Which levels of education in medical sciences utilize most the Problem Based Learning?- A citation analysis study

Abstract

Objectives: The main aim of this study was to illustrate the implementation of Problem Based Learning (PBL) at the levels of curriculum, course, or lesson of medical education through the Scientometrics analysis of articles indexed in both world and national databases in order to create evidence for changing the curriculum of medical education into PBL. Methods: The Electronic databases of Web of Science (WoS) and PubMed, and Iranian Databases of Iran Medex, SID and MagIran were searched during the period of 2003-2013 for related articles using rigorous search strategies. All related articles were extracted and critically appraised based on the levels of education. Results: The study revealed that PBL is mostly applied in educational level of lesson rather than the curricula or courses around the world. The U.S. and the field of medicine were identified as the leading national and active fields in implementing and reporting the use of PBL among others. Few studies have provided evidence to implementation of PBL in medical education Conclusions: This study suggests the use of hybrid model of PBL with other methods instead of total curriculum change. It also suggests conducting rigorous studies on the utilization of PBL in medical education in Iran to fill the considerable gap of studies among the published literature.