VOL 2, No 8, September 2000
Curricula to merge
A shrinking pool of resources means the end of the College of Medicine's alternative curriculum, though its style of learning will live on.Freshmen currently in the Parallel Curriculum are the last students to be admitted to the program. Its operation will continue until the current freshmen and sophomore students complete the first two years of their studies.
“It's not easy to take something that has been very successful and say we’re going to end it,” said Victor Del Bene, M.D., associate dean for students. “But financially, we can't support both curricula to the extent that they must be supported.”
While revisions to the traditional curriculum have incorporated elements of the Parallel Curriculum's problem-based, self-learning style, they've been accompanied by a need for more faculty and staff time, and additional space.
"Now that we're changing the whole curriculum to feature more of a self-learning case-based structure, we're finding that we don't have an adequate infrastructure of people, space and funding to do what we need to do,” Del Bene said. “That's why we're bringing the curricula together—what we’re working towards is an amalgamation of both.”
Combining the parallel and traditional curricula is part of a national trend among medical schools. “We looked at other medical schools and only two still have separate curricula,” Del Bene said. “Our goal is to use the knowledge we've gained about the Parallel Curriculum's style of learning and apply it to the whole curriculum.”
As the Parallel Curriculum is phased out, the funds, faculty and staff that support it will be diverted to the central curriculum.
“It's the best use of resources and will benefit all our medical students and support their interdisciplinary education,” Del Bene said.
In particular, Parallel Curriculum staff and space will support Foundations in Clinical Medicine, a small-group segment to be added to the third year in July 2001. Once each week, students will come off their clinical rotations and meet in small groups to review cases. Each group will be led by a faculty mentor.
Since the first class of students entered in 1994, 140 MUSC graduates have spent their first two years in the Parallel Curriculum.
Those students have done very well in every aspect from board scores to getting residencies, proving the success of this method of education, Del Bene said.
The Parallel Curriculum has also provided an opportunity for faculty development in a mode of teaching very different from the lectures that have been a mainstay of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Curricular elements like Foundations in
Clinical Medicine will provide faculty with the opportunity to continue to teach in small groups.
“What we've learned by operating the Parallel Curriculum will help us move the traditional curriculum further toward less lecture and more experiential, case-based, student-driven learning,” Del Bene said.
Golden Apple awards presented
The American Medical Student Association and College of Medicine (COM) presented the forty-first annual Golden Apple awards on Friday, Sept. 15.
Award
recipients pictured are, back row from left, Dr. Amy Blue, Dr. Jerry Ondo,
Dr. Roger Newman, Candace Gillespie, Dr. Philip Privitera and Dr. Paul
Pritchard. Front row from left are Dr. Sally Self, Phillip Turner and Dr.
Patricia Halligan.
Each year, medical students select members of the faculty and staff
who have been most influential to their education and honor them with Golden
Apple and Special Appreciation Awards.
The first-year class Golden Apple Award was presented to Jerry Ondo,
Ph.D., professor of Physiology, and Sally Self, M.D., associate professor
of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Amy Blue, Ph.D., assistant dean for
curriculum evaluation, received the Special Appreciation Award.
Philip Privitera, Ph.D., professor of Cell and Molecular
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, was honored by the second-year
class with a Golden Apple Award. Phillip Turner, Pathology, received
the Special Appreciation Award.
Roger Newman, M.D., professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Patricia
Halligan, M.D., of the Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs, tied for the
Golden Apple Award for clinical science faculty. Candace Gillespie, COM
director of Student Affairs; Barbara Cart, Internal Medicine; and Weatherly
Rogers, Clinical Services Labor and Delivery, all received Special Appreciation
Awards.
The Golden Apple Awards are given annually in memory of Dr. Bernard
Metz, professor of Physiology, who was twice awarded this honor by his
students in recognition of his devotion to the art of teaching.
Also during the ceremony, third-year medical student Patrick Wilson
received the Novartis Outstanding Community Service Award.
The Humanism in Medicine Award went to Paul Pritchard III, M.D., professor
of Neurology.
AAMC supplement based on MUSC prevention study
Considering that more than 70 percent of all causes of death have some preventable component, it's critical that physicians not only treat illness, but educate their patients about prevention and early detection.To equip future physicians with the skills to promote prevention, U.S. medical schools must focus more attention on disease prevention and health promotion education and evaluation programs, according to a national survey led by David Garr, M.D.
A special July 2000 supplement of “Academic Medicine,” the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, outlines the results of this survey and provides guidance for curriculum leaders.
“Despite the evidence that exists to support the value of preventive care, the integration of prevention into medical education has been neither rapidly nor easily achieved,” said Garr, associate dean for Primary Care. “This supplement is the first step in equipping future physicians with the knowledge and skills to incorporate disease prevention into their practices.”
Concerned about the need for the enhancement of prevention education in medical schools, the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM) launched the Prevention Curriculum Assistance Program in 1995.
Garr headed up the effort which began with a national survey to acquire information to guide the development of a program of greatest utility for educating medical students about prevention.
With 68 percent of the nation's 125 allopathic and 29 osteopathic medical schools reporting, the survey revealed a great deal of variability across medical schools in terms of the attention that prevention receives. Many medical schools did not have a person responsible for the coordination of prevention education in the curriculum, a critical component according to Garr.
Survey results formed the basis for the three-part “Academic Medicine” supplement, “Teaching Prevention throughout the Curriculum: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Enhancing Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Undergraduate Medical Education.” This 98-page publication was prepared by a mutidisciplinary task force of which Garr was a member.
