University of Virginia School of Medicine
Principles of Medicine Committee 
Minutes 10.01.03

1. This was the first meeting run by the new Co-Chairs, Bob Bloodgood (Cell Biology) and John Gazewood (Internal Medicine).  Drs. Bloodgood and Gazewood propose that the Principles Committee continue to meet on Wednesday afternoons from 2:00-3:00 PM in Room 1-17 Jordan.  The frequency of the meetings may vary, depending on the work load.  Please send suggestions for agenda items to Dr. Bloodgood (rab4m@virginia.edu) or Dr. Gazewood (jdg3k@virginia.edu).
   
    
2. It was reported to the group that there is a bug in the two button mouse with the MacIntosh computers in the lecture halls (Jordan Rooms 1-14 and 1-5). Right clicking the mouse was crashing Powerpoint.  John Jackson has been working on this problem; the latest word form him is: APatrick & I worked further on the Mac Powerpoint problem and the right mouse button doesn't crash the system now. But in fixing that problem we created a lesser one, which we are still working to resolve. You can copy and save files into the faculty files folder, but they cannot be deleted. I'll let you know when we get it all ironed out.@
   
    
3. 1^st year course directors were reminded about the new Pass/Fail system.  Under this system, course directors are still asked to provide each students with his/her numerical score on each exam, along with a histogram of the scores of the entire class. Bob Bloodgood will meet with John Jackson to discuss possibility of automatically generating and sending the histogram at the time scores/grades are uploaded into the course evaluation tool. Note that the course evaluation tool can be utilized to upload and send exam scores/grades to first or second year students independent of performing an evaluation.
   
    
4. Julie Turner raised a concern about the graded quiz tool.  Questions in the question database (and the practice Quizzes generated from this tool) can provide feedback on all the possible answers, not just the correct one.  Dr. Turner has noted that the graded Quiz/Exam tool does not allow feedback on the individual answers.  Bob Bloodgood will discuss with John Jackson upgrading the graded quiz tool to incorporate this feature.
   
   
5. The bulk of the meeting was devoted to a lively discussion of curriculum change and continued the response to the Curriculum Revisions proposals presented by Don Innes at the September 17, 2003, meeting of the Principles of Medicine Committee.  Howard Kutchai proposed that lectures be considered optional and that, in some cases, students may not need to attend lectures.  Bill Hobbs urged local autonomy and local control of courses by the faculty teaching them felt there was a price to be paid for coordination and integration of basic science courses.  Julie Turner expressed concerns about the possibility that the continuity and integrity of a basic science discipline can be compromised by the Organ Systems approach if pieces of a course are spread around the curriculum.  A number of concerns about the Organ Systems approach were expressed.  It should be noted that integration of the curriculum can be expressed in a variety of ways, not just in an organ systems approach.  Bob Kadner expressed the feeling that we had already gone through curriculum reform recently and felt that we had done enough curriculum and enough Atrimming of the fat@ and felt there was no more fat to trim.  Bob Bloodgood expressed the opinion that there was still room in the curriculum for some additional integration and some additional trimming of the fat.  He also argued that integration of the curriculum is something that is independent of trimming of the curriculum; the two are not obligatorily linked.  Marcia Childress expressed a need for more ethics teaching in the curriculum.  Dean Kedes expressed support for integration of the basic science material.  Kedes further expressed the opinion that students should not be interacting with patients during the first two years of the curriculum and should focus on basic sciences during this period.  John Gazewood disagreed and expressed the feeling that medical students are more apt to learn and retain the basic science material if they learn it in a clinical context and if they can see and appreciate the future clinical applicability of the basic sciences.  Don Innes asked the assembled group to look for common ground in our assessment of curriculum change rather than to seek out extreme black and white positions.  He wanted us to ask ourselves why we may fear integration of the basic sciences or integration of the basic sciences with the clinical study of medicine.  Kevin Lee asked for a clarification of the role of the Principles of Medicine Committee in curriculum change.  The Curriculum Committee is being asked to formulate its own ideas for improvement of the Curriculum, as well as to respond to ideas generated elsewhere (Decade Plan Committee; Dean=s Office; Curriculum Committee and its Design and Development Teams).
   
   
6. The next meeting of the Principles of Medicine Committee will be held on Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 2:00 PM in Room 1-17, Jordan Hall.

 Minutes prepared by R.A. Bloodgood