Dr. Neumeister wins prestigious national teaching award

J. Scott Neumeister, M.D., associate professor division of general medicine, has won a major teaching award from the American College of Physicians.
 
During next year's ACP national meeting, Dr. Neumeister will receive the Herbert S. Waxman Award for Outstanding Medical Student Educator. The award recognizes an ACP member who is an internal medicine interest group leader, clinical clerkship director, program director or faculty member who spends a significant amount of time teaching medical students.
 
"Since the ACP has a membership of over 150,000 people, their national awards are very competitive," said Tom Tape, M.D., professor and chair division of general medicine. "And this is the only award bestowed by the ACP that specifically recognizes excellence in student teaching."
 
During their internal medicine clinical clerkship, medical students participate in a daily class taught by Dr. Neumeister and his colleagues using a highly interactive approach.
 
"The in-depth, personalized learning experience constitutes an invaluable experience for students in the clinical years," said Dr. Tape. "It goes considerably beyond the normal clinical learning environment experiences."
 
In addition to the daily classes, during the ambulatory portion of the clerkship students spend an additional four hours a day working in small groups to solve clinical reasoning cases. Dr. Neumeister presents the cases verbally to the students, instructs them to use literature to search for evidence and asks for initial hypotheses along with a preliminary diagnostic and management plan.
 
Cory Rohlfsen, M.D., Internal Medicine chief resident, said Dr. Neumeister has perfected the Socratic Method so trainees are actively involved, thinking critically and applying relevant knowledge.
 
"His cases are thoughtful and dynamic with timed release of information, simulating what a clinician would experience in the real world," said Dr. Rohlfsen. "At each step in the process, students have the rare opportunity to see how an expert clinician reasons through complicated cases and medical students soon learn to take ownership for their decisions."
 
Nathan Anderson, M.D., assistant professor division of general medicine, said Dr. Neumeister challenges his students to think outside of the box. 
 
"He encourages evidence-based reasoning to support students’ answers," said Dr. Anderson. "He will frequently only accept an answer from the small group when there is group consensus; this way, the students have to teach each other why their answer is the correct one." 
 
Allison Ashford, M.D., assistant professor division of general medicine, said Dr. Neumeister’s classes were significant for her education and they also impacted her career. 
 
"Scott challenged me to critically think.  He probed me to continue to ask ‘why?’" she said. "His approach of allowing me to actively learn while passively guiding me along the way inspired me to become an internist."
 
Dr. Anderson said Dr. Neumeister constantly strives to be up to date on every topic and he voluntarily takes the standardized Internal Medicine In-Service Training Exam every year along with the internal medicine residents. 
 
"Although his sheer intelligence can be a spectacle, his student-centered approach is the real secret to his work," said Dr. Rohlfsen. "His dedication to students is unparalleled. He genuinely cares about us and our learning."
 
Dr. Neumeister has taught every medical student who has graduated from UNMC since the late 1990s and his colleagues said he is a large reason why the internal medicine clerkship has thrived during this time, consistently earning the highest average clerkship scores on the standardized NBME shelf exams (compared to other M3 clerkships) as well as the top clerkship as voted upon by the medical students for the last 15 years. 
 
"An entire generation of local and regional physicians is thinking critically because of their experiences with him," said Dr. Rohlfsen.