Introduction: The methods of teaching medical speci-alities have evolved over the years, with technological advances and increased access to information. Current students and future doctors need educational programs suitable for the increased requirements, to ensure the highest standard of care for patients. The traditional courses of medical pedagogy offered by the Universiti-es of medicine in Romania are often catalogued by stu-dents as „oldest“. Until now, in Romania and in many states of the European Union there is still a need for special programs dedicated to training young univer-sity teaching assistants the art and the science of tea-ching in an effective, evidence-based way, adapted to the current trends in medical pedagogy.

Methods: T he first edition of „The International Me-dical Education Bootcamp“ took place in 2018, over four days of workshops and lectures, held in English. Participants included 20 young university teaching as-sistants in cardiology and other medical specialities, as well as final year medical students from Romania, Gre-at Britain, Holland, Ukraine and Nigeria. The speakers included clinicians, scientists and trainers specialising in medical education, from the UK, Holland, Romania and the United States of America.

Results: Throughout this program, the young teaching assistants had the opportunity to explore new teaching methods, such as teamwork, problem-based learning, simulations, formative and sumative questionnaires. The participants were also evaluated on their teaching skills, creating and presenting a course the other par-ticipants, following which they received constructive feedback from colleagues and lecturers. The training course in medical education was evaluated as „excel-lent“ by all 20 participants, some of whom mention that such a course is necessary to help them better under-stand adult learning theories and how to teach better so that students become competent physicians.

Conclusions: Local, national and international pro-grams are required for the development of teaching skills in cardiology as well as in all other medical spe-cialisations. These programs must address the current and future needs of continuous training of the medi-cal labour force. Courses similar to the program „The International Medical Education Bootcamp“ have the potential to increase the quality of the medical teaching in Romania and other countries, by supporting the exchange of experience and by using new and evidence based methods of teaching.