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MEDICAL EDUCATOR
VOL 3, No 9, October 2001
Malcolm appointed associate dean for continuing medical
education
Robert J. Malcolm, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences,
an
acknowledged leader in research for the treatment of substance abuse,
now has a
new challenge to tackle: associate dean of continuing medical education
(CME) and
public education in the College of Medicine.
Malcolm, 58, will relinquish his duties as medical director for the
Center for Drug
and Alcohol Programs (CDAP) in the Department of Psychiatry and close
his
outpatient psychiatric practice. He will continue his research work
and inpatient care.
“There are challenges ahead,” he said recently. “The staff is currently
in the process
of relocating, and we’re in the planning stages for reaccreditation.”
A 1970 graduate of the College of Medicine, Malcolm completed a rotating
internship at MUSC in 1971 and a residency training in psychiatry at Stanford
University Medical Center in 1974. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve
and the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a flight surgeon, rising to the rank
of colonel before retiring in 1999.
CME's mission of providing educational activities throughout a physician's
life in
order to enhance society is one that Malcolm wholeheartedly embraces.
“We can't only educate young medical professionals,” he said.
“We have to continue to educate throughout the life of the practitioner,
from the time they complete their residency until they enter retirement.”
Malcolm plans to consult with a number of colleagues before embarking
on any
particular course for the college’s continuing education activities.
In general terms,
however, he said he wanted to explore the possibility of expanding
educational
activities via the Internet.
“I am interested in providing additional forms of learning for physicians,”
he said. “I
think we should look at multiple media, including Web-based learning.
I hope we can secure funds to pursue that.”
Malcolm also considered video teleconferencing another important form
of continuing education, and may seek to expand its usage.
“The challenge is to make continuing medical education self-supporting
and generate
income,” he said.
The six-member CME staff, he noted, is a “wonderful group of people
who work
hard” to set up and coordinate numerous conferences, workshops, evaluations
and
accreditation sessions “and do it extremely well. I really want to
compliment them.”
Malcolm fully appreciates the magnitude of his new position and its
place in not only
the college’s mission, but the university's.
“Education is not just learning facts, but also changing our behavior
as we adjust to those facts,” he said. “I see my job as coordinating the
efforts and ideas of people within this university and throughout the state,
and building a consensus with a whole lot of people.”
The recent terrorist attacks and subsequent anthrax contaminations have
given
Malcolm pause when contemplating what, if any, behavior modifications
should be
made in continuing medical education.
“I’m not trying to sound melodramatic, but I am interested in reviewing
our changing
health care needs based on the incidents since Sept. 11,” he
said. “Perhaps we need
to rethink our educational needs for specialists and primary
practitioners in preparing
for exotic bio-disorders. South Carolina may not be a primary
target, but we do
have a lot of interstate commerce, we have major airports, large
ports—all of these
are potential targets. We may need to reassess what we know and
what we teach.”
To make time on his busy calendar for new obligations and responsibilities
meant, of
course, that something had to go, in this case his duties with
CDAP and an extremely rewarding clinical practice.
“I’ve practiced for 30 years,” he said. “In outpatient psychiatry, you
spend a long
time working with the same people. I’ll always cherish those relationships.
I’m very
saddened by leaving my practice.
On the other hand, Malcolm appreciates what lies before him. “A medical
education is of the greatest importance, and I will continue my research
and look for new treatments for addiction,” he said. “At 58, I have to
realize that I’m in the latter third of my career. These are the things
that I want to devote the next 10 to 15 years to, and, God willing, I hope
to do a good job.”
Student ambassadors, rolling admissions part of plan
to keep applicants
The College of Medicine is competing with other medical schools for South
Carolina’s best and brightest students. For the most part it’s successful,
but the past
couple of years have revealed a disturbing trend in the admissions
process.
Last year, 38 of the 141 students accepted to the college went elsewhere,
an attrition
rate of 26 percent. Among African American students, the rate was 35
percent (7
out of 20).
Deborah Deas, M.D., M.P.H., is determined not only to find the reasons
behind the
attrition increase, but to reverse it as well.
“We’re trying to figure out what it is (about MUSC) that they chose
to go elsewhere,” she said. “We have to turn that around. These students
had excellent academic records. We didn’t stretch our standards to admit
them.”
In August, Dean Jerry Reves appointed Deas as associate dean for admissions,
joining Assistant Dean Paul Underwood, M.D. in that area.
Deas, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has
worked hard to
help implement changes in the college’s admissions process to stem
the tide. Among
the changes are quicker turnarounds from the time a student is accepted
until a letter
is sent to the student, and the enlistment of “student ambassadors”
to give applicants
a personal contact at MUSC.
