Curriculum Committee meeting
February 13, 2007
Members present: Doug Arnold (MSIV), Dr. Rob Averbuch, Dr. Mike Chen, Dr. Richard Davidson, Dr. Heather Harrell, Dr. Robert Hatch, Omayra Marrero (MSII), Dr. John Meuleman, Dr. Sigurd Normann, Nitesh Paryani (MSI), Dr. Mohan Raizada, Dr. Louis Ritz, Dr. Margaret Wallace, Dr. William Winter, Dr. Lynn Romrell, Dr. Richard Rathe, Dr. Robert Watson, Linda Butson, Dr. Beverly Vidauretta, and Beth Layton
Dr. Rarey referred to the LCME Accreditation icon on the College of Medicine homepage, which has details about the information collected for the accreditation visit next week. He stated we have been in contact with the secretary and that everything is in place for the visit.
Dr. Watson provided copies of his version of Guiding Values, which included the following statements: the core mission of a medical school is medical student education; a supportive environment and culture of learning are essential to fulfilling this core mission; choosing and developing a cadre of teachers is as important as choosing and developing generations of learners; the education team must have responsibility and authority; continuous curriculum renewal is vital; continuous evaluation of learners, teachers, and the overall education program is needed to complement continuous curriculum renewal; and mission-based budgeting is necessary to having a meaningful and respected education program.
Dr. Watson then discussed a diagram he created in 1999 that was formalized in 2000, regarding education program design, implementation and evaluation. This diagram explains in detail Dr. Rarey’s role as the Assistant Dean for Program Evaluation and Faculty Development and the purpose of the office as a whole. He noted the pivotal position of the Curriculum Committee, which is empowered to plan a coordinated, comprehensive curriculum that expands the four years of medical school and provides for all of our students a general professional education. This is implemented by the faculty through the Medical Education Center.
He believes we are all ready. We’ve heard over and over again the concerns that we have established: the new Education Building, more diversity among faculty and house staff, and an out of control out-of-state tuition which we has been taken care of by getting a tuition waiver for our out-of-state students which will bring them within $5,000 in-state tuition.
He stated that all the members of this Curriculum Committee need to know what an absolutely pivotal role you play in the education of our students. Each member is very carefully chosen as people without parochial or departmental interest who can step back and take a look at the broad picture of general professional education. We try to have a mix of basic science faculty and we have two medical students who are voting members of this committee, as well as a few more students who are ex-officio members. From time to time we have community involvement, although we don’t currently. In particular, the people Dr. Watson would love to see on the Academic Status Committee, the Admissions Committee and the Curriculum Committee are a couple of patients.
Dr. Harrell asked a question about the out-of-state tuition waiver. Dr. Watson explained it and stated that he made the decision that MD/Oral Surgery students who are recruited from out-of-state will also get this tuition waiver because the way he looks at it is that for three years they are medical students. He stated that Dr. Ira Gessner, Chair of the Admissions Committee, will decide how much each tuition waiver will be, whether none, half or full, up to $30,000 per year. There is no budget, but Dr. Watson figures that with the quality of applicants in this state there will probably never be more than five out-of-state students each year. If it gets to be more than five students there will need to be a budget and a limit will need to be set.
Dr. Davidson referred to Dr. Watson’s Guiding Value that continuous curriculum renewal is vital. He wanted to refresh everyone’s memory about some of the changes that have taken place in the curriculum over the past several years. On the Graduation Questionnaire several years ago, there were a number of things that the students felt they weren’t getting to include nutrition, palliative care and pain relief, and interpretation of laboratory tests. We put together a capstone which took place at the end of the fourth year during Internship 101 to specifically give clinical training to the graduating students to help prepare them for their internship in these topics. Another thing that we did was to increase the time in Neurology because we were getting continuous feedback that their Neurology clerkship is too short. We also increased the amount of time for Geriatrics by adding essentially one week to the total, but two weeks in the fourth year and making it now a required separate clerkship. In terms of what we have planned, which has been simmering in the background because of LCME, is to work on clinical problem solving. There are two subcommittees, Dr. Curry’s and Dr. Davidson’s, which are working on ways to improve clinical problem solving throughout the curriculum. One subcommittee will address the first two years and one subcommittee will address the last two years. There is a possibility that those may become standing subcommittees, which will be talked about in the future.
Dr. Romrell commented on the handout that showed the USMLE Step 2 scores for the Class of 2007 to date. He stated that these are remarkable scores and that this class has done extraordinarily well. The excellent scores certainly help them when they get to the residency screening; their scores standout. The Class of 2007 has the highest score to date on that exam.
