The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine
is one of only eight medical schools in the country selected to
receive a contract for developing undergraduate medical education
for the 21st century. The contract, funded by the Health
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), gives the College
of Medicine $125,000 each year for three years in order to
enhance its current curriculum for third and fourth year medical
students.
UNMC based its application on a proposed program called
Education for Managed Care Competencies (E=MC2), which
detailed several new curriculum innovations designed to provide
students with additional clinical experiences. Jeffrey Susman,
M.D., professor of family medicine and associate dean of the UNMC
College of Medicine, is the principal investigator on the grant,
which includes a series of workshops, individual projects and
practicums.
Teams of approximately four students will work under the
direction of a faculty mentor to complete the individual project
portion of the program, Dr. Susman said. Topics for the projects
are chosen by the students which allows them to choose a subject
of genuine interest. For example, one possible topic might be an
evaluation of the differences between older and newer treatments
of depression. A possible workshop will look at how managed care
has impacted the length of patient hospital stays. Clinical work
will primarily be done in clinics serving underserved populations
such as the sharing clinic run by UNMC students at 31st and Q
streets, Dr. Susman said.
Implementation for the two-year program will begin with the
third-year medical students at the start of the 1998-1999
academic year. E=MC2 involves clerkships in family
medicine, internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry, obstetrics and
gynecology and pediatrics. Dr. Susman said that approximately 70
medical schools applied for the contract. Other medical schools
receiving funding are Dartmouth, the University of Miami, the
University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, the
University of California at San Francisco, Wayne State University
and the University of Wisconsin.
"This speaks well for our medical school. A lot of hard
work involving a number of people went into the application.
It’s nice to reap the fruits of our labor," Dr. Susman
said.
Harold M. Maurer, M.D., dean of UNMC College of Medicine said,
"I think this is great. It shows how innovative our
curriculum is and how strong our faculty is. It definitely shows
that we’re in the big leagues."
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the
state. Through its commitment to research, education and patient
care, UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading
centers for cancer research and treatment and solid organ
transplantation. More than $25 million in research grants and
contracts are awarded to UNMC scientists annually. In addition,
UNMC’s educational programs are responsible for training more
health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other
institution.