Biomedical Research: An Indispensable Partner of Graduate Health Education

Abstract

Graduate health education is facing challenges for quality and global standards. The paper discusses the rationale and the strategies of how to face these challenges through instructional innovations and biomedical research. Conventional classroom instruction depends much on book knowledge that can lose credibility unless it is backed up by innovation and actual research by the professor and the students.
Graduate health education must be research-based and research-oriented. Credible graduate professors and their students are not mere users of knowledge but active generators of it. The graduate professors are expected to do research in their field of expertise. The first-hand knowledge that derives from their research increases their authority before their students when discussing related content. Furthermore, their study allows a deeper understanding of the content of the courses they are is teaching and opens insights into instructional innovations. Students may well be inspired to become directly involved in research as part of the related learning experiences required for the course. These steps begin to address the challenges for quality and global standards in graduate health education. Research must be carried on by the collaborative efforts of experts in interrelated disciplines. This could lead to productive research output with highly efficient use of resources.