University of Virginia School of Medicine

Principles of Medicine Committee

Minutes 01.09.02

Present: Eve Bargmann, Robert Bloodgood, Bruce Cohen, Al Conners, Carl Creutz, Claudette Dalton, John Gazewood, Barry Hinton, William Hobbs, Joel Hockensmith, Donald Innes (Chair), Robert Kadner, Howard Kutchai, Kevin Lee, Heidi Scrable, Darci Lieb, Julie Turner, Virginia Taylor, Brian Wispelwey, Wendy Golden, Allison Innes, Jennifer McClune, Richard Pearson, Jerry Short, Karen Grandage, Margaret Mohrmann, Susan Squillace, Gary Owens, William Petri, William Wilson, Marcia D. Childress, Elizabeth Bradley, Vinay Chandrasekhara, Dave Dougherty, Nelle Linz, Paul McIntosh , Debra Reed (Secretary)

1. 2002-03 First Year Schedule. (Bob Bloodgood) The subcommittee of the Fall first year course directors met to discuss the 2002-03 schedule. The following proposals made by the subcommittee were discussed and agreed to by the Principles Committee. A meeting of the Spring first year course directors will be arranged in the near future.
   
   a) Continue with the current schedule of 3 exams for Biochemistry and Gross Anatomy and 2 exams for CTS/Physiology. PoM will be using take-home exams.

   b) Proposed year 1 schedule change moving the 2nd exam period one week earlier from week 12 (November 11-13) to week 11 (November 4-6), allowing decompression of the Head and Neck section.

   A request for 2 hours of anatomy orientation on Friday August 30, 2002 would to benefit anatomy and allow schedule flexibility in all first year fall classes.

   c) Institute morning exams when necessary for year 1. See Year 2-"e" below.

   d) The subcommittee felt it desirable not to have instruction on the same day as a medical school exam. This occurred once during the fall semester and should not be scheduled in this manner again.

   e) It was agreed that every effort be made NOT to have medical school exams on Saturday.

   f) Whenever possible, an extra study day will be scheduled on the Friday before exam periods, especially for the final exam period.

   g) Morning instruction will be rearranged to better utilize time for Biochemistry and CTS/Physiology (not Gross Anatomy) so that it does not pose a problem for the MSTP students.
   
    

2. 2002-03 Second Year Schedule. (Don Innes) The second year course directors also met to work on the 2002-03 schedule. Items considered by the subcommittee:
   
    

   a) Al Connors would like to conclude the Epidemiology course prior to Thanksgiving.

   b) Microbiology course directors are concerned that their course is perhaps diffused over too much time and should be more compact. However, to eliminate the diffusion problem, coordination with the other courses would be in jeopardy. Coordination was deemed more beneficial than elimination of the diffusion problem. Follow-up study of this should continue.

   c) Intro to Psychiatric Medicine would prefer to begin two weeks later with the small group sessions beginning one week later yet. This proposal eliminates the gap between their final classes and the final exam period and opens some time for the other classes.

   d) The use of the Friday afternoon time period for optional review sessions will be discussed at the Curriculum Committee.

   e) Fall Exam schedules with all four exams between Monday and Friday of exam week (no Saturday exams) were demonstrated. The proposed schedule places some exams in the morning and some in the afternoon and also eliminates most conflicts with the first year class. It was agreed by all that this benefited students.
   
   

3. Instructional Tool Kit. (Allison Innes) Student Affairs has been contacted by a representative from the University Instructional Tool Kit to see if the Medical School is interested in using this web based software. The Committee felt for the most part Medical School needs were being met by the ITC ACHS (John Jackson) group. Course directors who would like to pursue this should contact Allison Innes.
   
   
4. Projection Rooms in Jordan 1-5 and 1-14). (Jerry Short) The projection rooms in the lectures halls have been scheduled to be cleaned out. If you have course materials, etc. stored in these room, please remove them as soon as possible. Student groups will also be notified to remove anything they have stored in these rooms.

The next meeting of the Principles of Medicine Committee will be held on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 at 1:30 p.m. in Jordan 1-17.

Minutes submitted by: Donald J. Innes, Jr., M.D. Date: 01/16/01.