A call for outcomes research in medical education.

The primary goal of medical education is to produce physicians who deliver high-quality health care. Recent calls for greater accountability in medical education and the development of outcomes research methodologies should encourage a new research effort to examine the effects of medical training upon clinical outcomes. The authors offer a research agenda that links medical education and quality of health care and give specific examples of potential research projects that would begin to examine that relationship. A proposed model of patient outcomes research in medical education recognizes the contributory effects of health care system-level factors as well as the continuum of medical education, process measures, and individual training and preparedness to deliver high-quality care. There exists an opportunity to create a research agenda in medical education outcomes research that is multidisciplinary, broad based, and focused on patient-centered outcomes.