University of Virginia School of  Medicine
Curriculum Committee
Minutes
11.17.05

Surgery Conference Room, 4:00 p.m.                        

Present (underlined) were: Reid Adams, Gretchen Arnold, Eve Bargmann,  Daniel Becker, Robert Bloodgood,  Gene Corbett, John Gazewood, Jennifer Harvey, Donald Innes (Chair),  Howard Kutchai, Marcus Martin, Chris Peterson, Jerry Short, Bill Wilson,  Anthony DeBenedet, Sixtine Valdelievre, Debra Reed (secretary) 

1. First Year Fall, 05.  The Curriculum Committee will be reviewing the Fall, 2005 semester of the first year as soon as grades and evaluations are complete. 
   
   
2. Clinical Medicine Committee.  The Clinical Medicine Committee met on 11/16/05 .   Clerkship directors were reminded to turn in grades on time.  Don Innes announced at the meeting that the Curriculum Committee will be requesting brief updates from the Clerkships in January/February, 06. A “short” form to glean necessary information from the Clerkships was obtained at the recent AAMC meeting.  This form will be distributed to the Curriculum Committee next week.  Members should review and send comments or suggestions to Don Innes.  The Committee does not want to overburden the course directors but believes some information on a yearly basis is necessary.
   
   Bill Wilson met with a group from JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) today to discuss student’s notes in patient charts.   At the present time, whether students are allowed to make notes in the charts is determined by the individual departments.  Many of the departments do encourage this as a part of the student’s clerkship experience.   It has not been mandated that each student note must be countersigned by an attending but this may happen in the future.  Attendings are strongly encouraged to read and edit for accuracy all student notes.  The Curriculum Committee agreed that this is a valuable part of the medical student’s education.
   
   
3. M.D., Ph.D. Program.    Curriculum Committee requirements for M.D. as well as M.D.,Ph.D. students, discussed at last week’s meeting, have been forwarded to Dean Pearson as well the Directors of the M.D., Ph.D. program. 
   
   
4. Neuroscience Course.  Funding has been offered for the chair of Neuroscience, Kevin Lee, to recruit outside lecturers for the Neuroscience Course.  Neuroscience is in an unusual position with a small department and the loss of Virginia Taylor Lyons.
   
   
5. Graduation Survey.  Jerry Short will place the graduation medical student survey results on the web.  All the clerkship and course directors will be notified so they can review the information.
   
   
6. Resident Teaching. There is an LCME standard, ED-24 regarding preparation of residents as teachers.  We currently have a short orientation for all new housestaff when they arrive in July. Following this individual departments address medical student teaching by the residents. The Curriculum Committee would like to better define  and enhance what departments offer.  The use of web-based educational opportunities as well as a series of high quality lectures as part of the regularly scheduled resident lecture series in each department was discussed.  Drs. Gazewood and Rawlings are developing a web-based program in conjunction with John Jackson that might be useful to all departments.  This would appear to be an appropriate topic for the GME retreat scheduled for January, 2006.  The Committee will develop a statement for distribution to departments outlining the requirements for resident education as part of their graduate medical education curriculum.
   
   
7. Psychiatric Medicine.  The Committee discussed the potential reduction of 3 hours of lecture and 2 small group sessions in the 06-07 Psychiatric Medicine schedule. It was agreed that redundancy between the Human Behavior and the Introduction to Psychiatric Medicine courses might be eliminated. [ The committee has asked that the afternoons be free time with the exception of the 2-hours of PoM-2 and the 1-1/2 hour Clinician-Student-Patient Encounter.  PoM-2 specialty sessions and Intro Psych Med with patients should each be carefully evaluated for educational need versus student wellness. The Core Systems course directors will meet November the 28^th to finalize the 2006-2007 schedule. ]

Donald Innes
dmr