KIPRIME Podcast

Matilda Liljedahl is an Associate Professor of Health Professions Education at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and a Clinical Research Fellow and Resident in Clinical Oncology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. She graduated as a medical doctor in 2014 and earned a PhD in Medical Education from Karolinska Institutet in 2016. Matilda's main research interest is workplace learning, and she now leads a research group focusing on workplace learning among medical doctors at all levels, including the training of clinical supervisors. Additionally, she holds a growing interest in patient-doctor communication, especially in the context of oncology. In this episode of the KIPRIME Podcast, Matilda will talk to Alina about common threads in her research journey, such as ‘digging where she stands’ as a way to nurture her longstanding interest in learning in the clinical setting. She also shares her experience using and communicating qualitative research in a field that heavily relies on quantitative research.

Professor Hiroshi Nishigori is Professor of Medical Education at Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Medicine and the current President of the Japan Society for Medical Education. He earned his Master’s in Medical Education from the University of Dundee, and later completed his PhD in Health Professions Education at Maastricht University. Originally trained as an internist, he became deeply interested in how people learn and grow during his early years of medical practice - not only as clinicians, but as educators and human beings. Over the years, Hiroshi's work has explored the intersection of culture and work ethic, asking a fundamental question at the heart of medicine: Why do doctors work for patients? The very question that also framed his PhD thesis. Rather than treating professionalism as a fixed set of individual traits, his research approaches medicine as a culturally embedded form of work, shaped by shared values, social expectations, and moral commitments. Drawing on uniquely Japanese concepts such as Bushido - a moral discipline and sense of integrity shared with traditional arts like judo and kendo - and Yarigai, the sense of fulfilment found in meaningful service to others, Hiroshi’s work goes beyond a mere description of Japanese culture. It seeks to place these perspectives into dialogue with the global medical education community, not as culturally exotic examples, but as conceptual resources that can challenge, enrich, and expand dominant Western frameworks. In this episode, Hiroshi talks with Alina Jenkins about how culture shapes doctors’ relationships with work—from duty and moral responsibility to finding meaning through service—and why continuing to ask why doctors work for patients remains essential to medical education worldwide. Together, they explore how culturally grounded perspectives can open new conversations about well-being, ethics, and the moral purpose of medicine across different societies.

Dr Halah Ibrahim is the Vice President for International Outreach at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). She is a graduate of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and completed an internal medicine residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. She also holds a Master’s in Health Professions Education from Johns Hopkins University. Halah has lived and worked in the Middle East for the past 17 years, where she has led efforts to adapt Western frameworks of graduate medical education to align with local cultural and societal values. Her research focuses on the globalisation of medical education, including developing culturally relevant professionalism curricula and advancing palliative care education in the United Arab Emirates. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and is committed to fostering equitable opportunities in medical education scholarship worldwide. Through her editorial work and multinational collaborations, she actively mentors trainees and junior faculty and supports authors from countries underrepresented in medical education publishing. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Halah talks about her research at the intersection of Western and Eastern traditions in medical education and her efforts to build a more inclusive global community of scholars.

Rune Dall Jensen is Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University and Head of Simulation at MidtSim, Centre for Continuing Professional Development in Central Denmark Region. His academic work explores how motor skills interact with intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, with a particular focus on simulation-based surgical education. Rune emphasises a holistic approach to surgical performance, aiming to support skill development in surgical residents and strengthen team collaboration in clinical settings. He serves as Associate Editor for Advances in Simulation, Advances in Health Sciences Education, and Medical Education. In addition, he is a board member of AMEE’s Simulation Committee, part of the AMEE Programme Committee, and Academic Co-Chair of the International Clinical Skills Conference. In this episode of the KIMPRIME podcast, Rune speaks with Alina Jenkins about how simulation can be designed to support not just motor skills but also communication, confidence, and reflective practice.

Dr Andrea Gingerich is an Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Sciences with the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, where she teaches for the University of British Columbia’s Northern Medical Program. She has a PhD in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University, a Master of Medical Education degree from the University of Dundee and before all of that, she practised as a naturopathic doctor in rural Ontario. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Andrea talks to Alina Jenkins about how her research starts by noticing situations in which so many health professionals are not doing what they have been trained to do that their counter-normative behaviour has become the norm, and then seeks to determine why people believe their noncompliance is necessary.

