeholders, reduced uncertainty and duplication, and improved consistency in induction, teaching coverage, pastoral support and educational governance. Most importantly, it shifted educational management from reactive problem-solving towards proactive systems coordination.

Conclusions: Central coordination was introduced not simply to deliver more teaching, but to enable multiple educational structures to function as a coordinated system. Educational leadership should therefore extend beyond isolated teaching activity towards the management of complex educational networks. This model is scalable and may support other healthcare organisations seeking to improve governance, communication, educational capacity and learner experience.

Background: Regional challenges, workforce migration, and rapid integration of modern teaching tools demand clear cross-border recognition of clinical competencies. Within the EU and EU skills-portability initiatives, mutually comparable and transparently documented curricula are essential. Communication skills are universally recognized as a core clinical outcome, yet their documentation varies significantly. As part of the SAFEMED+ project, we mapped communication-skills teaching across six medical schools in Georgia, Ukraine, and Armenia against AAMC standards and Lithuanian outcome benchmarks to assess curriculum coverage and documentation transparency.

Methods: Curriculum coordinators from six institutions (Tbilisi Medical Academy, Tbilisi State Medical University, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Bukovinian State Medical University, Yerevan Haybusak University, Yerevan State Medical University after Mkhitar Heratsi) completed a standardized mapping tool covering 46 communication-skills competencies. Data were collected on delivery timing (year/semester), host modules, ECTS credits, and practical teaching modalities (standardized patients, manikins, peer role-play, real patients). A matrix of 276 skill-school pairs (46 skills × 6 institutions) was analyzed to assess mapping completeness.

Results: Only 65 of 276 cells (23.6%) contained fully documented mapping, leaving 76.4% of expected entries unmapped. No single communication skill was consistently documented across all six medical schools. The highest documentation rates were for basic history-taking and professionalism (present in 4–5 schools), whereas 11 of 46 competencies (23.9%) lacked official documentation. Standardized patients (47%) and peer simulations (37%) were the primary teaching methods, whereas manikins were used only rarely (5%). ECTS credits ranged widely (9–48 ECTS) and were embedded within broader clinical subjects rather than in standalone communication modules.

Conclusions: Although clinical teaching content aligns conceptually with international guidelines, fragmented documentation limits transparency, benchmarking, and diploma recognition. Implementing a standardized, low-cost curriculum-mapping framework, anchored in established European models like Lithuania's learning outcomes, is a practical step toward improving academic mobility and educational resilience.

Background: Undergraduate medical education relies on physicians who balance their clinical responsibilities with teaching, which requires motivated teachers and institutional initiatives that foster a satisfactory environment. To inform the development of effective strategies, this study aims to study the association between the motivation and satisfaction to teach.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 414 physicians involved in clinical teaching at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar of University of Porto were invited to complete a digital questionnaire. 179 teachers (43.2%) responded. The survey collected demographic and professional data, assessed teaching satisfaction using a scale developed by M.J.M. Verhees et al, and evaluated motivation using the Physician Teaching Motivation Questionnaire (PTMQ). Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed, and internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha.

Results: PCA identified one construct for the satisfaction scale and four domains for motivation, with good internal consistency (α > 0.70). General satisfaction was low (median 8.6/20, IQR 4.3), as were scores for career-oriented motivation (7.5/20, IQR 6.2) and introjected and external motivation (5.0/20, IQR 5.0). In contrast, intrinsic motivation (14.1/20, IQR 5.0) and identified motivation (16.7/20, IQR 5.0) scored higher. Satisfaction was significantly associated with all motivation domains (crude association), after adjusting intrinsic motivation demonstrating the strongest associations with higher levels of satisfaction compared to other factors (β=1.8, p<0.001). Additionally, older age (p=0.016), higher academic rank (p=0.015), and higher medical category (p=0.026) were significantly associated with greater satisfaction.

Conclusion: Despite reporting low overall satisfaction, clinical teachers demonstrate high motivation to teach, driven primarily by an altruistic commitment to educating the next generation. Our findings highlight that teaching satisfaction is significantly associated with multiple motivation domains, particularly intrinsic factors. This research provides institutions with a framework to design initiatives that improve the academic environment and encourage clinicians to pursue teaching roles.

Near-peer teaching (NPT) in medical education supports active learning and peer engagement while fostering professional development. Recently, an increasing number of NPT tutors have joined the theoretical and clinical institutes of the University of Pécs Medical School. In 2016, our faculty founded the Circle of Demonstrator Students (DDK), whose goal is to support students who actively participate in the teaching work of our theoretical institutes and clinics. Initially, the organization had 51 registered members, a number that has steadily increased over the years, reaching 387 registered members in the spring semester of the 2025/2026 academic year. Since its founding, a total of 1312 students have participated in NPT activity. Of the registered students, 306 also registered for the NPT credit course, in which they can earn 2 elective credits for their work during the semester. With DDK support, top NPT tutors can hold workshops to share their knowledge and experiences with other students and apply for a DDK scholarship.