Dr. Normann stated that he really feels that mission-based budgeting is instrumental because when you look at it, it tells you how seriously the college takes its core mission. That impacts the first statement on Dr. Watson’s Guiding Values, which is that the core mission of a medical school is medical student education. That is what allows you to choose and develop a cadre of teachers. He thinks that is one of the clearly essential things that have happened; you’re not borrowing from the clinical mission and you’re not borrowing from other missions, you have your own identified educational mission. Dr. Watson reminded everyone that mission based budgeting, as well as the patient simulator, were invented here.
Dr. Romrell brought up Educational Standard 2, which is a standard that requires us to define the clinical experiences we expect our students to have on clinical clerkships and the preclinical courses where they interact with patients and have a way to track what the students actually do. A program was created to collect patient log data as students go through their rotations and things like primary care preceptorship and Essentials of Patient Care in the first two years. Students are logging their encounters whether it’s real patients or standardized patients. We have taken that data now and for two years we have refined the collection system. He thinks we can now further refine our list of procedures we expect them to do, our activities that we’ve defined, and the kinds of patients we expect them to see. Over the next few months we will begin refining those lists and better determine what we expect our student to do. He thinks that’s the clear message we need to give to the LCME site team when they’re here.
Dr. Romrell stated that we have had a very effective Clerkship Directors Committee since the mid 80’s. He thinks our Course Directors Committee has moved in a very positive way over the last few years, especially these last two years with Dr. Winter heading up that group. We have teams of people who are devoted to what they do. He stated that Dr. Rathe’s people are the programmers and his people primarily are the implementers and that a tremendous amount of effort goes into that.
Dr. Watson asked how many seats there are in the computer testing center right now and someone told him there are 160. He stated another of Information Technology’s accomplishments was to have a dedicated computer testing center where our students take every test.
Dr. Watson asked for input from the students and faculty about designing the new medical education building. One of the key factors he’s thinking about is whether to keep the testing center in its existing space. He asked what should go into a new 21st century building and said he’d appreciate any advice. He said we’re up to 10 on the PICO list which means it should be the third or fourth building in line to be built. We have 120 donors that have already donated money for the new building. It would be very nice to have a clear vision as to what stays. Dr. Davidson stated that in terms of the LCME, many of the things that we felt we were not up-to-snuff in had to do with facilities. Dr. Watson stated that we are at capacity right now with 135 students. If we go any larger we will have to have new building, but regardless, the building was built in 1971 and is ancient.
Dr. Davidson stated that for those people, such as him, that run courses that need a lot of small group meeting rooms, it has gotten to the point of absurdity at this point in time. They have small group meetings next Tuesday and have been bumped out of 10 of 40 rooms within the last week. There really needs to be some added space for small group teaching, and a new 21st century education building would be a perfect solution to that.
Dr. Davidson asked if there was any more specific feedback about mock site visit. Dr. Watson said they learned some things and he was glad they did it. They figured out key people to be on various teams they hadn’t thought of before. He thought everyone did a great job and thought the students and junior faculty were eloquent.
Dr. Rarey spoke about the Blue Room. He stated that Dennis Hines from the VP’s office is going to add more adequate lighting into the room and stated that it will be transformed. Dr. Romrell stated that the Blue Room was blue about 20 years ago, but that the paint has been changed many times over the years, often not blue, and is still called the Blue Room.
Dr. Vidauretta stated that students have been saying how beautifully done the new library is and suggested going over there to get ideas. Dr. Watson stated that Carol Walker, the university’s planner, is going to take Dr. Tisher and others on a tour of the library and the Hut. Dr. Watson feels sure that the new Medical Education Building will be a wireless environment. He wants it to look out over the creek in the back so people can look out the windows and sit and drink coffee.
Dr. Davidson stated that we have a great institution here. We have a great medical school, great students, great faculty, great administrators, and average facilities. He said we should just tell our story and not personalize things and tell them what we do and we’ll be just fine. By the next Curriculum Committee meeting it will all be over. Dr. Watson stated that one of the reasons he created the Office for Program Evaluation and Faculty Development is that not only do we have continuous curriculum renewal, but we have continuous evaluation of the program. One of Dr. Rarey’s absolute explicit tasks is to constantly monitor LCME standards. We are always looking at standards and are always looking at changes in standards and making sure that we’re ahead. It’s been a 7 year process that’s accelerated within the last year and a half.
The meeting was adjourned at 9am.