Welcome
Letter From The Editor
We don’t build each issue of HMI WORLD around a common theme, but sometimes those themes emerge on their own. The theme that jumps out in the November-December 2007 issue is outputs.
Around Harvard
Office for Visitor Education Programs at Massachusetts General Hospital
A major component of HMI’s programs is enabling our partners to draw upon the intellectual resources located at the affiliated hospitals of Harvard Medical School. This includes not only physician experts and nurse leaders, but also administrators and other professionals whose daily work contributes to high-quality health care delivery.
The Office for Visitor Education Programs (VEP) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has been a valuable resource for HMI programs since it opened in April 2006. Through this office, MGH facilitates tours, consultations, and observerships for health care professionals and institutions around the world.
MGH Program Manager Shelly Riley (pictured above, right, with visitor Ozcan Cicek from Acibadem Healthcare Group) said that the VEP was created in response to the high demand for access to the knowledge and resources at MGH. “Through this office, we can bring people into the hospital and enable them to benchmark best practices,” she said. “This is part of the MGH mission to educate academic, clinical, and research leaders.”
“We see our office in partnership with HMI, with the shared goal to meet the educational needs of health care professionals around the world." -- Shelly Riley
Riley said that some of the most popular tour destinations handled by the VEP are MGH’s proton beam center, catherization lab, and the “Operating Room of the Future,” a living laboratory that explores new technology platforms and systems of care for performing minimally invasive surgical procedures. VEP also offers a historical tour of MGH, which includes a visit to the Ether Dome, the famed site of the first public demonstration of the use of anasthesia in surgery.
The VEP works closely with HMI to customize visits and interactions to address the specific learning objectives of HMI’s partners. HMI Regional Manager Michael Kavanagh said, “The VEP helps HMI to develop a wide range of learning opportunities, from one-day visits to two-week observership programs in multiple clinical areas. Shelly and her team are a great resource for us.”
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HMI's Tom Aretz on the evolution of medical education
Briefcase
Quality reading with Dr. Thomas Lee
From the Archives
Emergency medicine training initiative continues in Italy
Around Harvard
Targeting pain management, treating muscle degeneration, and tracking the causes of type 2 diabetes. Also: a look at MRI’s emerging role in breast cancer screening, and other news and research from the Harvard medical community.