Samuel Edelbring is a full professor of higher education at Mälardalen University in Sweden. He holds a degree in education, a PhD in medical education from Karolinska Institutet, and a docent title (Associate professor) in medical education from Linköping University. Since 2001, he has been engaged in development and research in health professions education. His fascination with digital possibilities led him to pursue research on pedagogical aspects of computerised virtual patients. In various studies, he has contributed knowledge on how virtual patients can be used to enhance students’ clinical practice and how online virtual patient activities can connect students from different professions in interprofessional learning. He is also engaged in strengthening the field of health professions education research on a national level to create and sustain arenas and networks for the next generation of HPE scholars and to highlight the field's importance at the policy level. In this episode, Samuel talks to Alina Jenkins about how virtual patients can deepen clinical reasoning, why digital tools can bring learners from different professions together, and what it takes to build a strong, sustainable community of health professions education researchers for the future.

Dr Zareen Zaidi, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine at George Washington School of Medicine. She practices general internal medicine at the academic faculty practice in DC. Zareen completed the FAIMER fellowship from Philadelphia and has a PhD in Medical Education from Maastricht University School of Health Professions Education. At GW, she is the Co-Director of the Academy of Education Scholars and the Associate Director for Education Research and Scholarship. She has served as the chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Research in Medical Education committee for 2021 and is the founding chair of the MedEdSCHOLAR program. As a qualitative researcher, she has conducted research in culturally diverse contexts across three continents, using critical epistemological lenses. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Zareen talks to Alina Jenkins about her passion for using critical lenses in her research projects and how she works to challenge traditional perspectives in medical education research and practice.

Neera Jain is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, School of Medicine, at Waipapa Taumata Rau – The University of Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand. She completed her PhD in Education at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland in 2021. She completed a Master’s of Science in Rehabilitation Counselling in 2004 at Boston University Before her research career, Neera worked as a vocational counsellor (in the US), managed a disabled people’s community law centre (in New Zealand), and led student disability services for health professions students at Columbia University and UCSF. Her research focuses on ableism and disability inclusion in medical education, research, and practice. At present, her work explores disabled medical students’ intersectional and culturally specific experiences of ableism. In this episode, host Alina Jenkins speaks to Neera about what true inclusion means in medical education, how concepts like haunting and futurity can help us see systems differently, and how we might imagine a future where disabled learners are fully recognised, supported, and valued.

We’re back with a new season of the KIPRIME Podcast, exploring the ideas shaping the future of medical education. In this first episode, host Alina Jenkins speaks with Dr Julián Varas Cohen, a surgeon and Associate Professor at the Catholic de Chile in Santiago, Chile. He leads simulation-based medical education research, using remote asynchronous feedback to accelerate healthcare skill acquisition. He has developed and validated various training methodologies, reaching more than 40,000 trainees across 1000 skill-based disciplines (surgery, nursing, gastronomy, and engineering) in 13 countries. He now integrates AI to enhance teaching and scale accessibility to high-quality training. He has partnered with over 20 institutions, like MUHAS in Tanzania and UCSF, to expand high-quality, evidence-based training throughout America and Africa. His mission is to promote equitable access to simulation education and mentor the next generation of clinician-educators. Their conversation delves into the power of feedback and how it helps learners grow, how technology is changing the way it’s delivered, and why creating equitable access to medical training remains at the heart of his mission.

Diantha Soemantri is a Professor and Vice Director of medical education at the Indonesian Medical Education and Research Institute (IMERI), Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia, where she graduated as a medical doctor in 2005. She acquired the Master of Medical Education title from the University of Dundee in 2007 and PhD in the same field from the University of Melbourne in 2013. She is now the head of the Master in Medical Education Program at Universitas Indonesia and is also responsible for the multi- and interprofessional education of the Health Sciences Cluster. In this episode of the KIMPRIME podcast, Diantha talks to Alina Jenkins about her current research exploring the practice of delivering written feedback in a medical education context. She is also studying medical students’ acceptance and resistance towards e-portfolios as an assessment tool, especially in the context of specific cultural values of high collectivism, large power distance and high uncertainty avoidance. This is the final episode of series three. We hope to return for series four in 2025!

