NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICAL EDUCATION

• June 2005

  Case Western Reserve Reforms Medical Education Case Western Reserve University is prescribing a new way of educating medical students that is aimed at strengthening ties between medicine and public health, i.e. "civic professionalism", and that gives medical students substantial research opportunities.
  http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1117531983135060.xml&coll=2

  Teacher Training For Hospital Residents Improves Medical Students' Education
  Resident physicians make better instructors for medical students and interns when they receive formal teaching training, a University of California, Irvine (UCI) College of Medicine study has found.
  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=12187

  Virtual Reality And The Art Of Medical Interview
  Medical students often learn questions such as "Tell me where it hurts" with live actors who are following prepared scripts. But this is expensive and the University of Florida (UF) has developed a new way to teach the subtle art of the patient-doctor interview.
  http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2005news/vrpatient.htm

   
• The Medical Algorithms Project

  A Medical Algorithm is any computation, formula, survey, or look-up table, useful in healthcare (for the basic and clinical sciences). More than 5100 algorithms, organized into 45 chapters, are available as spreadsheets which can be opened in your browser (IE4.1+, Netscape 7.1+ ). Algorithm documentation is available online in a separate window, so pop-ups must be enabled. In addition to the online spreadsheets 40 algorithms are now available online as web-based forms.

  http://www.medal.org/

• Building a Better Conversation About Learning

  This commentary by Pat Hutchings of the Carnegie Foundation on improving teaching addresses efforts to enable conversations between and among faculty members and administrators that will lead to improved teaching and learning. Carnegie Perspectives is a series of commentaries that explore different ways to think about educational issues. To receive these periodic commentaries about improving teaching from the Carnegie Foundation joining the Carnegie Perspectives email list by sending an email to:

  CarnegiePresident@carnegiefoundation.org  
  with "Subscribe" as the subject line.

  www.carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives/

• Teaching and Learning Theory

  This site contains links to articles about teaching/learning theories, methods and instructional design.

  http://www.uog.edu/coe/ed451/REFtheories.htm

• The Concept Mapping Homepage

  Concept mapping is a technique for representing knowledge in graphs. Concept mapping can be done for -for several purposes: - to generate ideas (brain storming, etc.);- to design a complex structure (long texts, hypermedia, large web sites, etc.); - to communicate complex ideas; - to aid learning by explicitly integrating new and old knowledge; - to assess understanding or diagnose misunderstanding.

  http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm

  http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/map_ho.html

  http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/tutorial/katsumot/conmap.htm

• Publishers Take Steps on Potential Misuse of Information by Bioterrorists
  News from the AAMC Council of Academic Societies Tony Mazzaschi, Director of CAS Activities

At the on-going AAAS meeting, a group of major journal editors issued a statement on steps they are taking to address potential misuse of scholarly research information by bioterrorists. A press release on the statement is on file at http://www.iamse.org/par/publishers_0303.doc

• The Education Scholar: Online Professional Development for Health Professions

The Education Scholar program is a comprehensive Web-based program for the advancement of teaching skills, professional scholarship, and instructional improvement in health professions education. The online curriculum challenges instructors to examine their beliefs about teaching and learning, expand their ability to develop and facilitate outcomes-based, learner-centered instruction, and establish their reputation as a scholar of education.

For further information see http://www.iamse.org/par/scholar_0303.doc or visit their website at http://www.educationscholar.org

• FAIMER Institute 2003 Applications Now Available.

The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) is accepting applications for Institute 2003, a faculty development program designed for international medical educators. This program is fully funded by FAIMER, a non-profit foundation of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). Appropriate medical school faculty who are nominated by their institutions are invited to apply.

The program begins on October 4, 2003. Detailed eligibility information and application materials are available at http://www.faimer.org. Completed applications must be received by April 7, 2003, and selected applicants will be notified by June 15, 2003.

For information on the program, contact the FAIMER office at faimerinstitute@faimer.org or visit the website at http://www.faimer.org

• Third Module of Successful Department Chair Series Now Available

The third module in the AAMC's series on medical school department chairs is now available. "Performance, Evaluation, Rewards, Renewal" addresses good practice in department chair evaluation, performance review, and compensation. It considers issues related to termination, career transition, stress, burnout, and renewal. Current cutting-edge policies and practices from medical schools and teaching hospitals are featured throughout the module.

For more details, excerpts, reader feedback, and ordering information, go to http://www.aamc.org/successfulchair

• The Value of Dog Labs in Medical Education
  News from the AAMC Council of Academic Societies Tony Mazzaschi, Director of CAS Activities

The use of animals in medical education is the subject of controversy on some campus. Dr. Barbara Horwitz, president of the American Physiological Society, has published a commentary on the issue in the San Diego Union Tribune. Whether you agree or disagree, this editorial sets out the position of the APS.

Read the essay at http://www.iamse.org/par/doglabs_0303.doc