gms | German Medical Science

To honor the increasing commitment of students in the education of their fellow students, the "GMA award for teaching students" was granted to outstanding projects concerning education in university medicine for the fourth time at the annual conference of the Association for Medical Education in the German-speaking Countries, the "Gesellschaft für Medizinische Ausbildung" (GMA).

Background is the growing involvement of medical students in the improvement of the education of fellow students, for example in peer teaching courses, the development of teaching materials, curriculum planning and development as well as scientific research projects concerning medical education. The GMA award for "teaching students" wants to support and honor this kind of student involvement. The award is granted by the Executive Board of the GMA to outstanding achievements and projects in academic medical education, especially for

• the (co-)development and implementation of curricula or extracurricular elements (peer teaching courses, modules, classes, etc.)
• the (co-)development and the successful implementation of teaching and learning materials
• the (co-)development and implementation of innovative assessment methods
• other measures for the improvement of the curricula or medical education in general (for example counseling and supervision, quality assurance, etc.).

The “award for teaching students” was developed by the Executive Board of the GMA in close relation to the "award for young teachers" and in collaboration with the "Committee for Young Medical Teachers".

After the call for applications last winter, 17 applications were handed in [1].

To review all the applications eight medical students and eight medical teachers were recruited, each of them reviewing five applications. The criteria for the review process were the same as last year [2].

The winning project of this year‘s award is the "First Aid Course" by Gunter Joos of Münster Medical School (see figure 1 [Fig. 1]).

Special acknoweldgements go to the 30 reviewers who read and reviewed five applications each as well as gave valuable input for the improvement of the applying projects and the implementation of this award:

• Student reviewers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in alphabetical order: Lara Bussmann, Sonja Essmann, Simon Fandler, Martin Friedrich, Mathis Gittinger, Johannes Götte, Julia Herold, Fabienne Huber Joshua Janas, Janna Kerth, Oliver Metzing, Martin Schmidt, Julian Wenniger, Sophie Zahn und Sandra Zeuner
• Faculty reviewers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in alphabetical order: Daniel Bauer, Stefan Beckers, Martin Fischer, Matthias Holzer, Bert Huenges, Sören Huwendiek, Claudia Kiessling, Constanze Olms, Jerome Rotgans, Kai Schnabel, Katrin Schüttpelz Brauns, Frank Seibert Alves, Melanie Simon, Sasa Sopka und Christoph Stosch

This year, 17 projects applied for the "GMA award for teaching students" which once again shows the great activity of students in medical education. This also shows a great need for gratification for this mainly voluntary commitment of medical students. The granting of this award, also in the future, will offer an opportunity to share successful projects with other universities so that they may profit from these ideas and innovations.

In 2014, the Executive Board of the GMA will likewise grant the "GMA award for teaching students". The application deadline in 2014 will be the 15^th of January.

For further information about the award and the application process please see the homepage of the GMA at http://www.gesellschaft-medizinische-ausbildung.org.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.