Curriculum Steering Committee, URSMD

Curriculum Steering Committee

Integrating basic science and clinical medicine through a four year biopsychosocial continuum.

This is an exciting time for medical education with a unique opportunity to make Rochester the national model for an integrated 21st century curriculum, and we are pleased that you are interested in the activities of the Steering Committee which has been charged with curriculum planning, implementation, and assessment.

You're Invited!

The Curriculum Steering Committee would like to include all faculty members in the curricular reform process wants to extend an invitation to participate to the all faculty and students at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Since we appreciate everyone's busy schedule, we have created this website on the Double Helix Curriculum so that anyone who cannot attend curriculum meetings or cannot commit the time to work directly on one of the new Curriculum Design Teams, will still have an opportunity for direct input.

Curriculum Committee Structure

Picture of Committee Structure

The Curriculum Steering Committee's charge:
Develop and implement a new curriculum to begin with the entering class of 1999 that will be a national model.

Create a general medical education focus emphasizing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors appropriate to the leaders of 21^st century medicine.

Emphasis on active student-centered learning.
Focus on competencies, learning objectives, and outcomes with continuous study and improvement of the curriculum, the teaching, and learning.
Integration of the teaching of basic and clinical sciences across all four years of the curriculum.
Fostering of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of the physician/scientist/humanist through combining evidence-based medicine with the relationship-centered art of medicine.

Appoint other committees, task forces, or working groups needed to insure broad involvement by faculty, students, residents, and alumni in planning and implementing the curriculum:

Curriculum Design Teams to develop and implement specific interdisciplinary courses.
Working groups to serve the curriculum Design Teams in areas such as information technology, case writing, faculty development, and assessment.
Curricular theme groups which will work with the curriculum Design Teams to insure continuity of certain themes through the curriculum.

Assume responsibility for evaluation and continuous improvement including the evaluation method (instruments and grades) that will be implemented.

Manage and continue to improve the current curriculum for the classes now present and the entering class of 1998, with the current instruction committees meeting periodically to support them in this task.

Curriculum Steering Committee Membership

Committee Chair:
Lindsey Henson, M.D., Ph.D.

Committee Members:
        Donald R. Bordley, M.D.
        Elaine F. Dannefer, Ph.D.
        Tana Grady-Weliky, M.D.
        John Hansen, Ph.D.
        Diane M. Hartmann, M.D.
        Ralph Jozefowicz, M.D.
        Jeffrey Lyness, M.D.
        Thomas A. Pearson, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.
        Patrice Spitalnik, MD
        A. William Tank, PhD

Curriculum Design Teams

These groups are made up of faculty from departments whose material will be integrated in the new curriculum blocks. Curriculum Design Teams each constitute the core planning and implementation team for interdisciplinary block courses in the curriculum.

Curriculum Design Team Directors

Theme Design Teams

Committees of faculty members are establishing learning objectives for the curricular themes which will be integrated into all of the new courses. These committees will work with the Curriculum Design Teams to ensure integration of thematic material. Thematic topics will be introduced in the first block and then revisited in every course thereafter, with thematic contents assessed on final exams in every course.

Theme Design Team Directors

Curriculum Support Teams

Teams of faculty members and staff will assist the Curriculum Design Team clusters with areas such as case development, faculty development, applications of computer and information technology, and assessment. These teams will serve as consultants to the Curriculum Design Teams and the overall curricular planning and implementation process. To discuss any of these issues or schedule faculty development workshops in any of the areas listed above, please contact the Curricular Affairs Office at 275-7202 or at omecao@urmc.rochester.edu.

Curriculum Design Team Directors

Mastering Medical Information: Foundations for a Lifetime of Learning
Thomas Pearson, MD, MPH, PhD, Course Director
Robert Holloway, MD, MPH, Associate Course Director

Human Structure and Function

Martha Blair, PhD, Co-Course Director
Barbara Davis, PhD, Co-Course Director

Molecules to Cells

Terry Platt, PhD, Course Director

Host-Defense

Mary Anne Courtney, PhD, Course Director

Mind/Brain/Behavior

Ralph Jozefowicz, MD, Course Director

Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM)

Nancy Shafer Clark, MD, Course Director

Ambulatory Clerkship Experience (ACE)

Kathy Markakis, MD, Course Director
Scott Tripler, MD, Co-Director
William Varade, MD, Co-Director

Ambulatory Specialist Group:
William Hulbert, MD, Chair

Integrated Systems Module A:

Patrice Spitalnik, MD, Course Director
David C. Kaufmann, MD, Associate Course Director

Integarted Systems Module B:
Patrice Spitalnik, MD, Course Director
David C. Kaufmann, MD, Associate Course Director

Comprehensive Assessment Design Team

Ron Epstein, MD (Chair)
Lindsey Henson, MD, PhD (FIPSE Grant PI)

Community Health Improvement Course
Sarah Trafton, JD (Chair)

Theme Design Teams

Curricular Affairs and CSC Liason: Elaine Dannefer, PhD

Aging
Nancy Shafer-Clark, M.D. (Chair)

Diversity
Nancy Chin, MPH, PhD (Chair)

Ethics
Jane Greenlaw, JD and Jeffrey Spike, PhD (Chairs)

Health Economics
Robert Holloway, MD, MPH (Chair)

Nutrition
Thomas Pearson, MD, MPH, PhD (Chair)

Prevention
William Barker, MD (Chair)