Research and Scholarship Activities - July/August 2025
Come along and discover the research and scholarship activities on offer in the Department of Medical Education (DME) in July and August 2025. Where session recordings are available you can access them on our DME Research and Scholarship Training Hub.
Recordings of previous Seminars are available here
Thursday 3 July – No Roundtable
(ANZAHPE conference)
Thursday 10 July (1.00-2.30pm)
Session Type: Research Training Focus Roundtable
Title: Health Professions Education PhD Candidates Work in Progress
Presenters: Graduate Research Candidates, chaired by Dr Louise Allen
Overview: This session provides DME and other HPE candidates in the Faculty the opportunity to gain experiences talking about their research in a concise way, and to discuss, troubleshoot and gain insights from the audience discussion.
Thursday 17 July (1-2pm)
Session Type: Scholarship Focus Roundtable
Title: Investigating the application of artificial intelligence (AI) driven virtual patients (VPs) for communication skills training within healthcare professions
Presenter: Patrick Bowers, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne
Overview: This presentation will focus on the findings of two companion studies that have investigated key stakeholders’ views around the use of AI-driven VPs in healthcare professions training programs. Rapid advances in generative AI have meant that fully virtual communication-based simulations are emerging, however a lack of understanding about their optimal design and implementation exists. Both students and educators were consulted to answer the following research questions: 1. What are student and educator attitudes around the use of AI driven tools (i.e. Virtual Patients) for learning communication skills? And 2: What are the key design and implementation features students and educators think should be considered when developing an AI driven VP for communication skill development?
Thursday 24 July (1-2pm)
Session Type: Research and Scholarship Focus Roundtable
Title: ANZAHPE Perth 2025 Reflections and Learning on Scholarship and Research
Chair: Chaired by Dr Brett Vaughan, Department of Medical Education, The University of Melbourne
Overview: This session will involve a discussion on reflections from the ANZAHPE conference. We welcome those who attended to share their learnings, and those who didn't attend to come along to see what the main takeaways were.
Thursday 31 July (1-2pm)
Session Type: Research Focus Roundtable
Title: Readiness for interprofessional team-based practice: how can we better prepare our students (GEMPASS Major Education Collaborative Research Project)
Presenters: GEMPASS Program Team, led by Prof. Walter Eppich, Department of Medical Education and Collaborative Practice Centre, The University of Melbourne
Overview: This session will introduce the three-year GEMPASS Major Education Collaborative Research Project Grant which consists of three studies, a prospective longitudinal qualitative study, a cross-sectional qualitative research study, and a video-reflexive ethnography study. Together these studies aim to better understand what readiness for interprofessional team-based practice looks like and to generate educational solutions to prepare medical students.
Thursday 7 August (1-2pm)
Session Type: Research Focus Roundtable
Title: Time to make sense: Doctors' and students' experiences of difficult feedback
Presenter: A/Prof. Leonie Griffiths, Department of Medical Education, The University of Melbourne
Overview: Leonie will share her qualitative research exploring doctors' and students' experiences of difficult feedback. The research findings have implications for curriculum developers in health professions education and for supervisors who support learners and staff across the learning continuum. The findings are relevant across higher education and healthcare fields.
Thursday 14 August (1-2pm)
Session Type: Scholarship Focus Roundtable
Title: AI driven clinical reasoning simulations: enhancing medical education
Presenter: Erfan Farabi, Master of IT (The University of Melbourne), CEO Clinical Reasoning Simulation Project
Overview: This presentation introduces an innovative AI-powered clinical reasoning simulator designed to enhance medical education. Developed for the University of Eastern Finland, the platform uses a chatbot interface with a large language model to capture medical students' decision-making in time-critical scenarios. Students interact using free-text inputs, which are mapped to clinical actions, while the system dynamically evolves the patient's condition based on these actions and elapsed time. The simulator offers comprehensive logging for detailed performance analysis, benefiting both researchers and educators. Its open-source, adaptable design not only improves student engagement in emergency settings but also holds potential for application in various educational and professional development contexts beyond medicine.
Thursday 21 August (1-2pm)
Session Type: ANZAHPE Professional Development
Title: How do I… develop professional capabilities in future healthcare professionals with virtual simulation
Presenter: Amanda Edgar
Register at this link
Thursday 28 August (12-1pm)
Session Type: DME PhD Completion Seminar
Title: An Exploration of Patient Communication in Clinical Dental Practice
Presenter: Darina Nirmalann
Overview: Why do so many dentists still struggle to practise person-centred care—even when they want to? This research uncovers the hidden forces shaping communication in the clinical dental setting. Based on 27 in-depth interviews and 110 clinical observations, the study reveals how workflow demands, patient anxiety and the dual pressure to perform and persuade can pull dentists away from building connections and into control. Join us for a compelling exploration of the human tensions beneath the surface of everyday clinical dental practice.
Location: Hybrid - Room N714 DME Library, level 7, Medical Building and via Zoom - Click here to join the meeting If prompted for a password, please enter: 908299.
Thursday 28 August (1-2pm)
(Please note: this Roundtable is being cancelled, as the speaker is unwell)
Session Type: Research Training Focus Roundtable
Title: Cross cultural collaborations in research (a guide)
Presenter: A/Prof. Anita Horvath, Department of Medical Education, The University of Melbourne
Overview: Research programs are enhanced by incorporating cross cultural collaborations to ensure that research addresses not only the academic enquiry but also promotes equity, capacity building and mutual benefits. This session will explore both the challenges and opportunities that cross collaboration brings for shared learning, research relevance and equitable partnerships through insights gained in the establishment of the PRIME_Health project in Indonesia.
For further information, please contact Ms Andrea Meyer: andrea.meyer@unimelb.edu.au
To download the Research & Scholarship Activities flyer for July/August 2025, click here