Dr Joanna Tai is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an active member of several professional associations, including the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professions Education, the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, and the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction. Joanna's research spans several key areas of interest. Her work on feedback for learning explores how students engage with and contribute to feedback processes. Since her early days as a medical student, Joanna has been fascinated by the challenges surrounding feedback, particularly from the student perspective. She focuses on developing evaluative judgment and peer feedback to enhance students' lifelong learning capabilities. This research has led her to collaborate with colleagues on various projects to understand and improve feedback literacy among students. Joanna has also developed a growing interest in assessment for inclusion. She realised that the traditional approach to assessment often requires accommodations and adjustments, emphasising a "deficit approach." In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Joanna talks to Alina Jenkins about improving educational practices to ensure all students can thrive, regardless of their background or abilities.

Per J. Palmgren is an associate professor in medical education and assistant senior lecturer at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management, and Ethics (LIME) at KI. He has been the director of doctoral studies at LIME since 2022. Per works predominantly with higher education and pedagogy for doctoral and faculty development courses, and he also works partly as a pedagogical advisor and senior lecturer in higher education at the Scandinavian College of Naprapathic Manual Medicine. Per’s primary line of research focuses on the environment in which students learn, and teachers work, but his approach has changed over the years. Since his Ph.D., his attention has shifted to researching educational environments with an organizational perspective. Today, Per is most interested in students' learning and teachers facilitating students' learning or simply in moving from introspecting “learning environments” to “learning in environments.” In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Per talks to Alina Jenkins about his eclectic areas of research and how a background in dance led to a strong passion for teaching and learning.

Mandana Shirazi is a Professor of Medical Sciences at Tehran University (TUMS) and an Affiliated Professor at Karolinska Institute. She started her medical career with a BSc and MSc in midwifery from TUMS and subsequently began working as a faculty member of Midwifery at TUMS. After five years, she started working at the Educational Development Center (EDC) and was later promoted to the position of Executive Manager of the Continuous Medical Education Office. Mandana then came to KI to study for her PhD, where her thesis focused on the diagnosis and treatment of depression by general practitioners. Returning to Iran around 15 years ago, Mandana founded the first Standardised Patient unit in the country at the Educational Development Centre of TUMS. Ten years after establishing the SP program in Iran, the Ministry of Health considered High Stake OSCE for the graduation of all medical students, the crucial part of which is SPs. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Mandana talks to Alina Jenkins about the importance of using SPs to maintain patient safety and why it was the main focus of her research on the healthcare system in Iran.

Ardi Findyartini is a medical doctor and a Professor in Medical Education, from the Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta. She is currently the Head of Medical Education Unit and the Chair of Medical Education Cluster of Indonesia Medical Education and Research Institute (IMERI) Faculty of Medicine Universitas Indonesia. She is also the current chair of ASPIRE excellence in faculty development panel, an initiative of AMEE international organisation in medical education towards excellence in different areas, as well as being a member of the faculty development committee in AMEE. Ardi has a wide interest in research in medical and health professions education. Her areas of research started by focusing on clinical reasoning, critical thinking and how the two should be taught and incorporated in undergraduate medical curriculum. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Ardi talks to Alina Jenkins about how her research has been transformed to studies in faculty development, humanism, and professionalism, interprofessional education and sociocultural factors in medical and health professions education.

Söeren Huwendiek graduated from medical school at Heidelberg University in Germany, where he worked for 10 years as a physician and as a medical educator. He gained a Master of Medical Education degree from Bern University and a PhD in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University. Since 2012, he has been the head of the Department of Assessment and Evaluation of the Institute of Medical Education (IML) in Switzerland. Recently, he was promoted to Associate Professor for Medical Education. He supervises PhD, MD (Dr. med.) and Master of Medical Education theses and is a member of several editorial boards including Perspectives on Medical Education. Söeren has a broad interest in teaching and research in medical education, among his favorite themes are formative assessment, innovative ways of summative assessment, communication and practical skills, and blended learning. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast he talks to Alina Jenkins about his passion in improving medical education to help medical students become the best doctors and clinicians, ultimately improving patient care.

