Quality in postgraduate medical education: A contested idea.

Janet Grant

Abstract readReview

In one paragraph

Review in Clinical medicine (London, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Cardiovascular disease: everybody's business.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Janet GrantUniversity College London Medical School, UK; The Open University, UK; Centre for Medical Education in Context [CenMEDIC], UK. Electronic address: janet@cenmedic.net.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The idea of 'quality' in education and training forms the basis of both regulation, and teaching and learning. 'Quality' therefore directly affects how residents and their teachers and supervisors spend their time. However, the derivation of these ideas remains largely unexamined. There is almost no robust evidence to suggest what the characteristics of good-quality postgraduate medical education (PGME) might be. Ideas change over time, following dominant social values and political imperatives, as an examination of the history, definition, uses, limitations and effects of 'quality' in PGME shows. Ideas of quality inform interventions which are used differently by different interested parties, ranging through quality improvement, quality management, quality control, quality assurance, controls assurance, accreditation and regulation. Whichever level is involved, the idea of 'quality' is inherently political. But despite regulatory power being removed from the profession, responsibility for quality remains squarely in its corner.

Indexed as

Education, Medical, GraduateAccreditationHumansQuality ControlQuality ImprovementContext and qualityDefinitions of quality in educationEvidence and judgement of educational qualityHistory of quality in educationLevels of intervention in educational qualityLimitation of quality definitionOwnership of educational qualityPolitics of qualityQuality in postgraduate medical educationRegulation of postgraduate medical educationStandards and quality

Identifiers

PMID42061513

DOI10.1016/j.clinme.2026.100590

PMCPMC13213228

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.