# The Meaning of Leadership in Medical Education in the Pan American Health Organization Member States: A Stakeholder Analysis and Interviews

## TL;DR

This study explores how leadership is understood in medical education across countries in the Americas, using interviews and stakeholder analysis to guide future training.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a stakeholder-informed conceptual framework for leadership in undergraduate medical education in the Americas.

## Key findings

- Health-promoting leadership and expanding medicine's borders are central to leadership education.
- Leadership concepts are differentiated from other domains like health systems and public health.
- The framework targets medical students, other professionals, and non-professionals to improve population health.

## Abstract

Conceptualizing leadership in undergraduate medical education in the member states of the Pan American Health Organization.

Semi-structured interviews were done with the stakeholders who worked in a member state of the Pan American Health Organization. Three steps were followed to identify them: stakeholder analysis, networking by the authors, and snowballing. Content analysis and a member checking process were used to achieve agreement on the themes and codes.

Thirty-four stakeholders were interviewed. Health-promoting leadership and expanding the borders of medicine are the central concepts for education and training in leadership as they focus on achieving people’s wellbeing and health. Leading and leadership antonyms, models of our own: Leadership signature in the Americas, and challenges: health, public health, and health systems and services are the peripheral domains that aim to differentiate leadership from other concepts and the target audience, which includes undergraduate medical education, other professions, and individuals without a profession.

We encourage the member states of the Pan American Health Organization to consider this research as foundation for leadership education and training which can contribute to strengthening capacities in undergraduate medical education and other audiences to enhance population wellbeing and health across the Americas.