CDU Mid-Winter Retreat Offers a Broad Perspective on The New 4-Year Program’ s Accomplishments and Future Planning
Course Directors Medical Student panelists
With the upcoming 2025 visit by the LCME accreditation team on the planning horizon, the COM Office of Medical Education hosted its winter retreat on January 18th-19th. In attendance were 77 faculty and staff members who heard from a variety of perspective regarding the progress of the new CDU 4-year medical education program.
According to Dean Deborah Prothrow-Stith,“ It was one of the most productive retreats I have attended and worthwhile for our educators, both basic science and clinical. Congratulations to our Senior Associate Dean, Dr. Art Gomez and his team for their work to plan such a wonderful event,” she added.
Thursday evening’ s dinner session provided an intriguing overture for the Friday full-day retreat. Dr. Jim Weinstein, Senior Vice President and leader of Microsoft Healthcare NExT’ s Population Health Group put on a display of ChatGPT and noted the great worldwide interest in AIbased technology.
The Friday agenda included a review of the Fundamentals of Medicine courses that students have completed to date; as well as feedback from a student panel that offered valuable insight regarding the challenges of being a first-year participant in the groundbreaking program. There were a variety of key topics for the retreat participants’ information, including a series of Lessons Learned presentations by the speakers panels.
The panel on Lessons Learned by Course Directors engaged in an open-ended discussion that stressed the impact of student feedback in shaping course delivery. Given the variety of course offering represented by the panel, there were a variety of teaching methodologies discussed with no one style as the ultimate recommended approach.
The course development of Anatomy and Physiology was highlighted as an iterative process by Victor Chabon. Sheba George emphasized the alignment of the Medicine and Society course with the CDU Mission. Shahrzad Bazargan mentioned that the Foundations of Research 1 assignments have generated lots of feedback, and it was best for students to adopt a“ comfortable being uncomfortable” mindset. Shanika Boyce noted that developing Clinical Skills 1 engaged multiple people and resources representing different practice areas.
In the Lessons Learned in the Assessment of Student Usage of Learning Resources and Learning Platforms panel, Juan Urbano shared a list of learning tool options including Blackboard, Osmosis and Sketchy which were the most utilized of the assets available at CDU. His data was presented in graphs that showed exam results demonstrating the critical value of technology, and he displayed a statistical breakdown that evaluated the most important components of the 4-year medical program.
The Lessons Learned-Course Coordinators in Action panel provided an excellent demonstration how their collective role of being the glue between instructors, course content, and technology. The next panel of Course Directors, Organ Systems, noted that the course started during the year-end intersession. As a new curriculum element, it was described as a work in progress by Celina Nadelman, who stressed the importance and value of studying pathology. Rosalyn Ferguson discussed the course objectives, teaching strategies and the emphasis on self-directed learning. She also used ChatGP4 to take the audience into a Respiratory Medicine Escape Room.
Following a presentation at lunch by LCME Co-Secretary Barbara Barzansky, the audience heard Lessons Learned – Student Voices with Q & A from a group of student leaders who provided a candid assessment of the medical
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 26