Medical Education Committee Minutes

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Scheduled Meetings:

I. Introduction by David Nierenberg, Associate Dean for Medical Education.

Dave asked attending members to introduce themselves and presented the agenda.

II. Report of the status of two Vertigal Integration Groups (VIGs) that are currently in progress.

Professionalism

Dave reported that Joe O'Donnell is working with students in defining professionalism and its relationship to DMS. A first draft is completed. A final draft will be presented to the Committee, hopefully within the next few months.

Pediatrics

The VIG has been hampered by unavoidable circumstances within the Department of Pediatrics. However, work is currently in progress and a report may be presented as soon as this fall.

III. Six Competencies Initiative

• 1. Course Reports Completed
  Dave reported that we have received 30 completed Competency Surveys from course and clerkship directors. Of those, 3 are incomplete and need more information, 17 have been edited and reduced to one page, and 10 are awaiting editing and reduction. Dave and Joyce will be working towards acquiring the missing and incomplete surveys and assembling them into a booklet for presentation at the October meeting. Another 14 courses will be contacted again to respond.
• 2. Global Review
  The results of the Competency Surveys will be presented at the next meeting, but Dave reported that at this point "Professionalism" seems to be the one area in which DMS is not lacking in "coverage" and "assessment." This is comparable with experience at other schools.
• 3. Further Actions
  Once the surveys are presented to the Committee in October, the floor will be open to discussion on further actions.

IV. Report of D-MEDS Project

Dave Nierenberg reported that DMS has commissioned ArcStream to create software that will enable tracking of patient encounters and teaching received during clerkships on both PDAs and any computers with web access. The software is in progress and a student testable mini-version will be available by the end of this week. Once the bugs are worked out, the final version will be available for student testing and training and the system will be in place for general use by Jan. 1, 2004. Training workshops will be provided for clerkship directors, and as part of the ICE course for students.

Some of the advantages to this system will be:

• 1. It can be networked from laptop or desktop, PDA or Pocket PC;
• 2. All patient encounters can be downloaded to the system;
• 3. Besides the general form that other colleges are utilizing, the DMS version will also allow tracking of competency in the six areas the LCME will be examining;
• 4. Students will be able to generate their own reports on encounters for 4 weeks and/or 8 weeks. The reports will contain links to individual encounters;
• 5. Clerkship directors will be able to track students' progress for intervention and grading purposes by generating reports;
• 6. Other administrators will be able to generate reports for research.
• 7. Students will be able to use the tracked information to create residency portfolios; and
• 8. The DHMC residency program will be able to use it under the same licensing agreement.

V. Report of of the PDA Initiative

Dave Nierenberg turned over the floor to Steve Andrews who reported that PDAs, Pocket PCs and medical education software will be purchased in bulk and sold to the students at a discount. He said that support will be available to any student who have trouble learning the systems. He then solicited suggestions for the best software.

Student member Todd Burdette reported that most students prefer "Five Minute Consult," "Taber's Medical Dictionary." He stated that the Merck manual and "CP on Hand," were not as frequently used.

Dave reiterated that the purchase of PDAs will be optional, and students who opt out of the purchase will be able to fall back on the old system of tracking encounters on index cards to be later input to D-MED via computer. He also stated that Financial Aid has agreed to consider the purchase of the laptops, PDAs, and medical software as a justifiable student expense.

VI. Possible Agenda Items for Future Meetings

Dave Nierenberg opened the floor to suggestions of topics to be discussed at future meetings of the committee.

• 1. Year Splitting
  Todd Burdette suggested that the committee exam the issue of med students splitting years and how that impacts education in Year 3.
• 2. Institute of Medicine Report
  Don Kollisch recommended that the committee review the most recent Institute of Medicine's report on changes in medical education and discuss its affects on DMS.
• 3. Year 1 Grading System
  Student member Si France asked that the grading system for Year 1 be reviewed for possible changes. Gene Nattie recommended that Si France poll all of the first year students for their recommendations before the issue is discussed.
• 4. Access to Patients
  Todd Burdette raised the issue of students having more limited access to patient encounters than residents, especially within Ob/Gyn.
• 5. Professionalism Issues
  Ginny Reed would like to discuss the teaching of communication and respect for other medical team members.
• 6. Evaluation of ICE Course
  Kirsten Redborg would like an evaluation of the recently instituted ICE course.
• 7. Combining Classes
  Todd Burdette stated that the other Dartmouth schools related to DMS (such as the MPH program) in subject matter are polarized from DMS and it might benefit all to combine some of the common courses.
• 8. Restructuring of Year 1
  Duane Compton recommended that the restructuring of Year 1 should be revisited at the end of the year to see how the recent changes have worked out.

IV. Agenda for next MEC meeting on October 21 Aud C, 4 pm:

• D-MED Progress Report
• Competencies Report
• Proposal from student government re statement on exams

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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