From Vague Idea to Research Direction: My Experience with MedEdMentor

I'll be the first to admit it: when I sat down to fill out the MedEdMentor consultation form, I didn't have a fully formed research question. I had an interest area, sure. I knew it had something to do with my work at the Teaching Academy and our mentoring program. But I couldn't quite articulate where I wanted to take the idea, and I wasn't sure how to shape it into something that could actually become a scholarly project.

If you've been in that position, you know how isolating it can feel. You're passionate about a topic, you sense there's something worth exploring, but the gap between "I'm interested in this" and "here's my research question" feels enormous. That's exactly where I was when I reached out to speak with Geoff Stetson, MedEdMentor's CEO. As a member of the Patricia A. Tietjen, MD Teaching Academy at Nuvance now Northwell Health, the first organization to become a Founding Partner of MedEdMentor, I, along with all of my peers, can reach out to speak with Geoff about our scholarly projects at any time through our partnership.

A conversation, not a prescription

What struck me first about my consultation with Geoff was that it wasn't a rigid, structured session where someone tells you what to study.

Geoff took the time to listen to my thoughts, my potential barriers, and even the things I was unsure of. That matters more than people might realize, especially when you're in the early stages and your ideas still feel fragile.

During our conversation, I started to see my interests from different angles. Geoff asked the kinds of questions that helped me uncover areas of pursuit I might not have considered on my own. Or, more accurately, areas I had considered but talked myself out of.

Uni changed my perspective

After our conversation, Geoff used Uni (MedEdMentor's AI research mentor) to take our discussion further. Based on the themes and questions from our meeting, Uni provided me with several options for research questions and potential directions I could take my project.

Uni helped me see that what felt scary about those ideas was actually what made them valuable. They were new, novel, and a bit unusual, which meant there wasn't much existing research in that space. At first, that felt like a problem. But reframed through the lens of Uni's analysis, it became an opportunity, a chance to publish something genuinely new and lay a foundation for others working in a similar area.

That shift in perspective was one of the most valuable things I took away from the entire experience.

The human + AI difference

The reason Uni's suggestions were so relevant and useful was because Geoff took the time to listen to where I was, understand my hesitations, and then translate that conversation into prompts that gave Uni the context it needed to be genuinely helpful.

That combination, a thoughtful human consultation paired with an HPE-specific AI that can rapidly expand your thinking, is something I haven't encountered anywhere else in our field. It made the process of going from "I have a vague idea" to "I have a research direction" feel not only manageable, but exciting.

Next steps

I'm now diving into my literature search, finalizing my research question, and building momentum toward a scholarly project that I feel genuinely energized about. I look forward to continuing to work with MedEdMentor and Uni as this project takes shape.

If you're a health professions educator sitting on an idea you haven't been able to develop, MedEdMentor can help. Between the 1:1 consultation and Uni's ability to expand your thinking in real time, I went from uncertain to energized in a single session. I'd encourage you to see what it can do for your work.

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Haley Wheeler is a speech-language pathologist and scholar fellow with the Nuvance now Northwell Health Patricia A. Tietjen MD Teaching Academy. She consulted with Geoff Stetson and MedEdMentor in early 2026.