Geisel New Course Pre-­‐Proposal to MEC Jan. 20, 2015 Course The New Course Department Office of Medical Education Timing of Course • A new two-­‐year course spanning years 1 and 2 • The course will consist of 90 contact hours, distributed across the two years: o 60 hours in Year 1 (planned to begin in AY 15-­‐16), and o 30 hours in Year 2 (planned to begin in AY 16-­‐17) • The course will subsume 2 current Geisel courses as well as additional Interprofessional education (IPE) content (3 hours in year 2): o Biostatistics & Epidemiology (1st year course, 29 hours) o Fundamentals of Health Care Delivery Science (HCDS, 1st year course, 12 hours) • The New Course will thus add a net of o 19 contact hours in Year 1, collaboration currently underway with Virginia Lyons, PhD, Assistant Dean of Year 1 Curriculum, to effect this o 27 contact hours in Year 2 One liner The overarching objective of The New Course is: To prepare students to understand, evaluate, and improve the practice of medicine and the health of populations, and to understand the relationship between the two. Background As an inaugural step in the re-­‐conception of Geisel’s Curriculum Redesign as a sustainable forward-­‐thinking model of Continual Curricular Redesign, we propose the introduction in 2015-­‐2016 of a new course. The course will use interactive large group sessions and small group teaching to integrate the science of evaluating and improving health and health care, collaboratively, within complex local and societal context. The content and structure of the course will lend itself to intentional staging of full curricular redesign over subsequent years. The course could eventually serve as a foundation for an integrated Geisel MS degree. Brief Course Description (AKA elevator paragraph) Unprecedented progress in biomedical science combined with tremendous pressures on health care continue to transform the nature of health and disease and the practice of medicine. Preparing medical students to practice in the 21st century increasingly requires that we equip them well beyond the conventional domains of core biomedical and clinical sciences. Geisel students, whether they go on to practice in an office, a hospital, a research lab, or a classroom, will require knowledge, skills, and facility in critical thinking and problem solving to address the contemporary challenges of practicing medicine. The capabilities demanded of a new physician range from the analytic proficiency needed to make sense of both local data and published research, to the people skills critical to working within or leading teams or organizations; from an understanding of the cultural, financial, and regulatory context in which medicine is practiced to the hands-­‐on skills to address challenges in delivering care within local systems. Integrated into the core biomedical curriculum, the New Course will prepare Geisel students in the science of evaluating and improving health and health care, collaboratively, within complex local and societal context, and will help promote students’ development into highly capable physicians and leaders. Page 1 of 4 Geisel New Course Pre-­‐Proposal to MEC Course Objectives* Jan. 20, 2015 At the completion of The New Course, Geisel students will be able to: 1. Apply statistical and epidemiological methods to clinical practice and critical appraisal of the literature pertaining to health and healthcare. 2. Analyze the forces – both explicit (e.g. legal and financial) and implicit (e.g. historical and cultural) – that influence individual and population health and the practice of medicine. 3. Demonstrate the structure and function of front line systems in healthcare and apply principles and practices that improve processes, outcomes, and value. 4. Demonstrate knowledge, skills, and awareness to effectively lead change at the individual, team, and system levels. 5. Communicate effectively with both professional and laypersons across these domains. 