However, the academic benefits for NPT tutors, including effects on performance and graduation timelines, remain underexplored. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the impact of NPT participation on academic outcomes, including grade point averages (GPAs), final examination performance, and curriculum adherence. A five-year dataset comprising 1544 medical students was analyzed. Based on our results, participation as an NPT tutor was associated with higher academic performance and more efficient curricular progression.

The NPT activity gives the opportunity for the tutors to deepen their knowledge and lays an excellent foundation for acquiring the communication skills necessary for future postgraduate training or a career in teaching; moreover, the work of our NPT tutors can also serve as an inspiration to their fellow students.

Keywords: Neer-peer teaching, NPT tutors

Background and Aim. Regular vision screening in adulthood supports early detection of vision impairments yet increasing demand for eye care places growing pressure on ophthalmic services. Although validated tablet-based screening tools may help extend screening capacity beyond specialist settings, limited evidence exists on how non-ophthalmologist examiners can be trained to use them competently. This study evaluated whether nurses and medical students could acquire the skills required for bedside tablet-based visual acuity and stereovision screening after a short, structured competency-based training program.
Materials and Methods. A prospective, non-blinded educational pilot study included 24 nurses and medical students. Participants completed a competency-based training program designed according to Miller’s Pyramid of Clinical Competence and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle. Following theoretical training, supervised practice, and feedback, participants performed bedside visual acuity and stereovision testing on trauma inpatients using a tablet-based application. Each participant examined three patients on training day and three additional patients after a two-week consolidation period. Overall, 144 screening examinations were conducted on 48 patients. Learning outcomes included training satisfaction, perceived competence, application usability, and observer-rated clinical competence, while semi-structured interviews explored participants’ experiences.
Results. All participants completed training and bedside screening processes without major technical or procedural difficulties. Training satisfaction and application usability remained high with mean scores 9.8/10 and 9.7/10. Self-assessed competence improved significantly after the consolidation period (7.41±1.26 vs. 7.74 ±1.12; p=0.033), while observer-rated competence scores remained high. Interviews provided additional insight into learning processes and factors influencing competence acquisition.
Conclusions. A short, structured competency-based training program may be a feasible model for preparing non-ophthalmologist examiners to perform tablet-based bedside vision screening. High acceptability, excellent usability, self-perceived competence, and consistently high observer-rated performance support the educational value of this approach. Further studies should evaluate measurement accuracy and clinical reliability when screening is performed by trained non-specialist examiners.

Clinical reasoning, the capacity to generate and weigh differential diagnoses under uncertainty from incomplete data, is built through sustained cognitive effort: the struggle to interpret ambiguous findings before a correct answer is known. This presentation examines a concern with direct relevance to medical education: generative AI tools that supply likely diagnoses within seconds may remove the very cognitive space in which clinical reasoning is trained, a mechanism this presentation terms the collapse of the productive struggle that expertise depends on.

Drawing on cognitive and educational neuroscience, including research on desirable difficulties, productive failure, and cognitive offloading, the presentation argues that medical students who consistently practice diagnostic reasoning with AI assistance available risk developing what may be described as simulated competence: correct answers produced by the tool rather than by the student's own developing judgment. Early evidence from adjacent educational contexts, showing improved performance with AI assistance but impaired performance once assistance is withdrawn, raises a question medical schools cannot avoid: what standards of evidence should govern the integration of AI into clinical training, given that the outcome in question is the reasoning of the next generation of physicians.

The presentation then extends this argument beyond the medical school. If academic medicine observes this mechanism in its own students, it is well positioned, through its tradition of precautionary standards and evidence-based practice, to contribute a missing perspective to the wider debate on generative AI in children's education, where hundreds of millions of children now use AI tools daily with little long-term neuroscientific evaluation.

The presentation concludes with concrete recommendations for medical curricula: minimum unassisted-reasoning requirements before AI-assisted diagnostic exercises, assessment designs that distinguish genuine clinical judgment from AI-assisted performance, and a call for medical educators to engage actively in AI-education policy discussions beyond their own institutions.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into healthcare, creating a need for future physicians who should have the skills to use AI critically, responsibly, and professionally. Although AI education is expanding in undergraduate medical education, most evaluations focus on learner satisfaction or self-reported confidence, providing a limited understanding of how AI literacy develops during learning.

Aim: To explore the development of AI literacy among undergraduate medical students through longitudinal analysis of structured reflective logbooks completed during an AI course.

