LCME expected to be demonstrated regarding ability to develop a sustainable medical school.
The LCME team will do a site visit between July 12- 14, which she aptly described as“ looking under the hood.”. The Dean noted that the documents will be disseminated to key campus participants to ensure that all of CDU is in sync when the site visit occurs. If the LCME looks favorably upon CDU’ s candidacy, the University can immediately begin to recruit and admit students for its first class in 2023. If no, she indicated that the University will listen to the LCME’ s feedback and refine its efforts until the project is greenlighted.
In December 2021, key CDU leadership visited the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson medical school in Pasadena. The visit gave the team encouragement, and they came away with additional insight regarding the project’ s potential for success.
The new medical school builds on CDU’ s historic imperative and the University’ s recent history of success. The core project team is organized along three tracks: Yellow, responsible for the aforementioned curriculum and infrastructure development. The Blue team is devoted to the physical Health Professions Education Building, while the Green Team pursues an aggressive approach to fundraising.
Supporting the effort is the creation, beginning in 2018, of the residency programs which attract funding and resources from various sources of support. The residency programs include the original Family Medicine and Psychiatry residencies; Internal Medicine, added in 2021, and an upcoming Surgery residency. Clinical faculty are connected to the residency program, and with experience, the residents become a key backbone of the teaching faculty.
The residency program has been crucial in developing an all-important assemblage of clinical partners including various Los Angeles County departments as well as sites such as the MLK Outpatient Center, St. Francis Medical Center, Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, the Long Beach VA Hospital, Harbor-UCLA Hospital, and Kedren Community Health Center. These clinical partnerships are very critical to accreditation, as a candidate institution must have a variety of partners that creates a win-win for the medical school and the partnering institution.
The medical school curriculum is divided into three sections. Pre-clerkship is an important core element. Pre-matriculation and the five fundamentals of medicine are areas new to COM, but fortunately, the
School of Nursing and COSH have previously offered these areas. The faculty is engrossed in the design and development of the pre-clerkships including longitudinal courses such as Medicine and Society and Clinical Skills, and block courses including Anatomy and Physiology.
Previously, CDU students took those courses through CDU’ s longstanding joint training relationship with UCLA. Now, the courses will be offered through CDU as part of the new focus. Hospital and clinical functions will be emphasized during the clerkship phase. Fourth year students will participate in electives, specializations, and sub-internships.
Eleven core competencies will be a focus; six in conformance with AAMC standards and five in alignment with the CDU Advantage. The latter will mirror the University’ s institutional learning objectives. Community faculty will play an integral role in design, implementation, and delivery.
The methodology will include lectures, case studies, hands-on work, and service learning such as EMT, patient navigator, and community health worker to foster greater awareness of the unique needs of the primary patient population.
Work in developing and refining the Health Professions Education Building( HPEB) has entailed three years’ work with the University architectural consultant and the team from the SLAM architectural firm. Faculty and students have provided specific input throughout, offering very specific recommendations such as a strong technology focus and special simulation areas. When the team visited the Kaiser medical school, they came away impressed with the emphasis on information technology.
The fundraising effort has enjoyed tremendous initial success, according to Dr. Prothrow-Stith. But there are many challenges on the horizon to reach the project goal of $ 112 million. She noted the Kaiser building cost! 20 million. So far, $ 50 million has been received from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state political leadership, an event celebrated by the on-campus check presentation ceremony featuring Assy. Mike Gipson during Fall 2021. She cited other gifts, such as the $ 5 million over three-year pledge by LA Care. She closed her presentation by emphasizing the critical importance of ongoing campus-wide support of the project.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 13