EDITOR’S NOTE: The redesign of the College of Medicine curriculum is moving full speed ahead with implementation slated for the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year. To help people become more familiar with the process and gain a better understanding of what the college hopes to accomplish, InterCOM plans to carry a series of articles over the next several months on curriculum reform.
The series begins this month with some general background on why the College of Medicine is planning for this comprehensive curriculum redesign. In subsequent articles, we will explore:
- The five goals of UNMC’s curriculum redesign.
- The three phases of curriculum redesign.
- What curriculum redesign will mean to current students and future students.
- The faculty involved in curriculum redesign.
- What curriculum redesign will mean to COM faculty.
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UNMC is not alone in this undertaking. Earlier this decade, several studies suggested that approximately 75 percent of allopathic medical schools had initiated some degree of substantial curriculum reform.
Three of the three primary drivers for redesign across the nation include:
- the need for better integration of the basic sciences and clinical care;
- having students gain earlier clinical experiences; and
- an enhanced focus on interprofessional education.
"We recognized these trends and the changing needs of our students," said Kelly Caverzagie, M.D., associate dean for educational strategy for the College of Medicine and the leader of the COM curriculum redesign effort. "We knew it was something that needed to be done."
Through its Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, the American Medical Association has invested millions of dollars to help current schools create the medical school of the future. In addition, other national organizations are focusing on the redesign of medical education and medical school training.
In November 2015, UNMC was one of 21 medical schools invited to join the AMA consortium. Other medical schools in the consortium include Harvard, Case Western, Emory, Mayo Clinic, North Carolina and Texas.
The consortium’s goal is to enhance the innovative work underway to create the medical school of the future and quickly spread these innovations to additional medical schools throughout the country. Much of UNMC’s work in the consortium has focused on enhancing interprofessional education.
Each of the medical schools in the consortium will receive $75,000 over three years to advance the AMA’s innovative work aimed at transforming medical education to better align with the 21st century health care system.
UNMC’s curriculum redesign – currently called Training the Physicians of Tomorrow – launched in October 2014 and has gone through several planning and design steps since that time.
"We have recently entered into the final step in the design process," Dr. Caverzagie said. "This is when faculty will focus on the formal and detailed design of the system-based blocks and clinical learning experiences.
"With only about eight months to go before we launch the new curriculum, our team is confident that everything is coming together nicely. Change is never easy, but the support we’ve received from faculty has been reassuring that we’re on the right track."
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Preparing our next generation of physicians to become leaders
by Kelly Caverzagie, M.D., associate dean for educational strategy, UNMC College of Medicine
EDITOR’S NOTE: To capture the changing world of medical education, Dr. Caverzagie was asked to write a column for the Physicians Bulletin magazine of the Metro Omaha Medical Society.
The health care environment continues to rapidly change and evolve. Technology, patient expectations and new regulations are impacting how doctors provide care.
As the associate dean for educational strategy at the UNMC College of Medicine, I am charged with the task of leading the redesign of the curriculum for the College of Medicine to reflect this changing health care environment.
How we train the next generation of doctors to practice medicine cannot be based on how we practiced 10 years ago. Instead, we need to look toward the future and how we anticipate medicine will be practiced in the next 10 years and beyond.
In this new emerging model of care, it will be essential that we teach our new generation of physicians how to become more effective communicators and leaders, how to deliver more personal and integrated care, to more effectively integrate technology into their practice, and how to continually keep an eye on patient safety and continuous quality improvement.
The following expands on some of these primary skill sets that I believe need to be incorporated into today’s curriculum to better prepare the next generation to be successful leaders in the medical field.
Enhanced leadership and communication skills to lead a team of health care providers: Physicians in the future cannot practice medicine in a vacuum. They need to become the leaders of a medical team that may include nurses, social workers, nutritionists, psychologists, pharmacists, subspecialists, home health care workers and public health officials. By working collaboratively with other providers in the health care system and larger health care community, our new physicians can help patients successfully navigate our increasingly complex health care system.
Providing a continuum of care that goes beyond the care provided in the hospital: As the leader of the health care team, our new physicians need to learn to be aware of other variables that can impact their patients’ health once they leave the hospital or clinic such as their home and socioeconomic conditions. It is critical that we arm them with the skills to be effective communicators, so they can collaborate with team members to make sure proper resources are being mobilized and ensure the full continuum of care is being met.
Emphasis on patient safety and continuous quality improvement: Health care is increasingly emphasizing standardization, patient safety, quality improvement, cost reduction and efficiency to increase overall customer value. This will require our future physicians to be leaders in defining quality and safety standards. As such, it is essential that we educate them on how to analyze data related to patient outcomes, research and quality indicators, eliminate inappropriate variations and continuously improve by applying best practices to their own patients.
A focus on more personal and integrated care: The health care model of the future is moving toward a more patient-centered approach to care that is focused on teamwork, communication, quality care, chronic disease management and prevention. Instead of treating a person only when he or she is sick or injured, physician-led health care teams will seek to promote preventive care through education and by prompting patients to seek important screenings and follow-up care. It is vital that our physician leaders learn to work with others on the team to ensure these important aspects of a patient’s care are being met.
An emphasis on population-based care: There is a fundamental change in the way medicine is being practiced with a shift from managing disease and acute care problems to managing a patient’s overall health and wellness. This also entails addressing the need to treat common health problems that occur in populations as a whole. Physicians must be savvy about the use of electronic health records, which can give them the ability to analyze data in population groups. This will allow them to address and mitigate these common health problems that may be caused by behavioral or environmental factors.