By Sumiyya Raheem
Resilience, troubleshooting, patience, and critical thinking- all skills that you will gain during your PhD journey. But how can these skills be marketable outside of lab research? Often, PhD students are led to believe their post-grad options are limited to either industry or academic research. Recently, Dr. Akshata Naik led a seminar on the role of a relatively new yet essential role for PhDs to teach foundational courses in medical school as “Basic Science Medical Educators”.
What Do Medical Educators Do?
Medical educators teach healthcare students, specifically those in medical schools and hospitals. As PhD holders, they share their expertise on foundational medical courses such as human anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology and immunology, and pathology. Along with delivering lectures, medical educators are heavily involved in curriculum development and even perform education-based research.
But their work goes far beyond the classroom. In addition to teaching, medical educators are deeply involved in the following areas:
- Curriculum Design and Development:
Medical educators collaborate with clinical faculty to design, update, and integrate foundational science courses within medical curricula. They ensure that lessons not only cover essential content but also connect basic science to real-world clinical scenarios. - Education-Based Research (Med-Ed):
Many medical educators conduct research focused on improving how students learn. This can involve studying new teaching methods, assessing student performance, or exploring how the brain processes information; all aimed at making education more effective and evidence based. - Committee Work and Program Improvement:
Medical educators often serve on curriculum and assessment committees, where they help evaluate course effectiveness, update materials, and align learning goals with evolving accreditation standards and healthcare needs. - Conference Participation and Professional Development:
Staying current is key. Educators regularly attend national and international conferences to present their research, learn new teaching strategies, and collaborate with peers in medical education. These events help them remain at the forefront of innovation in health science teaching.
Altogether, medical educators are scientists, mentors, and innovators who bridge the gap between basic science and clinical application ensuring that tomorrow’s physicians are grounded in both knowledge and critical thinking.
Behind the Scenes Work
There is a lot of work that goes into being a medical educator besides just teaching lectures. As a medical educator, you are responsible for mastering core principles from several fields including pharmacology, anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, and immunology. As a PhD student interested in this path, you can start by choosing coursework that strengthens your foundation across biomedical sciences. You can participate in curriculum development discussions and serve on committees that brainstorm curricular updates. Finally, you can attend conferences to stay up to date with educational trends and clinical developments.
If you’re looking for a place to begin, connect with your school’s Teaching and Learning Institute (for instance, Rutgers offers the revamped TIIP Program). Volunteering to guest lecture is also a great way to gain teaching experience and explore this field firsthand.
The Role of Medical Education Research (Med-Ed)
The second half of Dr. Naik’s talk focused on Medical Education Research (Med-Ed), an important part of being a medical educator and improving curriculum.
Med-Ed research applies principles from neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science to improve the ways medical students learn and retain complex information. It explores how the brain processes, stores, and retrieves knowledge, emphasizing the importance of neuroplasticity that is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. This adaptability means that effective teaching can literally reshape how learners think and integrate information. Med-Ed researchers study factors like attention, memory formation, emotion, and motivation to determine how these influence learning outcomes. For example, understanding that emotional engagement enhances memory can inform how educators present material, making lessons more memorable through storytelling, clinical relevance, or active problem-solving exercises. The field also considers how environmental and social contexts such as collaboration, feedback, or psychological safety in the classroom influence a learner’s ability to absorb and apply new knowledge.
By using evidence-based teaching methods that align with how the brain naturally learns, educators can significantly boost motivation, comprehension, and long-term retention. This includes techniques like spaced repetition, which strengthens memory through periodic review; active learning, which engages multiple cognitive processes through case discussions or simulations; and multimodal instruction, which combines visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning cues. One major framework within Med-Ed is the theory of integrated learning, which emphasizes teaching interconnected systems of the body in parallel rather than isolation. For example, when teaching cardiovascular physiology, educators might simultaneously incorporate renal, pulmonary, and endocrine systems to demonstrate how these interact in maintaining blood pressure or oxygen balance. This integrated approach mirrors how the human body functions as an interdependent system and helps students build a cohesive, clinically relevant understanding of medicine rather than fragmented memorization.
Just like traditional scientific research, Med-Ed findings are published in peer-reviewed journals and shared at education-focused conferences.
Where is Med-Ed Research Published?
- Academic Medicine: Official journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
- Medical Education: Leading international journal for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education
- Medical Teacher: Practical aspects of medical education and teaching methods
- Advances in Health Sciences Education: Innovative teaching approaches and educational research
- Teaching and Learning in Medicine: Innovative teaching approaches and educational research
- BMC Medical Education: Open access journal covering all areas of medical and health sciences education
How to Become a Medical Educator?
While there are no formal certification requirements, there are practical steps to prepare for a career in medical education. Start by connecting with your institution’s teaching programs, volunteering to lecture, and building a strong teaching portfolio.
When applying for faculty positions, employers often look for candidates who can collaborate with clinical and basic science faculty to develop courses, disseminate innovative teaching method, and engage with national education organizations.
The interview process is similar to traditional academic positions requiring a CV, a teaching philosophy statement, and often a chalk talk.
Mastering the Chalk Talk
The chalk talk is a key part of the interview process; a concise, discussion-based presentation where candidates showcase their communication skills and long-term educational vision. Unlike formal lectures, chalk talks are interactive and usually delivered without slides.
Dr. Naik’s “Words of Wisdom” for a Great Chalk Talk:
- Do your homework: Show deep mastery of the assigned topic through prior research and preparation.
- Cater to your audience: Remember, your audience will be scientists and educators, not undergraduates.
- Highlight clinical relevance: Always connect your topic to its importance in clinical medicine and patient care.
A strong chalk talk is structured, confident, and engaging giving the committee a glimpse into how you think, teach, and collaborate.
For more information about designing an effective chalk talk please see Matthew Brown’s iJOBS article.
Why This Path Matters
The role of a Basic Science Medical Educator is ideal for PhDs who want to stay rooted in science while stepping away from benchwork. It’s a career that allows you to contribute meaningfully to science and education, shape the next generation of physicians and healthcare professionals, and engage in innovative, evidence-based teaching and research.
As Dr. Naik demonstrated, this path offers PhDs an exciting opportunity to blend their scientific expertise with a passion for teaching, staying at the heart of medicine and learning, without needing a lab coat. Click here for resources to starting a medical education journey.
This article was edited by Junior Editors E. Beyza Guven and Joshua Stuckey and Senior Editor Joycelyn Radeny.