Methods: A qualitative longitudinal study was conducted using structured self-reflection logbooks completed after each session of a nine-day AI course at David Tvildiani Medical University (Georgia). Fifteen students enrolled, and logbooks from 12 students who completed the full longitudinal portfolio were analyzed. Data were examined using inductive qualitative content analysis, with codes iteratively developed and synthesized into higher-order themes representing the progression of AI literacy.

Results: Students' reflections demonstrated a developmental trajectory across four interconnected stages: Understanding AI, emphasizing foundational knowledge and recognition of AI capabilities and limitations; Understanding AI Systems, reflecting deeper understanding of data quality, machine learning, model evaluation, and generative AI limitations; Critical AI Use, characterized by prompt engineering, evidence-informed AI use, clinical applications, and critical appraisal of AI-generated information; and Professional AI Practice, focusing on ethics, governance, patient safety, professional accountability, and the continuing importance of human clinical judgment. Overall, reflections progressed from knowledge acquisition to critical, ethical, and professional integration of AI into healthcare.

Conclusions: Longitudinal reflective logbooks provided meaningful insight into AI literacy development during a structured AI course. The identified trajectory aligns with key domains of the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Students, including AI techniques and applications, critical evaluation, ethical use of AI, and human-centered professional practice. Structured reflective logbooks may represent a valuable approach for evaluating AI literacy development in undergraduate medical education.

Background and Aim
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has raised concerns about score inflation and the validity of written assessments. This study examined whether performance in supervised medical examinations changed across three academic years of widespread AI availability.

Materials and Methods
A retrospective repeated cross-sectional study analyzed 4,874 examination responses from Karaganda Medical University in 2023/2024–2025/2026: 2,850 in second-year basic sciences and 2,024 in fourth-year internal medicine. Examination format, supervision, and scoring remained unchanged; devices, reference materials, and AI were prohibited. Scores were compared using Kruskal–Wallis tests and epsilon-squared effect sizes. For structured expert review, five questions were randomly selected from each discipline, and five responses scoring above 90 were sampled per question and year (n=150). Five faculty experts independently assessed responses, blinded to year, using a standardized rubric covering organization, completeness, knowledge integration, clinical reasoning, and overall quality.

Results
Clinical scores differed across years (H=11.78, p=0.003), but the effect was negligible (ε²=0.005); means were 80.95, 81.61, and 83.20. Basic-science scores varied more (H=94.98, p<0.001; ε²=0.033), with means of 69.76, 65.79, and 75.18. This non-linear pattern did not indicate consistent year-on-year score inflation. Expert review identified modest improvements in organization and readability, while completeness, knowledge integration, and clinical reasoning remained comparable.

Conclusions
Across three generative-AI-era cohorts, supervised examination performance showed no uniform score inflation. The findings do not support abandoning written examinations solely because of perceived AI-related effects. Assessment should instead evolve towards authentic case-based tasks requiring justification of clinical decisions. As individual AI use was not measured and no pre-AI cohort was available, the results indicate temporal patterns rather than causal effects.

Background and Aim: Since russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian medical education has had to combine academic continuity with direct response to humanitarian and healthcare needs. At Bogomolets National Medical University, student volunteering became an important form of early professional exposure: students joined humanitarian logistics, hospital-oriented charity projects, blood donation initiatives, premedical training and support for military personnel, internally displaced persons and residents of frontline or de-occupied areas. The aim of the study was to analyse early practice and volunteering as methods of professional formation in medical education under the crisis.

Materials and Methods: The authors conducted a descriptive analysis of institutional volunteering and early-practice activities at Bogomolets NMU. The paper focuses on student participation in humanitarian, medical, educational and community-oriented initiatives during war crisis, with attention to pedagogical, ethical and psychological aspects.

Results: Since the onset of the full-scale war, Bogomolets NMU students and tutors have participated in humanitarian aid collection and logistics, delivery of medicines and essential goods, support for healthcare institutions, charity fundraising for hospitals, donor mobilisation through the BLOOD+ initiative, and premedical training adapted to wartime conditions. Students also joined volunteer trips with medical teams to de-occupied communities and supported military personnel, Territorial Defence units, internally displaced persons, people from frontline areas. These activities helped students connect theoretical knowledge with real social and clinical needs, develop responsibility, empathy, teamwork, communication skills and professional identity. Volunteering also strengthened civic engagement and resilience. However, challenges included emotional overload, safety risks, unequal access to volunteer opportunities, insufficient supervision and the need for structured educational recognition of volunteer-based learning.

Conclusions: Early clinical exposure and volunteering can strengthen professional formation in wartime medical education. The Bogomolets NMU experience demonstrates that student volunteering may become a meaningful educational pathway when supported by supervision, psychological care and integration into competency-based medical training.