Martin Pusic, MD, PhD

Dr. Martin Pusic is a practicing Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician at the Boston Children’s Hospital with an advanced interest in the science of learning as it applies to health professions education. He is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, having obtained his medical degree from the University of British Columbia, a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at McGill, and his PhD in Education from Teachers College of Columbia University.

Dr. Pusic has experience as a clinician-educator at all levels of medical education. He has directed a Pediatric Emergency Fellowship program, been a medical school course director, actively taught in residency and clerkship programs and has organized a number of CPD courses including being faculty at the Harvard Macy Institute.

A predominant model for his collaborative research program involves the collection of clinical artifacts, such as radiographs or ECGs, programming of an educational intervention and the subsequent collection and analysis of assessment data. Using qualitative methods, think-aloud protocols, and advanced statistical modelling (learning curves, item response modelling) they have published primary research on the use of deliberate practice for the learning of image interpretation. The key contention is that the improved understanding of cognitive models of learning (and their assessment) in the health professions can drive the improvement of learning efficacy and efficiency.

Dr. Pusic is Co-Investigator of an American Medical Association (AMA) funded grant entitled “Promotion in Place” which examines competency-based advancement of residents in representative programs. Previously, Dr. Pusic had been a co-investigator on another AMA grant at NYU where the project involved the development of a novel “Big Data” curriculum. Along with Drs. Rose Hatala, David Cook and Matthew Lineberry, he recently completed a U.S. Dept of Defense Grant entitled “An Adaptive Tutor for Improving Visual Diagnosis”.

He is co-chair of the Medical Education Research Grant Committee of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Vice-Chair of the American Heart Association’s Education Science Subcommittee. He is a Deputy Editor at Medical Education. In recognition of his research, he has earned membership in the American Pediatrics Society. His peers recently elected him President of the Society for Directors of Research in Medical Education.

In 2015, Dr. Pusic presented a Tedx Talk on "The Future of Health Education."

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