New assistant dean for undergraduate medical education
Dr. Tom Scott, well-known to students as an anatomy teacher and a keen participant in curriculum reform, is now heading up the Undergraduate Medical Education Office.
Already things are looking different at the office. Renovations have created a large conference room, which Dr. Scott felt was needed to promote a better team approach in managing the curriculum. "The new conference room allows us to have all our meetings here -- previously we were meeting all over the place and it was sometimes hard to find a space."
Curriculum management in the past has been characterized by an almost
overwhelming number of committees, and Dr. Scott wants to cut back to a more manageable
number. "The Integrated Study of Disease course used to have about 30 components, and
each had a committee. We were overburdened with committees and levels of management. We've
already cut back the number of blocks for that course to six, which should work more
efficiently."
Dr. Scott is overseeing the curriculum at a point when major reform is still ongoing. In the fall of 1997 the curriculum began to be divided into pre-clerkship and clinical clerkship phases. The new pre-clerkship curriculum comprises four courses while the clerkship phase consists of core rotations and electives.
"We've already made about half the changes, with the pre-clerkship phase implemented," explained Dr. Scott. "The current third-year class has now started the new clerkship program."
Although the changeover has gone fairly smoothly, Dr. Scott acknowledges that it has been frustrating for students at times. "The first year of the new program was rough, but the current second-year class had a nicer first year. That part is pretty well stable now, we've tightened up on all aspects of management."
With the new clerkship starting this year, Dr. Scott said, the next two years will be novel for everyone. "We've been able to bring all the core rotations to the front, so by the end of the third year students have a good idea what they want to do. Then in their fourth year they can do electives and selectives in their areas of interest."
In preparing for the change in the clerkship, faculty have had to change their expectations of student abilities.
"These are students graduating from second year and we're watching very closely to see how these clerks adjust. The clerkship teachers are well aware that some of them might feel unprepared, and they will help them get over the first month."
Although curriculum is now his main concern, Dr. Scott hasn't given up other interests. He's doing more teaching than ever this year, and he will continue to oversee work on a research grant. He has, however, had to scale back the amount of time he wanted to spend preparing a CD of the anatomy course. His course material is on the Web and he is updating it regularly, but he eventually wants to have a CD available for students so they do not have to access the Web to review material.
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