Satid Thammasitboon is Associate Professor in Pediatrics, division of Critical Care Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas where he serves in various academic positions promoting research and scholarship across the continuum of medical education. He’s also Director of Centre for Research Innovation and Scholarship in Health Professions Education. Satid grew up and went to medical school in southern Thailand and came to the USA for residency, fellowship, and an advanced degree in medical education. His scholarship philosophy centers on the conviction that medical education research is socially constructed and context-specific: namely that scholarship is a product of systematic inquiry and meaningful engagement of multidisciplinary educators and scholars with shared domains of interest. To advance the field of medical education, research is the critical component for providing practical solutions to real-world problems. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Satid talks to Alina Jenkins about how he has developed a departmental foundation in innovative medical education research that has international extensions.

Gabrielle Finn is Associate Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Students at the University of Manchester, where she was previously Professor of Medical Education and Vice Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine, and Health. She has a track record in establishing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. In an earlier role, Gabrielle was the founding Director of the Health Professions Education Unit (HPEU) and Chair of the Postgraduate Board at the Hull York Medical School (HYMS), where she worked extensively on widening access and curriculum development, including the implementation of Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships into medical programmes. She was also Programme Director for the blended and distance learning courses for the MSc, Postgraduate Diploma and Certificate in Health Professions Education at HYMS, working with AdvanceHE to deliver this accredited programme. Gabrielle has a diverse research portfolio which spans both qualitative and quantitative paradigms. She initially conducted her doctoral research exploring anatomy, pedagogy, and medical professionalism. Gabrielle has over 150 peer-reviewed outputs, including books, book chapters, journal articles, and over 140 international conference presentations. She is an advocate for the use of arts and humanities with curricula, researching their use. She has a keen interest in exploring the hidden curriculum, publishing a body of work with Professor Fred Hafferty, and challenging the notion of teaching by stealth. More recently, Gabrielle has been working on a range of areas pertaining to equality, diversity, and inclusion. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Gabrielle talks to Alina Jenkins about an evidence base for innovative methods of teaching anatomy, Professionalism and the Conscientiousness Index and novel research methods using the development of love and breakup letters to help research empathy and empathic dissonance.

Dr Sandra Monteiro is a scientist in the McMaster University, faculty of health sciences program for education, research, innovation, and theory (known as MERIT). She has a faculty appointment in the faculty of health sciences, Department of Medicine, Division of Education and Innovation and a second appointment to the Centre for Simulation Based Learning as the Director of Simulation Scholarship. The foundation of her training is in cognitive psychology, and she is known internationally for her research program on clinical reasoning and her expertise in measurement principles and competency-based assessment. At McMaster University, she teaches and supervises students in various graduate programs, including Rehabilitation Sciences, Health Sciences Education and Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. In 2021, she was recognised for her contributions to education and mentorship with a Canadian Association of Medical Education Meridith Marks New Educator Award. In this episode of the KIPRIME Podcast, Sandra talks to Alina Jenkins about working alongside one of the giants of medical education research, Geoff Norman, and her research into breaking down assumptions in how we look at clinical reasoning.

Anders Sondén trained and is still active as a surgeon in Stockholm, yet for many years, he has devoted most of his time to medical education, being a clinical teacher, director of studies in undergraduate and postgraduate education, researcher, and educational leader. He is interested in the whole spectrum of medical education, with his prime focus in clinical sciences, especially workplace-based education, and he is dedicated to the understanding and improvement of uni and interprofessional workplace-based learning. Consequently, he’s been involved in several projects within medical education, from the course level, creating new learning activities, to the curriculum level in the development of the new medical programs at Karolinska Institutet. In this episode of the KIPRIME podcast, Anders talks to Alina Jenkins about his approach to the field of medical education research, where his research questions have often emanated from a problematic element in his work as a teacher, faculty member, or surgeon.