In this issue:

  Aretz named honorary citizen of longtime university partner in Munich

  LMU establishes consulting entity to help other institutions

  Women’s health is focus of specialty CME program to be held in Dubai

  TMDU drives clinical clerkship reform initiative

  Workshop with Nice faculty concentrates on curriculum planning and assessment

  New HMI partnership to focus on UK-based projects

Aretz named honorary citizen of longtime university partner in Munich

Dr. Tom Aretz

In appreciation of his commitment to Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich, Tom Aretz, MD, vice president for education at HMI, has been awarded honorary citizenship of LMU. The university honored Aretz with a ceremony held in Munich in October.

Professor Klaus Peter, medical director of the University Hospital Center, called Aretz a "creative and inspiring teacher, critical advisor, and a reliable coach for the medical professionals of LMU."

The honorary citizenship was given to honor Aretz’s contributions to the close alliance between HMI and LMU. Since partnering with HMI in 1996, LMU has been working to adapt elements of Harvard Medical School’s New Pathway curriculum. Over the course of the partnership, LMU has become a national leader in medical education reform. "The constitution and the successes of the alliance are closely connected with Tom Aretz. The cooperation is not conceivable without his commitment," said Professor Bernd Huber, president of LMU.

LMU establishes consulting entity to help other institutions
In partnership with HMI, the students, faculty, and administration of Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) have led a series of educational reforms in the school’s curriculum that have spurred similar programs at other schools in Germany. Now LMU has established a consulting entity to serve institutions in Europe and beyond that are undertaking health care and education reform initiatives.

LMU Munich Medical International (LMU-MMI) was established in March 2005 to respond to the global demand for excellence in health care, clinical services, medical education, and research projects. Given LMU’s fruitful decade-long association with HMI, the leadership at LMU-MMI have forged a strategic relationship with HMI. Together, HMI and LMU-MMI will pursue opportunities in the European health care community.

Frank Christ, MD, who has been a leading figure in the HMI-LMU alliance, has been tapped to serve as chief executive officer for the new group.

With a structure similar to that of HMI, LMU-MMI leverages the intellectual resources of the University of Munich, one of the most highly ranked research universities in Europe. Its academic medical center, University Hospital Center, is home to 43 clinics, institutes, and divisions and covers all medical specialties.

Tom Aretz, MD, HMI vice president for education, views the launch of LMU-MMI as a measure of progress for HMI. “LMU has been at the forefront of leading change in German medical education, and by taking up the mantle of further reform for academic institutions in Europe, they are aspiring to our best hope for HMI’s partners.”

Plans are underway for a joint executive workshop in the spring of 2006 that would bring HMI and LMU-MMI together to discuss strategy, with an emphasis on risk management. To learn more about LMU-MMI, visit the organization’s website.

Women’s health is focus of specialty CME program to be held in Dubai

The Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) will present Specialty Practi-Med: Women’s Health Throughout the Life Cycle, a continuing medical education course focused on the major areas of obstetrics and gynecology, with an emphasis on screening and prevention. The two-day program will take place December 7-8 at the Emirates Towers in Dubai.

The program will be led by Ben Sachs, DPH, MB, BS, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He will be joined by HMS faculty Annekathryn Goodman, MD and Nada Samaha, MD. A cohort of faculty from the United Arab Emirates will also be on hand to deliver lectures, lead interactive case discussions, and discuss issues of local relevance. Gynecologists, obstetricians, nurses, and internists and general practitioners who care for women are encouraged to attend.

“This continuing medical program will present up-to-date information on the full range of medical issues related to the health of women, from major medical problems like breast cancer and osteoporosis to issues related to reproductive health and menopause,” said Robert L. Thurer, MD, chief academic officer of HMSDC. “We have assembled leading experts in the fields of obstetrics and gynecology and collaborated with local medical authorities to ensure that the program’s curriculum addresses the particular needs of Gulf Region practitioners.”

Dr. Ben Sachs

Continuing medical education programs like this one are a vital resource for health care providers working to keep up with the latest advances in health care. Since its inception in 2004, HMSDC has offered programs in a range of medical specialties, including musculoskeletal health and sports medicine, respiratory medicine, and diabetes. HMSDC was established as part of the strategic collaboration between Dubai Healthcare City and Harvard Medical International. Its mission is to help make Dubai a center of excellence for medical education by creating opportunities for health care professionals in the region to participate in continuing medical education and postgraduate medical training.

In collaboration with HMSDC, HMI has worked with the Department of Continuing Education at HMS to establish a CME accreditation program that meets international standards and awards internationally recognized CME credits. This Specialty Practi-Med program will be the first program to award these credits. Additional information about CME credits can be found on the program website.

TMDU drives clinical clerkship reform initiative
Four HMI faculty members joined faculty from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) in September for a series of workshops attended by about 80 faculty members. The program is part of an ongoing effort to reform the school’s curriculum and thereby create a more active learning experience for its students, and provide faculty with opportunities to develop their skills in areas such as communication, leadership, and medical ethics. This visit concentrated on enhancing TMDU’s clinical clerkship system—including the incorporation of students into clinical work—and helping the faculty build their clinical and teaching skills in a variety of rounds formats.

