Medical Education Committee Minutes (word) (pdf)

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

To:

Members of Medical Education Committee

From:

David W. Nierenberg

Subject:

Minutes - Meeting held Tues., June 13, 2006 - 4:00 to 5:30 pm, 758 Borwell

Members Present:

Jamie Bessich, Rich Comi, Barbara Conradt, Andy Daubenspeck, Brent Harris, John Hwa, Petra Lewis, Gene Nattie, Dave Nierenberg, and Eric Shirley = 10

Members Absent:

Narath Carlile, Brett Chevalier, Horace Henriques, Leslie Fall, Don Kollisch, Ben Northrup, Will Nugent, Roshini Pinto-Powell, Mike Price, Abigail Rao, Laura Reis, and Joao Tiexeira= 12

Guests:

Steve Bensen, Joan Monahan, Brian Reid, and Alison Rudkin = 4

Scheduled Meetings:

Sept. 27 Oct. 18 Nov. 15 Dec. 13 Jan. 17 Feb. 21 Mar. 21 Apr. 18 May 16 June 13
758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell 758 W Borwell

  • I. Review of the Curriculum: SBM/Gastrointestinal
    Eric Shirley reported on the Year 2 Gastrointestinal course, directed by Steve Bensen. He distilled the information from student evaluations and other information received from Dave Nierenberg. The report consisted of three sections (Attachment A):

    • A. General course information and standing;
    • B. Positives; and
    • C. Suggestions for Change
    Specific points made by Eric Shirley and MEC memberg regarding the class include:

    • A. Overall impression - strong course with good overall student satisfaction;
    • B. According to Steven Bensen, the course went well. The faculty is enthusiastic about teaching and he was even able to add an extra conference; and
    • C. He will address the issue of having the final exam count as the whole grade.
  • II. Key Metric: Report on Graduate Survey - Class of 1997
    Dave Nierenberg made an interim report on the 20 questionnaires returned (so far) by graduates of 1997, giving feedback on their DMS education and its subsequent affect on their medical careers. (Attachment B)

  • III. Report on the Committee for Planning Should a Pandemic Occur
    At the request of the Dean, a committee was formed to determine what will happen to the educational program at DMS if a large scale emergency, i.e., a pandemic, should occur. (Attachment C) The ad hoc committee comprises Dave Nierenberg, Kathy Kirkland, Jack Turco, Connie Brinckerhoff, Bob Gougelet, James Geiling, Susan Reeves, and Gerry O'Connor. Dave Nierenberg reported that, according to Kathy Kirkland, all schools would close in case of a pandemic. Dave opened the floor to discussion in which the following issues were discussed:

    • A. What happens when classes are aborted? Possibilities include correspondence school for Yrs. 1 and 2 and fast-tracking graduating students. All agreed that courses of action would depend on how long the emergency exists;
    • B. Because DHMC would probably become short-staffed, DMS students would be given the option of returning to their homes or staying on-campus and volunteering to provide assistance to the remaining hospital staff. Explanations and volunteer forms would be handed out to students at orientation.
  • IV. Discussion of Policy Regarding Recording and Posting Lectures
    Dave Nierenberg reported that approximately 80% of lecturers use PowerPoint and, of those, 90% allow the PowerPoint presentation to be uploaded to Blackboard before the class. He provided the following reasons for providing recorded lectures and PowerPoint presentations to be available to students:

    • A. Students often miss lectures due to illness;
    • B. Some students attend the lectures but are not good lecture learners;
    • C. Learning Disabled students may have trouble grasping all of the points in lecture;
    • D. Students whose primary language is not English may be missing some of the lecture points; and
    • E. Students may be away at conferences and unable to attend the lecture.
    Dave Nierenberg proposed that a pilot program of one or two courses be instituted in which the audio portion of the lecture would be embedded into the PowerPoint presentation and uploaded onto Blackboard. Upon discussion, the following points were made by membership:

    • A. If only one or two courses are used as a pilot program, would students go to others and skip that one? (Dave responded that it would be impossible to coordinate the use of the program with all of the courses at the same time.)
    • B. If the program was not instituted, it is likely that the faculty and students would be developing systems on their own.
    • C. Two students who had to miss classes suggested that having this technology would have been valuable.
    • D. Ground rules would have to be set, i.e., it would be up to faculty how much of the lecture (if any) should be provided before or after the lecture.
    • E. The audio recording of a lecture embedded in slides may affect the spontaneity of the lecture, i.e., going back to a previous slide.
    • F. Could the faculty or course directors be polled for their input on the program?
    Gene Nattie and John Hwa volunteered to have their courses used for the pilot program.

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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