“In the past, when a student was accepted, we didn’t send letters of
acceptance out
right away. They normally went out after Dec. 15,” Deas said. “Now,
we have ‘rolling admissions.’ The admissions committee meets on the last
Tuesday of the month. Now, when students are accepted, we send letters
right away. This helps to decrease the anxiety those students may feel
waiting to be accepted. And if another institution notified them before
we did, it may have prompted them to lean that way instead of waiting for
us.”
The student ambassadors came out of Deas’s idea to give applicants a
face to
associate with MUSC.
“These students represent MUSC in what they do and what they say,” Deas
explained. “We’ve had several volunteers. They show the students
around campus,
have lunch with them, take them on tours. They tell the applicants
that MUSC is the
best place to go in South Carolina and one of the best in the
South.”
Deas said the ambassadors follow up their contacts with periodic phone
calls or
e-mail messages in order to let applicants know that MUSC cares about
them.
She also makes it a point to personally meet every applicant on Fridays
when they
tour the campus. Deas has lunch with the applicants and moves from
table to table to
talk with each student.
In addition to those meetings, Deas, Underwood and admissions officer
Wanda
Taylor plan to visit universities in North and South Carolina to recruit
students for
MUSC.
She added that an effort is being made by the college to recruit more
minority faculty
members and residents to meet with applicants. “I think it’s important
to expand the
number of minority faculty and residents, not just for African American
students, but
for all students to see minority physicians and Ph.D.s as professional
role models,”
she explained. “This is what the real world is about.”
To better determine MUSC’s image among potential students, Deas said,
the college
will send out questionnaires to those students who declined to accept
MUSC’s
offer.
“We need to find out why they chose to go elsewhere,” Deas said. “We’re
in the
dark. Then we can decide what to do differently, based on an
analysis of the data we gather.”
For Deas, this is the best way to arrive at a course of action. “This
is what I do—research. I think methodically; I’m data-driven,” she said.
Deas earned her M.P.H. from the University of South Carolina in 1979
and her
M.D. degree from MUSC in 1989. She is board certified in addiction
psychiatry,
child and adolescent psychiatry and adult psychiatry.
Continuing Medical Education
The following conferences are sponsored by MUSC. All conferences are
to be
held in Charleston unless otherwise noted.
November
4 - 7: 11th Annual International Soc.
of Exposure Analysis Conference
Embassy Suites Convention Center
9 - 11: Neonatal Pharmacology Conference
2001
Embassy Suites Convention Center
November 30 - December 2
4th Annual Frontiers in Pediatrics
Westin Francis Marion Hotel
December
7 - 9: Achieving Excellence in GME
Mills House Hotel
January 2002
11 - 12: 8th Annual Thomas A. Pitts Memorial
Lectureship -- HIV/AIDS as an Epidemic
Gazes Auditorium
18 - 19: Contemporary Approaches to Palliative
Medicine
Mills House Hotel
February 23: Liver Disease and Transplantation
Symposium
Lightsey Conference Center
March
8 - 9: Pediatric Neurosurgery Update for
Primary Care
Mills House Hotel
14 - 16: 2nd Annual Office Practice of
Primary Care
Mills House Hotel
14 - 17: AAMC SGEA Annual Meeting
Westin Francis Marion Hotel
25 - 27: OB/GYN Spring Symposium
Charleston Place Hotel
Teaching Tips
Role modeling of professionalism is an essential component of training
future
physicians. Neal Whitman, PhD, in his book "Preceptors as Teachers:
A Guide to
Clinical Teaching," suggests the following broad categories of professional
behaviors
worth transmitting to students:
-
Be Capable – Instruct the attitude of competency and excellence by being
organized in handling both clinical care and clinical teaching duties.
-
Be Sensitive – The best way to instruct the attitude of sensitivity toward
patients is to be sensitive to both patients and students. Being
empathic to the anxieties and fears of students and residents and gentle
in recognizing their inadequacies will also role model a proper patient
care approach.
-
Be Enthusiastic – By being accessible to learners, interested in their
problems and needs, energetic in your approach to them, you will be promoting
productive learning and good patient care.
-
Be Yourself – The most important aspect of instructing attitudes asks no
more than for you to willingly demonstrate and defend your approach to
patient care, to be explicit and honest about how you deal with uncertainties,
difficulties and ambiguities of medical practice, and to be willing to
say, as we all must at times, "I don’t know!"
-
Be aware of your potential to affect medical students both positively and
negatively and use this self-awareness to treat your learners as you would
have them treat their patients.
Don't miss this
American Association of Medical Colleges 112th Annual Meeting
"Facing the Future" Nov 2 - 7, 2001. Washington, DC.
For more
information, go to www.aamc.org
AAMC Southern Group on Educational Affairs Meeting
March 14 - 17, 2002
Charleston, SC
Meeting proposals due December 1, 2001. For details go
to: http://www.musc.edu/sgea2002
The Medical Educator is produced by the Office
of Public Relations
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