NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2006

BULLETIN

Elizabeth Armstrong leads a discussion during a tutor training session.

New teaching strategies and forward momentum are the fruits of LMU faculty development programs
The partnership between HMI and Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) began as a quest to create a new learning culture at the Munich medical school. Through a series of curricular reforms and faculty development initiatives, LMU brought about a renewed vibrancy that placed the institution at the forefront of education reform in Germany. HMI and LMU have continued to work together to address the rapidly changing landscape of academic medicine in Europe.

Tutor training sessions involving faculty from LMU and HMI have been a staple of the alliance. These weeklong faculty development retreats are designed to expose faculty to new teaching strategies covering a variety of educational situations.

Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD, HMI director of education programs, led the most recent edition of the tutor training program, held in October. Using classic case studies, Armstrong introduced three “toolboxes of teaching strategies” that addressed bedside teaching, large-group instruction, and peer teaching. The participants drew parallels between the issues presented in the case studies and their own experiences.

Small-group exercises are a big part of these programs.

Of peer teaching, Armstrong emphasized that the “critical feature of the teaching encounter must be that it maintains mutual respect between the faculty member doing the teaching and his or her peers.” 

Armstrong began the week’s activities by leading the group through a session entitled “Future Directions in Health Care and Medicine.” Armstrong asked the participants to look ahead to the year 2020 and think about how they believed technology would influence learning for medical professionals in Germany, and to speculate as to what changes they anticipated in health care delivery by 2020. The exercise was based on a piece from the magazine Popular Science entitled “Will We Merge With Machines?” which presented a glimpse of where bioengineering might take the human body in the not-too-distant future.

“The goal of this exercise was to examine trends and predictions for the advances in information technology, the health care device and pharmaceutical industries, and biology that will impact medical education, and to create a range of options to prepare curricula for the most likely future changes,” said Armstrong. “The effect is that the faculty are encouraged to think proactively about how to design curricula, rather than operate in a reactive mode when changes do occur.”

Over a thousand LMU faculty have taken part in programs like this one since the advent of the LMU-HMI alliance. Armstrong said the programs, which are held in a remote area of the Bavarian Alps, offer the faculty the tools and strategies to enhance their teaching while also enabling LMU to  maintain the momentum of education reform at the institution.

“LMU is building a wonderful community of educators,” she said.

Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner speaks in support of PABSELA as ceremony attendees Kevin Eggan and Amanda Pullen look on.

PABSELA gains crucial support for new research initiative
The Program for the Advancement of Biomedical Sciences Education in Latin America (PABSELA) was formally launched in September at an event held at the Pink House (the president’s official residence) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The gathering, which included 150 people from Argentinian government, industry, and the scientific and medical communities, was hosted by Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is both a senator and the wife of Argentinian president Nestor Kirchner.

PABSELA was spearheaded by Estanislao Bachrach and Miguel Velardez, two Argentine scientists who are research fellows at Children’s Hospital in Boston and consultants working with HMI. Their goal in conceiving the program is to create opportunities for Latin American students to pursue research in the stem cell biology and other novel areas of biomedical sciences.

Bachrach and Velardez, working with Amanda J. Pullen, PhD, HMI vice president of knowledge management and communications, have taken a major step in gaining the support of key stakeholders in Argentina, most notably Senator Fernández de Kirchner. The senator, in remarks made at the ceremony held at the presidential estate, pledged her support for PABSELA and noted its potential to develop native scientists who will pursue research that addresses regional health care problems.

PABSELA is a collaboration between HMI, faculty from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the Fundación Instituto Leloir, a prestigious research center in Argentina where most of the programmatic activities will take place. The Argentine government has agreed to help fund the program. The first PABSELA courses will take place in June 2007.

At the September launch ceremony, Bachrach, Velardez, and Pullen were joined by Kevin Eggan, PhD of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.  Eggan, who was extremely impressed with the researchers and the medical students with whom he interacted, said “This is a great program and my colleagues at the Institute and I are all very excited to be part of it.”

