Medical Education Committee Minutes

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

I. DMEDS:

• a. Dave reported on the progress of the new DMEDS program:
  • 1. Since November, all 1st year On-Doctoring, 3rd year Family Medicine, and 3rd year Ob/Gyn students are reporting patient encounters using the DMEDS system;
  • 2. In spite of a one week delay in launching (due to software incompatibility), the system is being used effectively;
  • 3. Dave is receiving student feedback on bugs and suggestions for improvements;
  • 4. Although the system is designed for educational purposes, it will also be able to document LCME Competencies compliance.
• b. Dave will put together a brief abstract for the Competencies Workshop in May.

II. LCME II (Medical Curriculum) Taskforce:

Dave reported that a taskforce has been formed to address the 45 questions in Part II of the LCME accreditation study and asked if the MEC membership would like to be kept informed of the results of the meetings for purposes of corrections and revisions. The membership agreed informally that they would.

III. LCME Competency Reports:

• a. Dave reported 100% compliance in the completion of the competency surveys. The results were distributed electronically (via blitzmail) to all MEC members before the meeting.
• b. Dave presented an overview of the results of the competency surveys (see Attachment A).
• c. Don Kollisch observed that the answers reflected more protocol than content of the classes. Dave agreed and suggested that he would bring up that point at the May Competencies Workshop.
• d. Dave charged the membership with the task of examining the results of the competency surveys and deal with the weaknesses and deficits.

II. Proposed Competencies Workshop:

• a. Dave has invited all Course Directors and Clerkship Directors to a workshop in May to discuss the LCME requirements regarding competencies and the accreditation study. The date of the workshop will be determined shortly. Dave asked if MEC members would also like to be included in the workshop. The membership informally agreed that they would.
• b. Dave is requiring all course and clerkship directors to provide a description and schedule of each course and provided templates for completion. These will be used at the workshop and included on the DMS website. Dave solicited suggestions from the attendees as to what other items should be included on the description template. The attendees offered the following suggestions:
  • 1. Outline of the course (covered in schedule);
  • 2. Information that would guide potential applicants (viewing on the internet) in terms of issues and special populations covered;
  • 3. Course materials required;
• c. Other suggestions regarding the schedules and course descriptions include the following:
  • 1. Use bullets instead of paragraphs;
  • 2. Index on website using FileMaker Pro for easy search capabilities.

III. Other issues:

Todd Burdett reported that the students are feeling socked by the LCME OSCEs. He asked if it seemed feasible that the schools could, at some point, take back the responsibility for clinical skills assessment.

IV. Agenda for next MEC meeting on February 17, 2004, 758W Borwell, 4 pm:

• a. Results of the first meeting of the LCME II Workgroup;
• b. Report on Patty CarneyÕs site visit to PhiladelphiaÕs USMLE OSCE site.

Dartmouth Medical School
Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education
Hinman 7005
306D Remsen
Hanover, NH 03755-3847

Telephone 603-650-7679
Facsimile 603-650-6841

David.Nierenberg@Dartmouth.edu

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