The first section takes a broad view and addresses topics such as curriculum content, elements currently taught in medical schools, how curricular material can be evaluated, and the types of support that faculty need to teach the material effectively. The second section addresses the question of how disease prevention/health promotion content might fit into the current curriculum being presented. The last section highlights resources available to faculty who teach preventive medicine.
At MUSC, instead of teaching a separate course on prevention, health promotion and disease prevention concepts and approaches are being folded into the curriculum longitudinally through incorporation into many different courses during all four years.
The Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine is the national professional association dedicated to advancing individual and community health promotion and disease prevention in the education of physicians and other health professionals.
At the 17th Annual National Preventive Medicine Conference this March, Garr received a special recognition award from the ATPM for his leadership in prevention education.
The 2000 annual meeting of the ATPM, Teaching Prevention: Linking the Prevention Education Community, to be held April 4 - 6, 2001 in Savannah, will offer further resources for medical schools wishing to better integrate health promotion and disease prevention content into their curricula. For more information on the conference, visit <http://www.atpm.org/annual>.
To view the full text of the “Academic Medicine” supplement, visit <http://www.academicmedicine.org>.
Pediatrics update to feature national experts
National experts in immunizations, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and pediatric dermatology travel to Charleston Dec. 1 - 3 for the Third Annual Frontiers in Pediatrics Conference.Sponsored by the MUSC Department of Pediatrics and the Office of Continuing Medical Education, the event is designed for pediatric primary caregivers—pediatricians, family physicians and nurse practitioners.
On Friday, Dec. 1, Samuel L. Katz, M.D., Wilburt C. Davison professor and chairman emeritus, Duke University Medical Center, a national authority on immunization practices, and Lance Rodewald, M.D., director of the Immunization Services Division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, join MUSC professor of Pediatrics Paul Darden, M.D., to discuss new vaccines, new immunization schedules and immunization controversies.
“Given the recent changes in immunization schedules and the amount of public backlash to vaccines, health care professionals need the tools to understand the schedule and to be able to answer the questions raised by parents,” said Conference Director J. Routt Reigart, M.D., professor and director, Division of General Pediatrics.
Other conference speakers during the weekend include James M. Perrin, M.D., author of the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy on the diagnosis and management of ADHD, and Bernard (Buddy) Cohen, M.D., director of Pediatric Dermatology at Johns Hopkins University.
Experts from the MUSC faculty will discuss substance abuse in adolescents, and seizures, headaches and sleep problems in children. The conference also features optional workshops Saturday afternoon on pediatric cardiology, pediatric ophthalmology and accessing pediatrics information on the Internet.
Since the first conference was held in 1998, content has been participant-driven. “When we decided to offer a pediatrics update, we surveyed potential attendees to determine the topics they'd like to see offered,” Reigart said. “Each year we match end-of-conference evaluations and topic suggestions with the original survey to select topics for the next event.”
The conference will be held at the Doubletree Guest Suites in downtown Charleston.
Space for last year's conference sold out, so make reservations early. For more information, call the Office of Continuing Medical Education at 876-1925 or visit <http://www.musc.edu/cme>.
Graduate Medical Eduction
Core Curriculum Lecture SeriesDinner is provided at Thursday sessions; lunch is provided at Friday sessions.
October
5
4 - 6 p.m.
Determining Your Insurance Needs
2 West Amphitheater
6
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Dealing with a Real Estate Agent
2 West Amphitheater
12
4 - 6 p.m.
Managing Your Student Loan Debt
2 West Amphiteater
13
11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Managing Your Student Loan Debt
2 West Amphiteater
19
4 - 6 p.m.
Successful Investment Strategies
2 West Amphitheater
20
11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Negotiating an Employment Contract
Solomon Auditorium, Gazes Building
26
4 - 6 p.m.
Building Your Clinical Practice
2 West Amphitheater
27
11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Building Your Clinical Practice
601 Clinical Sciences Building
To register, call Angela Ybarra at 792-0761, or Ginger Blanchard at
792-9304.
Continuing Medical Education
The following conferences are sponsored by MUSC. All conferences are to be held in Charleston unless otherwise noted.October
6 - 8
NC/SC Chapters ACC Annual Meeting
Myrtle Beach
27 - 28
MUSC/Clemson CME Weekend
Madren Conference Center, Clemson, S.C.
December
1 - 3
3rd Annual Frontiers in Pediatrics
Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel
2001
March
19 - 21
OB/GYN Spring Symposium
Charleston Place Hotel
26 - 27
11th Charleston Pulmonary Update
Charleston Place Hotel
April
16 - 18
2nd Annual Issues in Women’s Health
Charleston Place Hotel
Call the Office of Continuing Medical Education at 876-1925 for more information.
Teaching Tips
From “Improving Your Presentation Skills: Tips to Avoid 9 Common Traps,” by Franklin, J. Medio, Ph.D.TRAP—Failing to Establish a Common Base—Create a sense of collegiality with the audience by using relevant examples taken from shared experiences. Present information in the context it will be used (i.e., clinical applications). Use common metaphors or analogies to promote understanding of principles and concepts that are difficult to visualize. Strive to simplify complex information.
Don't miss this
Oct. 27 - Nov. 1AAMC Annual Conference
Chicago
To include the Group on Educational Affairs, Research in Medical Education and Innovations in Medical Education.
For program and registration information visit <http://www.aamc.org/meetings/annual/2000/start.htm>
Oct. 28 - 29
Generalists in Medical Education 21st Annual Conference
Chicago
To be held concurrently with the AAMC Conference
For information, visit <http://www.thegeneralists.org>.
The Medical Educator is written by Kristen
D. Karig, Public Relations