6. Synthesize a clear plan to address a challenge by: succinctly framing the issue; evaluating the available information, whether from data or the literature; analyzing the local and societal context, and defining the collaboration needed to develop solutions. Map to Geisel Competencies Mapping of the course’s overall and supporting objectives is underway. The New Course will play a critical role in addressing the following Geisel Core Competencies†: • Medical Science (4 Practice self-­‐directed inquiry, 6 Manage uncertainty, and 8 Contribute to Scholarship) • Population Health (4 of 5) • Personal, Professional, and Leadership Development (6 of 7) • Evaluation and Improvement in Medicine (4 of 5) • Professionalism (5 Recognize and address disparities, 6 Demonstrate awareness of one’s personal values, 7 Demonstrate accountability) • Collaboration and Teamwork (all) Faculty & Content • This two-­‐year course, led by a Course Director (Brenda E. Sirovich, MD, MS), will be comprised of two domains, each of which will consist of two content areas. The 4 content areas correspond, in order, to the first four Course Objectives. Each content area will be led by a Content Director: Critical Thinking domain Biostatistics & Epidemiology (Judith R. Rees, BM, BCh, MPH, PhD) Medicine in Context (Brenda E. Sirovich, MD, MS) Professional Development domain Systems Improvement (Jonathan T. Huntington, MD) Leadership and Professionalism (Catherine F. Pipas, MD, MPH) • Robust integration across these content areas will be achieved through on ongoing and intensive faculty collaboration (see Context and Integration, below). *
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In the course’s proposed configuration, the listed objectives are aspirational, having been formulated to allow for growth Source: Geisel competencies MEC 140415_FINAL.docx Page 2 of 4 Geisel New Course Pre-­‐Proposal to MEC Structure Jan. 20, 2015 TABLE. COURSE DOMAINS, CONTENT AREAS, AND CURRICULAR TIME, BY YEAR. Critical Thinking Domain: Professional Development Biostatistics & Medicine in Systems Leadership & Total course Epidemiology Context Improvement Professionalism hours Content Area: Year 1 28 h 8 h 14 h 10 h 60 h Year 2 0 h 10 h 12 h 8 h 30 h Total (1+2) 28 h 18 h 26 h 18 h 90 h The table shows content areas within course domains, as well as the number of contact hours planned for each content area across the two years of the course. Context & Integration The New Course is being developed based on a rich curricular framework formulated under the auspices of Geisel Curriculum Redesign. Distilling the essence of what had initially been conceived of as four separate courses, the inherent and embedded within-­‐course integration of content areas and across domains will allow the course to leverage the allotted time in the curriculum, with contact hours able to serve dual objectives. For example, a 2-­‐hour session devoted to discussing the role of measurement and research in informing FDA policy, while ‘owned’ by the Medicine in Context content area, will provide students with 2 hours of Biostatistics & Epidemiology integrated into 2 hours of Context, all for the ‘price’ of two contact hours. Integration with the Biomedical content of Pharmacology will further take advantage of cross-­‐curricular synergies. The nature of the course and its content, as well as the opportunity to develop the course in the context of the existing Geisel curriculum will create extraordinary opportunities for within-­‐ and extra-­‐course integration: • Intra-­‐course o Across domains (Critical Thinking and Professional Development) and Content Areas o Across the two-­‐year arc of the course o With the potential for future evolution into a fully developed 130-­‐150h course • With Geisel Biomedical and Clinical Curriculum • ‘Extra’ Curricular o Year 1 and 2 Inter-­‐professional Education opportunities o Synergies with longitudinal themes including Ethics and Humanities, and Health Disparities & Social Determinants o The New Course could function for students as a point of liaison with The Dartmouth Institute (TDI), connecting students e.g. to research opportunities Teaching & Learning Modalities The New Course will use a blend of interactive large group sessions, small group conferences, and other active learning activities. Three of the 4 content areas represent existing courses (including one elective) that already employ a variety of interactive teaching and active learning strategies. Content Directors will draw from this experience to build a course with a range of learning opportunities. Page 3 of 4 Geisel New Course Pre-­‐Proposal to MEC Table. The New Course Development Timeline By the end of: These course development milestones will have been addressed: Now Course objectives Course Description January 2015 Concept mapping Guiding principle development February 2015 Supporting / Program objectives Match assessment methods to program objectives March 2015 Course learning opportunities (teaching modalities) Map to Geisel competencies April 2015 Syllabus Course meeting schedule & Facilities / room needs Completed Proposal to MEC May 2015 Develop Canvas site Pre-­‐course materials/intro/survey development June 2015 Session objectives and outlines Instructional Design July 2015 Final touches August 2015 Course begins Page 4 of 4 Jan. 20, 2015