UNMC College of Medicine Receives Award for Excellence

The UNMC College of Medicine recently received the Award for Excellence

for Curricular Innovation and Interdisciplinary Collaboration. The award

was based on UNMC’s performance during the Interdisciplinary Generalist

Curriculum (IGC) Project.

UNMC was one of 10 medical schools selected to participate in the three-year

project. From 1994 to 1997, UNMC received approximately $300,000 to help

implement innovative primary care curricula during the first two years

of medical training. The grant was funded by the Health Resources Services

Administration and is administered by the Society of Teachers of Family

Medicine.

“We were fortunate to gain acceptance into the IGC project,” said Jeffrey

Susman, M.D., professor of family medicine and associate dean for faculty

development. “We went through a competitive cycle, and UNMC was one of

five institutions selected to participate during the first year.”

Participating schools funded from 1994 to 1997 were Eastern Virginia

Medical School, the Medical College of Ohio, the University of Wisconsin-Madison

and the University of Colorado. From 1995 to 1998, the following schools

were funded: Marshall University, Nova Southeastern University College

of Osteopathic Medicine, the University of California-San Francisco, the

University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Vermont.

Dr. Susman said he received much support from Harold M. Maurer, M.D.,

UNMC chancellor, who, at the time, had just begun serving as dean of the

College of Medicine.

“Dr. Maurer and the primary care physicians were extremely supportive

in helping us secure the grant,” he said.


The IGC project encouraged the collaborative efforts of the departments

of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. It required first-

and second-year medical students to spend a minimum of 150 hours of generalist

curriculum time. At least 50 percent of this amount was devoted to direct,

supervised clinical experience with  generalist physician preceptors

or mentors from one of the three primary departments, including more than

100 community preceptors.

Throughout the project, Dr. Susman met with representatives from the

other participating schools. “Because we met regularly with the other institutions,

we were able to learn from each other as we went along,” he said.

Dr. Susman said he believes there is value in sharing ideas with other

medical schools. “It is helpful to see what you can glean from other schools

and take back to your own institution.”

The goal of the IGC project is to learn what works and does not work

in curricula innovation within 10 individual institutions. Lessons emerged

in the following areas:

Interdisciplinary collaboration.


Community preceptor recruitment and retention.


Faculty development (both community-based and university-based faculty).


Integration of clinical and nonclinical teaching through an early clinical

experience.


Integration into the four-year curriculum for medical students.

A supplement outlining the IGC results will be published by Academic

Medicine next year.

UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the state.

Through its commitment to research, education, outreach 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

$34 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.