University of Virginia School of Medicine
Principles of Medicine Committee
Minutes
09.14.05

NEW LOCATION:  Cell Biology Conference Room- Room 3006-3008 Jordan Hall (near Cell Biology Department Office)

1. Summary of 2004-05 committee activities was distributed by e-mail to all committee members.  It is available on the web at:
   
   http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/resolveuid/3791def1db8b15cdb6658ed182c7a7ca
   
   
2. Discussion of regular meeting date, time and location.
   
   Date and time will remain the second Wednesday of each month at 2pm in the Cell Biology Conference Room, Room 3006-3008, Jordan Hall, near the Cell Biology Department Office.
   
   
3. New chair for 4^th Year Medical Student Teaching Awards Committee
   
   Virginia Taylor (Cell Biology) has completed two years as Chair of the 4^th year medical student teaching awards committee.  Wendy Golden (Pathology) has agreed to chair the 4^th Year Medical Student Teaching Award Committee for the next two years. This committee is comprised of 4 medical students, 2 basic science faculty and 2 clinical faculty.
   
   
4. Discussion of the impact of the new curriculum on 1^st year courses
   

   The 1st year course directors were asked how things were progressing after the first 4 weeks of the new curriculum (which started earlier, is compressed into 2 weeks less total time and has two exams for each Fall course instead of the previous three that were given in Gross Anatomy and Biochemistry). Virginia Taylor noted that there was evidence of the medical students feeling stressed in the first unit (upper limb) in Gross Anatomy because of the pace of the material.  She pointed out that it would be useful to the students if we could avoid having 2 lectures in Gross Anatomy plus a lab in Gross Anatomy on any one day. Medical student representatives present said that they had heard concerns from some first year medical students about the added burden of the new Exploratory in the first semester.  Half of the 1st year class has the Community Service Exploratory experience in the Fall (equivalent of one afternoon per week).  There was some feeling that the 1st year medical students doing the Exploratory in the Fall of the first year were at a disadvantage to those doing it in the Spring of the first year because: 1) the first year of medical school is more stressful with more adjustments than the 2nd semester and 2) Students doing the Exploratory in the Fall have 3 afternoons a week scheduled with required educational activities in the Fall and 1 in the Spring,   while students doing the Exploratory in the Spring have 2 afternoons in both the Fall and the Spring scheduled with required educational activities. Bob Bloodgood noted that in order to accommodate the needs of the MSTP students in the new medical curriculum, one of the major graduate courses (Cell – BIMS812) has been moved from the mornings to the afternoons.  The concern of the graduate programs lies in whether this spreading of the graduate courses more evenly over the day will impact on the amount of time that PhD students will be able to spend in the lab doing required lab rotations.  All of these concerns will be monitored throughout the current academic year.   There will also be a formal assessment of the new curriculum conducted by the Medical Curriculum Committee.

5. New Medical Education Building – AV Needs 
   

   The next step in the planning for the new Claude Moore Medical Education Building is to have an AV consultant (Richard Derbyshire) visit UVa School of Medicine on October 13th.  In preparation for this visit, the members of the Principles of Medicine Committee were asked for their input. There was consensus that both of the large teaching spaces in the new education building must be able to accommodate all of the activities that currently go on in the two Jordan Hall lecture halls.  That means that the new TEAL-like “Learning Studio” must allow the possiblility of lecture style presentation by one faculty member to the entire class.  That means that there needs to be a single large screen that can be seen by all students in the room at the same time.  In addition, there should be all of the same A/V facilities that are currently available in Jordan 1-5 and 1-14 (including large white boards, ability to play video tapes, etc.) Howard Kutchai pointed out the need for a remote wireless pointer (something we don’t currently have) that would control (from a distance) a cursor on the computer that can be used as a pointer on the projected computer image. New large group teaching spaces need to be able to accommodate student use of laptop computers to include: 1. Counter space for each student to place a labtop computer and 2. Power in case laptop should run out of charge during a lecture. Selina Noramly and Bob Bloodgood both argued for the value of a wireless Audience Response System (ARS).  This can be a valuable tool for real time assessment of student learning and is sometimes referred to as “clicker” technology.  A faculty member can build assessment questions into a Powerpoint presentation that allows immediate assessment of whether students are grasping a concept being taught.  It can also be used for in-class quizzes or for pre and post lecture testing.  Lela Marshall, Manager of ITC Classroom Support, has been coordinating some pilots of this technology on campus (using Turning Point and EInstruction systems).  The committee felt that there was enough interest to set up a demonstration of what is currently being used on campus.  John Jackson will try to arrange a demo for an up-coming meeting.  URLs for further information: http://library.cpmc.columbia.edu/cere/web/facultyDev/ars-page   http://www.einstruction.com http://www.gtcocalcomp.com/interwriteprs.htm  http://www.uctltc.org/news/2004/03/ars.php

6. LCME Self Study
   
   Information was distributed about the on-going self-study that is part of the LCME re-accreditation process.  The  UVa SoM LCME web site is at: http://www.lcme.org/   The  LCME Accreditation Standards are at:  http://www.lcme.org/standard.htm   A time-table was distributed as well as a flow chart showing the 5 committees and 19 sub-committees that are coordinating the self-study.  The five committees are: A) Institutional Setting, B) Educational Program, C) Medical Students, D) Faculty and E) Educational Resources.  Input to the committees and sub-committees is sought from all faculty.    The Self Study Steering Committee guides the overall work of the Self Study and will prepare the Executive Summary to be submitted to the LCME by 6/30/006. 
   
   
7. Discussion of ideas for future agenda items for 2005-06
   
   A.        Update on Pass/Fail Grading Study (stat analysis of data; USMLE 1 data)
   B.        Further discussion of cumulative honors under Pass/Fail
   C.        Training session on the Faculty Toy Box (especially new features)
   D.        Update on development of the Basic Science for Careers course
   E.        Report from the Lab Teaching Sub-Committee
   F.         Professionalism curriculum and the first 2 years of med school
   G.        Others suggested by committee members?
   

Minutes of all past meetings are available on the web are at: http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/resolveuid/7db866cf7a8acb69c62c6d62a37cf5c9

The next meeting of the Principles of Medicine Committee will be held on Wednesday, October 12^th at 2:00 PM in Rooms 3-006/3-008 Jordan Hall.  There will a demonstration of some of the on-line tools (Faculty Toy Box) developed by the Office of Medical Education.

Robert Bloodgood