Research on eight-year medical education program publications

Objective In order to get the research focuses and trend of 8-year medical education program in China, articles on eight-year medical education program published from 2003 to 2014 have been analyzed. Method Using Cochrane Systematic evaluation method, 797 articles have been achieved from CMB, CNKI, WangFang and VIP. These papers were then analyzed with methods of bibliometrics and content analysis. Result The articles on eight-year medical education program are mainly published on 4 journals. The publications focus on 10 domains. The domain of teaching methodology is a hot research topic as 399 articles have discussed this domain. Most articles on teaching methodology focus on PBL, only a few papers discuss other teaching methods. In the 233 study on the curriculum design, only 42 papers have carried on the overall design course study and the researchers have the same opinion on the problems existing in eight-year program medical education curriculum. 19 articles have discussed the goal of eight-year medical education program. The goals of different schools' program are diverse. With the development of policy research, the eight-year medical education program education standards and accreditation are valued. Conclusion In the future, the research priorities should focus on pedagogy theories, the comparison to other nations' medical education system, and education standards of eight-year medical education program. Key words: Eight-year medical education program; Education research; Literature analysis