University of Virginia School of
Medicine
Curriculum Committee
Minutes 09.30.99
Pediatric Pathology Conference Room,4:00 p.m.
Present (underlined) were: Reid Adams, Bob Bloodgood,
Steven Borowitz (guest), Anita Clayton, Al
Connors, Gene Corbett, Joanna Goldberg, Donald
Innes (Chair), Steven Meixel, Jerry Short, Bill
Wilson, Robb Williams, Debra Reed (Secretary)
- Don Innes officially thanked Debra Reed for her excellent work in
developing and placing online the new Curriculum WEB site.
- Steve Borowitz of the Department of Pediatrics and the faculty
representative on the new Integrated Healthcare Information Management
System (IHIMS) was introduced. The IHIMS will be implemented over the
next 5-7 years and was selected in part because of it's high
reliability rating. This system will be accessed by desktop terminals
(25 terminals will be installed on each hospital floor within the next
2-3 months) and possibly in the long term by wireless devices.
Initially, the system will handle registration and scheduling tasks.
Eventually, it will become the repository for all clinical information
including all of what is now in the patient's chart and images such as
x-ray films. The database will have a "rules" engine that will provide
information to the user when queried and automatically when certain
tasks are performed such as drug interaction alerts.
When fully operational, the system might be used to enhance education
in the Medical School by supplying relevant medical literature,
identifying teaching cases, providing population data, accessing
integrated computer based textbooks, and displaying medical information
graphically. The system will allow handouts from the basic science
courses to be indexed and available online.
While the system will allow many educational opportunities, funding for
the creation and maintenance of these options will have to be found. A
grant proposal from the National Library of Medicine is being worked
on.
The committee has been looking for means to integrate more basic
science information into the 3rd and 4th years of medical school and
access to relevant current articles on the floors might be one way of
accomplishing this.
- Brief mention was made of basic science co-directors for the
clinical clerkships as well as physician co-directors for the basic
science years. Further consideration will be given to this
possibility.
- A revised Curriculum Management flow chart was discussed. See
attachment. Curriculum revision can be initiated at any point in the
scheme. Based on evaluative data, the Committee may start the process
and provide directives, but specific changes would be enacted through
the Practice of Medicine Committee or Clinical Medicine Committee at
the course or clerkship director level. The importance of evaluating
additional "outcome" after curriculum adjustments have been made was
emphasized. The process is ongoing, always striving for
improvement.
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