We analyzed the achievements of annual meetings of Japan Society for Medical Education (JSME) over the past 10 years. JSME is the biggest community in the field of medical education from the perspective of both social science and medicine. To develop the organization further, we argue that it should follow a line of inquiry that will advance science in the field as well as provide information on cutting edge faculty development within the context of Japanese medical education. To achieve this goal and facilitate continuity, we propose JSME develop a program committee for its annual meeting. We hope the meeting will provide a community of practice in which healthcare workers and researchers in the field of medical education can communicate and collaborate through the discussion of theories and practices.

Background: We investigated how undergraduate medical curriculum handles the question “what is medicine” , which Yonezo Nakagawa raised in a field of study called “Igaku-gairon” .　Method: We analyzed the content, the amount, the methods, the assessment, and the teachers using syllabi that are accessible on the Internet as resources.　Results: In 69 schools, the total number of hours of instruction in “philosophy of medicine and medical ethics” , “sociology of medicine and medical anthropology” and “history of medicine” was 1066 h 20min, 213 h 5min, and 192 h 5min, respectively, representing 72%, 14%, and 13% of the total instruction.　Analysis: We found that their were classes which address the question “what is medicine” without using the word “Igaku-gairon” can be sporadically found in medical curriculum.

We conducted a case conference to solve problems in teaching practices and for clinician teachers to discuss various issues occurring in the field. The conference was based on the presentation of individual educational practice cases from faculty development workshops approved by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. We prepared two months before the event and dealt with four cases on the day of the event. During the discussion, we tried to link educational problems with a theory or a conceptual framework in medical education so that participants, including case presenters, would have a better understanding of clinical training settings. In addition, communication across disciplines was facilitated through discussions. This attempt has the potential to contribute to the development of a community of practice related to cross-disciplinary education. The key to success for this case conference was the "interpreter" role. The person in that role considers the background and context of practice and links practice with theory appropriately. In addition, faculty development for educators who can play the role will also be an issue in the future.

The first author set up a study group with other members in 2014, aiming to improve multidisciplinary collaboration through reflection and discussions on discomfort ( “Moyatto” in Japanese) while focusing on group members’ experiences at work. One-hour online sessions were conducted monthly with multidisciplinary professionals from several institutions. We reflected on interprofessional collaboration based on Moyatto. This paper describes the history of the study group’s inception and development, the learning process of each session, and the theory as a framework. It also reports on the practice and changes in our study group, concluding that interprofessional collaboration requires first-order reflection within a same-profession group and second-order reflection among diverse professionals.

We developed an educational program on cultural competence for psychiatric professionals. Regarding social justice education that critically questions dominant ideologies, we held weekly 30-minute discussion groups with multidisciplinary professionals. Rather than focusing on a particular culture group, we aimed to realize through critical self-reflection, as advocated by Kumagai and Lypson, that “there is a part of the other that I cannot know,” and named this group the “Discussion Group on Otherness.” Using essays on medical culture written by researchers in the medical humanities as our main teaching material, we discussed what is (or should be) the relevant problem. This article discusses the issues that have emerged so far, the responses to these issues, and future developments.

Foundation Program in Medical Education organized by Kyoto University since 2015, previously funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), is a program that combines face-to-face and distance learning to develop medical education training systematically. The students (or clinical teachers), who study about 120 hours a year, form a strong learning community, which is the envy of the supervisors, with their 12 peers. In addition, the program is characterized by its emphasis on educational philosophy and cultural anthropology.

Education aimed at nurturing “non-cognitive abilities” that are not measured as academic skills has been garnering attention because these abilities can contribute to academic performance and life success. Empathy, one of these “non-cognitive abilities,” has been conceptualized in different ways in education, psychology and health care professional education. Therefore, this article provides an overview of the topic by combining its status as a “non-cognitive ability” with its role in health care professional education. This paper also reviews educational practices implemented to foster empathy.　First, we attempt to clarify the characteristics of empathy within the focus of different contexts. Through this, we introduce the concept of empathy in health care professional education as similar to that of psychology, in that it can be divided into two elements: cognitive and emotional. Second, regarding the elements of empathy, we review examples of educational programs that have been implemented to foster empathy among students in health care professional education, comparing them to their general education counterparts. Thus, we broaden the scope of empathy to include psychological attributes and skills, as well as empathetic environments and situations in which students and health care professionals find it difficult to empathize with others. Thus, this article can be used as a guide for overviewing the concept of empathy and developing education on empathy in health care professional education.

The novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has significantly impacted medical education and the need to respond to rapidly changing and uncertain situation. In addition, with the decision to hold this year’s annual meeting, it was deemed necessary to have a forum for information sharing and discussion. Therefore, a special committee was formed to organize a cyber-symposium on medical education, and four symposia were held every two weeks, starting May 2020, under the themes of ‘Future Clinical Clerkship’, ‘Examinations’, ‘Post-graduate Education’ and ‘Medical Education with Corona’. This paper reports these symposia and provides an overview and future considerations.