September 2012
- AMA Report of the Council on Medical Education: Medical Student Access to Electronic Health Records
- Educational Outcomes of the Harvard Medical School-Cambridge Integrated Clerkship: A Way Forward for Medical Education
- More Medical Schools Offer Instruction in Complementary and Alternative Therapies
- Re-inventing the Third Year Medical Student
- Medicine and its rivals: The Believers
AMA Report of the Council on Medical Education: Medical Student Access to Electronic Health Records
The AMA Council on Medical Education recently released a report examining the barriers to medical student access to Electronic Health Records (EHR). In the report, the council sited several valid concerns about medical student access to the EHR, including Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement and the medical/legal liability of medical students. Despite these concerns, the council re-emphasized its stance that student access and active use of the EHR are important for the student's optimal clinical education and future practice of medicine. In the report, the council makes several specific recommendations to facilitate medical student use of the EHR. Link
Educational Outcomes of the Harvard Medical School-Cambridge Integrated Clerkship: A Way forward for Medical Education
In a study recently published by David Hirsch, MD at Harvard Medical School, a longitudinal, integrated third year clerkship curriculum is compared to the traditional clerkship curriculum in domains of content knowledge, clinical skills, and student satisfaction. Students in the integrated longitudinal curriculum follow particular patients throughout all of their clinical encounters, creating a patient-based continuity.
The results of this study suggest that the longitudinal experience provides an equal or better performance on content knowledge and clinical skills measures (e.g., NMBE shelf exams, Step 2 CK, OSCE). Interestingly, the students in the longitudinal experience expressed superior satisfaction with the learning environment, more confidence in dealing with numerous domains of patient care, and a stronger sense of patient-centered care. Link
More Medical Schools Offer Instruction in Complementary and Alternative Therapies
Health professionals have mixed views on the effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, but with nearly 40% of adults claiming to have used at least one therapy, there is no question that medical students will eventually be exposed to this field. Today, CAM is included in the curricula of more than 50 U.S. and Canadian medical schools and teaching hospitals. Still, there is much opposition to and challenges for formal CAM instruction in medical school curricula. Link
Re-inventing the Third Year Medical Student
When do medical students lose their desire to help people and start seeing their patients as diseases? According to physician/author Pauline Chen, this happens often during the Third Year when students see many diseases, but lack continuity with any one patient. To combat this Harvard has been trying a pilot program that does away with traditional rotations and rather has third year medical students follow a cohort of 100 patients throughout the year attending all appointments and assisting with procedures. Through this program students report feeling more clinically able, having higher grades and connecting with humanistic aspects of medicine. Link
Medicine and its rivals: The Believers
As "Alternative Medicine" becomes more mainstream what is the role of government funding and should we include it in medical education? This article explores how alternative medicine entered American Consciousness and weighs the benefits of preventative therapies with the risks of opting out of serous medical treatment. In part it describes the difficulties of subjecting alternative medicine to traditional double blind testing, given its partial reliance of patients believing a therapy will work. Ultimately it emphasizes the risk of relying solely on alternative medicine, citing Steve Job's early decision to treat his cancer with alternative means. Link
The 2012 OSR Medical Education Committee
Nicky Chopra, Southern Regional Delegate
Janice Farlow, Central Regional Delegate
Bo Espinosa-Setchko, Western Regional Delegate
Jessica Linden Swienckowski, Northeast Regional Delegate
Meghan Crawley, National Delegate