Amira El-Messidi, an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), and Consultant of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), is the co-editor of the innovative recently published textbook, OSCES in Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach, available via Cambridge University Press.
A collaboration with Alan Cameron, Professor of Fetal Medicine at the University of Glasgow, the textbook is a product of three years of work, and spans more than 1,000 pages, containing 77 standardized objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)-type scenarios. With contributions from more than 75 interdisciplinary medical contributors from across the world, including 36 members of the McGill FMHS community, the textbook uses an innovative structure to offer a unique stimulus for all obstetric learners and care providers who aim to achieve excellence in modern evidence-based clinical and academic general obstetrics and medical complications of pregnancy.
“With reference to contemporary British, American, Canadian, Australian and other international clinical policy makers, the book provides an educational opportunity for learners and practitioners to integrate an evidence-based approach to clinical care, and synchronize practice recommendations where possible, while otherwise allowing international readers to appreciate diverse evidence-based practices,” says Dr. El-Messidi. “Never before has a textbook been designed with the capacity for multidimensional assessment including self-directed, peer-to-peer, and teacher-learner strategies.”
Unique to this resource is the capacity for multidimensional assessment including self-directed, peer-to-peer, and teacher-learner strategies. Each OSCE chapter starts with a case scenario and assumes the reader is the obstetric care provider accompanied by a clinical trainee. “My intent for this strategy was, in part, to help trainees prepare for high-stakes certification examinations and obstetricians to provide care,” notes Dr. El-Messidi. The pedagogical approach also serves to stress important elements of basic science and physiology required to appreciate clinical practice. “I structured a marking mechanism to provide a schematic tool to objectify progress in a homogeneous manner throughout the book; the weight of allotted points per question is open to modification according to the level of the learner.”
The value of the book, and by extension the work done by Drs. El-Messidi and Cameron, is being recognized, with the Academic Enrichment Fund Executive Committee at McGill’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology approving a decision to offer copies of the textbook to each current and future resident in the Department.
“I am truly grateful to my parents for their untiring encouragement, unwavering affection, and experience advice,” says Dr. El-Messidi. “I am also grateful to all my teachers for grounding me as a clinician and for inspiring me to explore my talent to maintain their legacy, and to all my ‘brother and sister’ colleagues – clinical and allied health professionals at McGill for their support, encouragement, and collaboration. I am indebted to all these people, because without them, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this labour of love.”
OSCES in Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach, by Dr. Amira El-Messidi and Dr. Alan Cameron, is now available at booksellers.