Young Arab Leaders join HMI faculty to examine challenges facing Middle East
Faculty from HMI participated in the Arab & American Action Forum, a three-day conference organized by the Young Arab Leaders. The event, held in New York City in September, brought 100 Arab leaders in business, government, media, and the NGO community together with counterparts from the U.S.

The Young Arab Leaders are a network of young business executives in the Middle East with the mission of mobilizing its youth to take a positive role in the region’s development through programs in education, leadership development, and entrepreneurship. The group is chaired by Saeed Al Muntafiq, who has played a key role in HMI’s strategic collaboration with Dubai Healthcare City.

HMI’s Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD, director of education programs, teamed with Tony Wagner, EdD, Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard Graduate School of Education, to  facilitate a workshop highlighting educational issues that exist in the Arab world and recommending potential solutions. They delivered a paper entitled “Secondary Education in the 21st Century.” In it they examine the problem of evolving learning needs globally in the 21st century and the difficulties faced in current education systems attempting to address these new skill sets. The paper calls on busienss and community leaders to work together and with other governmental and non-governmental agencies “to transform education from a system focused on mass producing the basic skills needed in the industrial era to one that teaches all students the core competencies essential for success today.”

TMDU faculty build clinical tutoring skills during recent program
In September, HMI hosted nine faculty members from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) in Boston for a faculty development program designed for clinical tutors. Each morning took the program participants to Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals to see clinical tutoring in action, and the group honed their teaching strategies during afternoon sessions at HMI.

During the weeklong program, the faculty observed bedside and ambulatory teaching rounds and shadowed surgical didactic sessions and grand rounds at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

The group also participated in teaching and planning sessions with HMI’s Tom Aretz, MD, vice president for global programs, and Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD, director of education programs, as well as Clifford Lo, MD, MPH, ScD of HMS and Children’s Hospital. Lo completed a visiting professorship at TMDU earlier this year and has continued to play a part of the HMI-TMDU partnership. These afternoon sessions concentrated on micro-teaching method, including history-taking and presentation skills and improved methods of teaching at the bedside, and allowed the faculty to define future actions for reform at TMDU.

Since partnering with HMI in 2002, TMDU has participated in a variety of faculty development programs and efforts aimed at incorporating problem-based learning into its medical and dental curriculums.

HMI gives annual teaching award to mental health specialist

Dr. Kerim Munir

Kerim Munir, MD, MPH, DSc, associate professor of psychiatry at Children’s Hospital, is the 2006 winner of the Klaus Peter International Teaching Award. The award, established in honor of Prof. Dr. Klaus Peter, Dean of the Medical Faculty at Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany, is given annually to an HMS faculty member who has contributed significantly to the field of international medical education, international exchanges, and mentoring of international students, residents, and fellows.

Munir was recognized for his efforts to promote education and research in mental health and developmental disabilities for medical students in many countries in the world, particularly in Turkey. Not only has his work created greater awareness and knowledge, buthe has also helped institute public policies in areas of psychiatric care.

“Kerim’s willingness to share his expertise and time in all of these activities and locales epitomizes the generosity and spirit of a devoted educator,” said Tom Aretz, MD, HMI vice president of global programs.

German delegation studies innovation during visit to HMS and affiliates
In October, a 20-member delegate from the Bavarian Parliament in Munich, Germany visited Boston to meet with leaders at HMI and Harvard Medical School (HMS) and examine some of the advances and trends impacting medical education, research, and clinical care in the U.S. and beyond.

The visitors were from the Parliament’s Committee for Social Security, Health Care, and Family Policy. They toured the New Research Building at HMS, as well as the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care, where they met with Dr. Arjun Rao, senior project specialist of the MGH Decision Support and Quality Management Unit. Tom Aretz, MD, vice president of global programs at HMI, spoke to delegates about the organization of academic health care centers and the integration of medical schools with teaching hospitals and research centers. John Halamka, MD, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate dean for educational technology at HMS, talked to the group about  the latest innovations in IT in health care.

Copyright 2006 Harvard Medical International