A highlight of the program was the introduction of an innovative new exercise, created at TMDU’s suggestion and designed to demonstrate the structure and design of clinical rounds in the American health care system. During a visit to TMDU’s 800-bed University Hospital, the HMI faculty role-played and videotaped scripted scenarios for three different types of rounds: work rounds, attending rounds, and chief resident rounds. The video clips were edited in the afternoon, and used the following morning and during subsequent days to allow the TMDU faculty to review and analyze the Harvard Medical School (HMS) system and discuss how it could be applied at TMDU.

In addition to examining clinical rounds procedures, small group activities during each workshop focused on teaching tips for bedside teaching, learning and teaching new clinical skills, and preparing students to present patient cases. The HMI faculty encouraged leaders at TMDU to further integrate exchange students who have participated in HMS clerkship programs into their curriculum reform efforts, and to grant faculty who have completed leadership courses within their system with special responsibilities for teaching and planning.

TMDU is also working on implementing research semesters into its curriculum. “Including time in the curriculum that permits students to conduct their own research is clearly a very positive trend in many medical schools in the U.S. and Europe,” said Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD, director of education programs at HMI. “We are delighted that TMDU has incorporated this into their new curriculum blueprint.”

In addition, TMDU has added the position of chief resident, who will fill the role of clinical educator of students and the entire clinical team. Clifford Lo, MD, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics, will serve as visiting professor at TMDU next year. His visit will help define the role and job description of the chief resident and further the reform of the clinical clerkship system as a whole.

The HMI faculty, in addition to Aretz and Armstrong, included two other members of the faculty at Harvard Medical School. Sue Farrell, MD, assistant professor of medicine, directs the elective clerkship in emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Laurie Fishman, MD, is an instructor of medicine at Children’s Hospital.

Workshop with Nice faculty concentrates on curriculum planning and assessment
Faculty from HMI joined around 30 members of the medical faculty at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis for an interactive two-and-a-half day program. The course was the first in a series designed to invigorate medical education at the university.

“One of the major goals of this workshop was to reinforce the importance of educational assessment, and help the medical faculty at Nice look at how they are performing this function, and how their current approach might be altered to better align with the school’s educational objectives,” said Tom Aretz, MD, HMI vice president for education. Aretz co-directed the course with Gary Cole, PhD, who is senior research associate and manager for the Educational Research and Development Unit of the Royal College of Physicians in Canada.

On the first day of the workshop, Aretz, Cole, and the participants examined the school’s existing curriculum, with the goal of defining the objectives for each course and beginning to write teaching cases to meet those goals. The second day, then, moved to assessment techniques—how to evaluate students’ progress in achieving the educational goals of the courses. During the final day of the workshop, the participants rewrote the questions for the national examination that French medical graduates must take. At the conclusion of the program, a group of students were presented with both the old and new versions of the examination—and were unanimous in their assessment of the new questions’ clarity and close connection to the curricular goals.

New HMI partnership to focus on UK-based projects
The Centres of Clinical Excellence (CCE), a large clinician-investor model partnership in the south of England, has partnered with HMI with the aim of conceptualizing clinical programs, providing clinical leadership training, assisting with systems and facilities design, and participating in consulting activities in the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere in Europe.

Robert K. Crone, MD, HMI president and chief executive officer, leads a discussion during a strategic planning workshop involving HMI and CCE.

The new partnership was formed against the backdrop of significant shifts in the way that health care is delivered and paid for in the UK, where health care spending is increasing, the role of independent providers is growing, and National Health Service (NHS) primary care trusts are preparing to commission clinical services to the private sector. Many private health care organizations, including CCE, expect the NHS to become the purchaser, rather than provider, of health care services, utilizing a bidding process. The private sector share of health care in the United Kingdom has grown significantly and is expected to increase further as the NHS plans to outsource diagnostic services to the private sector in 2006. Beginning in 2008, private health care organizations will also be invited to provide elective procedures.

CCE’s objective is to procure NHS contracts on the way to becoming a clinical provider of choice in the UK. They are currently working to grow their clinical partnerships, develop specialized clinical facilities, and seek collaborations with global partners to enhance their competitive position.

HMI’s role extends across a range of strategic advisory and education services. HMI will collaborate with CCE on the creation of models of excellence for diagnostic and clinical services, develop workshops to build the leadership of CCE’s clinicians, offer ongoing continuing medical education courses, assist CCE’s hospital team with the translation of clinical concepts into facility design, and serve as a clinical advisor to CCE in its bids for NHS contracts.

As part of this last function, HMI will participate in a CCE-led consortium of national and international partners (including the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Radiology), formed for the purpose of submitting bids for contracts under the UK Government’s initial procurement opportunity for diagnostic services.

In October, members of CCE’s clinical and management leadership joined HMI for a two-day strategic planning workshop.

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