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Medical Education Research Quality (Mersq) Checklist Development: Are Searches of Beme and Non-Beme Reviews Standard?: A Mixed Method Study Publisher Pubmed



Alizadeh M1 ; Rahmati R2, 3 ; Zarimeidani F2, 3 ; Hasani F4 ; Ghaedi A5 ; Bazrgar A6 ; Doalame RH3, 7 ; Vahedi H8 ; Hekmat H9 ; Omidi N10
Authors
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Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Health Professions Education Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  2. 2. Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran
  3. 3. Tehran Heart Center, Cardiovascular Diseases Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  4. 4. Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
  5. 5. Trauma Research Center, Shahid Rajaee (Emtiaz) Trauma Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
  6. 6. School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
  7. 7. Students' Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  8. 8. Department of Medical Education, Health Professions Education Research Center, Education Development Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  9. 9. School of Medicine, Baharloo Hospital, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  10. 10. Cardiac Primary Prevention Research Center, Cardiovascular Diseases Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Source: Medicine (United States) Published:2025


Abstract

Even though there has been a lot of research in medical education, the quality of it has not increased similarly. This study aimed to provide a valid and reliable user-friendly tool for evaluating search strategies in medical education systematic reviews. This mixed study was conducted in 2019 to 2021, including 3 phases: systematic search, developing a medical education research quality (MERSQ) checklist, and evaluation of the search quality of best evidence in medical education collaboration (BEME) and non-BEME reviews. Three hundred nineteen items were retrieved from the systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Psychinfo, ERIC, and Google Scholar. Following ensuring acceptable criteria, 30 items were included in comprehensiveness or reproducibility guarantees. The results showed that the instrument had an the intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.922 (P=.002), the reproducibility guarantee had 0.903 (P=.003), and the comprehensiveness guarantee had 0.926 (P=.006). We also calculated inter-rater reliability and internal consistency using Cronbach alpha of 0.827 (P<.001) and an instrument the intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.978. Using MERSQ, the overall search quality (41.75 vs 31.25, P=.009), reproducibility (22 vs 14.50, P=.004), and comprehensive score (18.75 vs 15.75, P=.880) of BEME studies were higher than non-BEME ones. Moreover, we found only 30% of studies completed searching documents. The search strategy query concerning the selection of synonym terms received the lowest score among studies. This study led to the development of a valid and reliable checklist for evaluating the search quality of medical education systematic reviews. Utilizing the MERSQ checklist, we found that BEME studies had higher quality than non-BEME ones, making the results from BEME studies more reliable. © 2025 the Author(s).