The McMaster Education Research and Innovation Theory (MERIT) program is an education services program in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS). MERIT is dedicated to supporting FHS schools, departments and programs in advancing health professions education scholarship. Our vision is to grow a community of scientists and clinicians to advance health professions education through research and applied science.

Over the past 45+ years, MERIT has evolved. Initially led by Victor Neufeld, who was the first head of the earliest iteration of MERIT, known as the Program for Education Development (PED), it supported educational innovation in the School of Medicine. Following Neufeld, there were a number of directors, including Brian Haynes and Jennifer Blake. Between 1987 and 1997, Geoff Norman became director and reassumed the role after a short spell of leadership from Jennifer Blake. He renamed it as the Program for Education Research Development (PERD).

In its various iterations it has, on the one hand, supported and initiated numerous innovations in the health science educational programs, and on the other, has an international reputation for educational research and scholarship. In 2012, Norman was replaced by Harold Reiter. The current Assistant Dean, Jonathan Sherbino, took over in 2017 and the program adopted its current name and vision.

MERIT produces evidence to develop health professional expertise. We do this by advancing:

1. Research on education in clinical, classroom, digital, and simulated learning environments
2. Innovative designs and policies for teaching, learning and assessment
3. Theories of social, professional, and cognitive skill development for high-quality health care

MERIT is its own program dedicated to promoting and producing health professions education scholarship. However, there are many intersections between MERIT and other FHS and McMaster programs related to education and research.

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) office advances professional development for FHS faculty and health-care professionals. It includes three programs:

1. Continuing Health Sciences Education (CHSE) supports schools, departments, programs and faculty members in designing, planning, developing and delivering effective continuing education activities for practicing health-care professionals.
2. The Program for Faculty Development (PFD) is responsible for supporting and enabling faculty members to fulfill their academic and professional responsibilities as educators, scholars, academic clinicians, leaders and university citizens.
3. The Learning Technologies Lab (LTL) supports the effective use of technology as it relates to teaching and learning in health sciences education.

The MacPherson Institute offers a wide variety of programs, workshops, services and supports to all members of the McMaster community to cultivate an environment where learning deeply matters, and teaching is valued and recognized. Through these activities, educators have the opportunity to build teaching skills, develop and redesign courses, gain knowledge of educational technology tools and much more.

In general: 

• If you’re interested in health professions education research, think MERIT
• If you’re interested in teaching or education, think PFD or MacPherson

You do not need to be a member of MERIT to participate in most of our events.  Email MERIT to be added to the mailing list, which includes access to our monthly newsletter of events and activities.

But, we would really like for you to consider joining the MERIT community! See our membership for more information.

1. MERIT Rounds: The Rounds profile emerging topics of interest and controversy in health professions education, including simulation, competency-based medical education, and more. Using a facilitated, interactive format, local and international presenters share ideas for discussion and debate
2. thinkTank: Faculty members working on a project or research design can request a consultation. A MERIT scientist facilitates a conversation to help the faculty member advance their project to the next step. The consultations are open and anyone with interest in the topic or project is welcome to attend. Visit the MERIT thinkTank application for more details on how to request a consultation.
3. Norman Education Research Day (NERD): This day is dedicated to celebrating the rich history and future of health professions education research and scholarship across the Faculty of Health Sciences and McMaster University and is named after one of McMaster’s longstanding faculty, Dr. Geoff Norman.
4. Lunch and a Lab Meeting: Throughout the academic year, MERIT offers community members an opportunity to network, discover and discuss topics in health professions education. A featured guest takes an in-depth look into a topic in HPE and a presentation of their current work.

The MERIT YouTube page hosts recordings from various events such as the MERIT Rounds and Norman Education Research Day.

Check out MERIT Maps. This interactive map visually illustrates the collaborations between McMaster faculty on various health professions education topics. There are some pre-populated searches (that update automatically). You can also perform your own search.

This Google Scholar page aggregates published research by MERIT scientists and scholars.

1. Fundamentals: The Health Professions Education Research Curriculum (HPER Curriculum) is an open-access asynchronous four-unit curriculum designed by staff, scientists and researchers affiliated with MERIT. HPER introduces key ideas and processes in education scholarship. As academic health professionals, we are committed to advancing our field. If you are new to the health professions or new to education scholarship, this course provides a systematic, structured approach for you to consider before turning your big idea into scholarship. The HPER Curriculum has recently been expanded to include a full primer handbook.
2. Applied: Clinician Educator Diploma: The Clinician Educator Program (CE) provides formal training in medical education, to give you the skills and tools that you need to provide consultative medical education advice and guidance for education projects. This includes practical training in curriculum design and implementation, scholarly teaching and learning, assessment and evaluation, education scholarship and leadership. The CE program gives you the tools to be a valuable educational resource for your educational environment and workplace
3. Graduate Training: MSc in Health Science Education (HSED) (HSED Website). This online, asynchronous program leads to the Master of Science in Health Science Education degree for health science clinical educators (physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, midwives, physician assistants, etc.), and others who teach in health sciences education, research, and academic clinical care, and who lead in health care settings. The program offers course-based and thesis-based streams and it can be taken full or part time. The program will act as a strategy to enhance collaborative, patient-centered care by engaging learners in inter- and intra-professional practice; to shape the future of education in health science professional programs; and to foster health professions leadership and succession planning.

1. MERIT Library: An open-access essential reading list was designed for early or mid career clinician educators interested in health professions education. This resource is ideal for self-directed learning, as well as for other uses such as course reading lists and journal clubs. You will see a mix of publications from major journals, articles from media, books and more.
2. Health Sciences Library: The HSL website has a number of databases, resources, tutorials and librarian contact information available to facilitate various aspects of the research process.

We have aggregated a list of funding opportunities. This list is not exhaustive.

1. Research Ethics Boards: Depending on your affiliation as a PI and as a student, you will submit your ethics proposal to either the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (HiREB) or the McMaster Ethics Research Board (MREB). In general, FHS-based projects submit to HiREB.
2. Protocol Review Committee (PRC): Any research involving medical students as participants requires approval from the PRC. The application process is described in the Guidance to investigators on PRC process document.
3. TCPS2: The Tri-Council Policy Statement 2 (TCPS2) Course on Research Ethics (CORE) grants you a certificate following a self-directed educational program, adhering to the Canadian guidelines for ethical conduct of research involving humans and/or human biological materials.
4. Health Research Services (HRS): The HRS website houses information on securing and managing funding as well as resources to support health researchers.

1. MacDrive – a secure, cloud-based storage system like DropBox or Google Drive, but McMaster-housed and approved.
2. LimeSurvey – if you’re ever building surveys (e.g. collecting demographic data), this is a McMaster-approved/-based survey platform. It’s a bit more “clunky” than GoogleForms, but HiREB is starting to mandate this platform over others. Visit the McMaster LimeSurvey account request to register.