The scoping review: A flexible, inclusive, and iterative approach to knowledge synthesis

摘要

The body of medical education research has exploded in recent years. A push for a communal effort among education researchers to answer the "big questions" and support evidence-based approaches to education has resulted in a significant rise in the number of medical education publications. Sifting through this expanding body of work can present a daunting task. For example, PubMed, which is generally considered one of the primary databases for health sciences literature, contains over 30 million citations and counting. Additional education-specific and other searchable databases contain billions more citations through which to sort. For medical educators balancing clinical work with teaching and research, finding efficient ways to manage a rapidly expanding volume of literature has become increasingly difficult. In addition to the challenges of time constraints and the sheer size of available databases, knowledge syntheses in medical education are fraught with challenge due to the breadth and complexity of the field. Out of this milieu, collaborations such as the Best Evidence in Medical Education (BEME) that works to publish high-quality systematic reviews have emerged to address the increasing need for efficient yet comprehensive assessment and synthesis of the literature.