Educational Program Leading to the MD Degree Subcommittee

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison began its institutional self-study in preparation for the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) reaccreditation process in fall 2008.

The following members make up the Educational Program Leading to the MD Degree Subcommittee:

• Christine Seibert, MD (Co-Chair)
• Laura Zakowski, MD (Co-Chair)
• Yolanda Becker, MD, FACS
• Edward Bersu, PhD
• Paul Bertics, PhD
• David Chestnut, MD
• Shobhina Chheda, MD, MPH
• Byron Crouse, MD, FAAP
• Julie Franz, MS
• Terrence Frick, MD
• Michael Hart, MD
• Teresa Kulie, MD
• Kevin McKown, MD
• Thomas Oliver, PhD, MHA
• Laurel Rice, MD
• Jeffrey Stearns, MD
• Lisa Shen, Med 3
• Johnny Tackett, Med 2
• Joel Wood, Med 1
• Ryan Woods, MD, MPH

Ex-officio:

• Amy Becker, MA
• Laura Dast
• Susan Dottl, PhD
• Georgia Hinman, PhD
• Jeffrey Korab
• Patrick McBride, MD, MPH
• Roberta Rusch, MPH

Questions Addressed by the Educational Program Leading to the MD Degree Subcommittee

A. Educational Objectives

1. Describe the level of understanding of the school-wide objectives for the educational program among administrators, faculty members, students, and others in the medical education community. Do these objectives serve as effective guides for educational program planning and for student and program evaluation?

2. Comment on the extent to which school-wide educational objectives are linked to physician competencies expected by the medical profession and the public. Summarize results from any associated outcome measures that demonstrate how well students are being prepared for the next stage of their training.

3. Comment on the effectiveness of the mechanisms in place for assuring that all students encounter the specified types of patients/clinical conditions needed for the clinical objectives to be met.

B. Structure of the Educational Program

4. Delineate the mechanisms ensuring that the educational program provides a general professional education that prepares students for all career options in medicine. Cite relevant outcomes indicating success in that preparation.

5. Evaluate the adequacy of instructional opportunities for students to engage in active learning and independent study. How well does the program prepare students to engage in self-assessment of their learning needs and to develop other skills to support habits of lifelong learning?

6. Evaluate the adequacy of the system for ensuring consistency of educational quality and of student evaluation when students learn at alternative sites within a course or clerkship.

7. Comment on how well all content areas required for accreditation are addressed in the curriculum. How confident is the educational program leadership that these topics are appropriately addressed?

8. Assess the balance between inpatient and ambulatory teaching and the appropriateness of the teaching sites used for required clinical experiences.

C. Teaching and Evaluation

9. Comment on the adequacy of the supervision of medical students during required clinical experiences. Discuss the effectiveness of efforts to ensure that all individuals who participate in teaching, including resident physicians, graduate students, and volunteer faculty members, are prepared for their teaching responsibilities.

10. Evaluate the adequacy of methods used to evaluate student attainment of the objectives of the educational program. How appropriate is the mix of testing and evaluation methods? Describe the frequency with which students receive formative assessment in addition to summative evaluations? Discuss the timeliness of performance feedback to students in the preclinical and clinical years.

11. Describe the system for ensuring that students have acquired the core clinical skills specified in the school's educational program objectives. Evaluate the frequency with which students are observed and receive feedback on their clinical skills. Are there any limitations in the school's ability to ensure that the clinical skills of all students are appropriately assessed?

D. Curriculum Management

12. Assess the adequacy of the system for managing the curriculum and ensuring that it is coherent and coordinated. Do the curriculum as a whole and its component parts undergo regular, systematic review? Describe the procedures in place to identify and rectify any problems in the curriculum as a whole and in individual courses and clerkships? Evaluate the effectiveness of the procedures, and provide specific illustrative examples. Provide evidence that the school monitors the content covered in the curriculum to ensure that all desired content is covered and gaps or unwanted redundancies do not occur.

13. Does the chief academic officer have sufficient resources and authority to assure that the educational program can achieve institutional goals and learning objectives?

14. Assess the effectiveness of curriculum planning in the medical education program. Describe efforts to ensure that there is appropriate participation in planning and that resources needed to implement the plans will be available.

15. How does the curriculum committee assure that students have sufficient time for learning? Evaluate the educational workload and the balance between education and service in the clinical years. Assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to monitor student duty hours. Do students receive sufficient formal teaching during their clinical clerkships?

16. For schools that operate geographically separate campuses, evaluate the effectiveness of mechanisms to assure that educational quality and student services are consistent across sites. In order to assess the comparability of the evaluation system, review the patterns of grades given at the geographically separated campuses.

E. Evaluation of Program Effectiveness

17. Describe the evidence indicating that institutional objectives are being achieved by enrolled students.

18. Discuss how information about enrolled students and graduates is used to evaluate and improve the medical education program.