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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2005

BULLETIN

In this issue:

: HMI launches new website
: LMU students design evidence-based medicine curriculum
: Fourth Practi-Med program in Japan scheduled for October
: Around HMI: New leader for CPQ, health care quality expert comes aboard, and summer interns contribute and learn

HMI launches new website

HMI is pleased to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website. Featuring real-life imagery, a wide range of content, and a simple, user-friendly organizational structure, the new website has been designed to capture the collaborative spirit and far-reaching impact of HMI’s partnerships around the world.

In addition to a global navigation structure that helps visitors learn more about HMI, our core competencies, and the people and institutions that work with us, we have created an industry-focused navigation scheme as well to organize information about our work with academic institutions, health care organizations, governments and NGOs, and corporations.

Among the website’s features are:

: A navigational structure that enables visitors to find information most relevant to their specific challenges and objectives
: Comprehensive descriptions of HMI’s core competencies and program delivery areas
: Case studies detailing the collaborative efforts of HMI and our partners
: A more robust and user-friendly digital library, providing users with access to a wealth of clinical, patient education, and professional development resources
: An interactive map showing the global reach of HMI and its network of international partners
: A frequently updated list of upcoming education programs and events
: Insights from our team, our partners, and faculty who have participated in HMI programs and partnerships
: A site map
: A powerful search engine
: Links to our partners and affiliates

Our new website address is www.hmi.hms.harvard.edu. We hope you will visit us often to find out what’s new at HMI, to learn about new programs and partnerships, and to take part in HMI’s global network. Our website will grow and evolve as we continue to create new features highlighting our work with partners and contributions from HMI’s outstanding network of faculty and affiliates.

LMU students design evidence-based medicine curriculum

In addition to the final curriculum product, the LMU student program helps the students learn to work as team members.

A group of sixth-year medical students from Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich completed a four-month clerkship experience at Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals in August, in addition to a specially designed medical education course focused on a curriculum design project. The annual clerkship program was created in 1997 as part of a major curriculum reform effort by LMU through its alliance with HMI. This year’s team of students tackled an ambitious concept: a three-phase curriculum program designed to integrate evidence-based medicine (EBM) into earlier stages of the existing LMU curriculum. Evidence-based medicine is an approach to individual patient care that aims to combine clinical expertise with the best available current research evidence.

To conclude the program, the students presented their project, which included detailed descriptions of course content, structure, and learning objectives, during a final visit to HMI. Tom Aretz, MD, vice president for education at HMI, praised the students’ project as “very impressive” and recognized the students’ contributions as a “phenomenal amount of work from concept down to detail.”

As the basis for curriculum reform, the students addressed the current challenges of motivating students to engage in EBM and stimulating interest in medical statistics. While acknowledging the dryness of the subject matter, the students asserted that interactive teaching methods would serve to motivate students to embrace EBM’s clinical relevance. Their course design aims to produce long-term practice of EBM by providing students of the course with a solid understanding of basic medical statistical knowledge, the ability to formulate relevant clinical questions, the practice of critical reading, and most importantly, insight into the practical relevance of EBM in a clinical setting, the students said.

The students presented their project, which included detailed descriptions of course content, structure, and learning objectives, during a final visit to HMI.

The students structured the program into three phases, beginning in the fifth semester, concentrating on medical statistics, “information mining,” and applied EBM, respectively. The team stressed information mining as the link between understanding medical statistics and applying EBM in a clinical setting, emphasizing the importance of students’ ability to formulate clinical questions, to identify and search for appropriate information sources, and to understand how to approach results.

“The inclusion of medical students in the curriculum reform process at LMU is truly revolutionary,” Toni Peters, PhD, director of curriculum development in the HMS Office for Educational Development and supervisor of the students during this effort, said of the innovative program. “Americans have a longer history of including students on design teams than the Germans have, and yet we have never given our students the amount of responsibility for developing a curricular plan as the faculty at LMU has given its students.”

Fourth Practi-Med program in Japan scheduled for October
HMI and St. Luke’s Life Science Institute will present Practi-Med Tokyo 2005, their fourth jointly organized primary care seminar for Japanese physicians. The conference will be held October 23, 2005, at the International Convention Center Pamir, located in the New Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo. A distinguished faculty of practicing physicians and educators affiliated with Harvard Medical School (HMS) will lead discussions on a range of health care topics relevant to primary care practice in Japan.

“Practi-Med Japan is a unique opportunity for physicians in Japan to learn about new methods of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment that can be integrated into clinical practice immediately,” said Harvey Makadon, HMI vice president for health systems and director of international CME programs. “HMI and St. Luke’s have brought together an excellent group of faculty who will be addressing some of Japan’s most pressing health care challenges.”
The program will cover the latest advances in the fields of cardiology, pulmonology, interventional gastroenterology, and endocrinology.

Dr. Joseph Kannam

Among the distinguished faculty from Harvard Medical School are Dr. Joseph Kannam, chief of ambulatory cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC); Dr. Christopher Fanta, of the pulmonary and critical care division of Brigham & Women’s Hospital; Dr. Ram Chuttani, director of endoscopy and chief of interventional gastroenterology at BIDMC; and Dr. Anthony Hollenberg, director of clinical endocrinology at BIDMC. Dr. Tsuguya Fukui, president of St. Luke’s International Hospital, will serve as master of ceremonies for the event. Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, who is widely recognized as a pioneer in the development of primary care practice in Japan, will address the audience as well.

To date, HMI and St. Luke’s have held three Practi-Med programs, each attended by more than 300 physicians. The first was held in September 2002 in Tokyo, and featured discussions on topics including asthma, depression, antibiotic use, and cardiovascular disease. Since then, HMI and St. Luke’s have held programs in Kyoto, in 2003, and Yokohama, in 2004, with the goal of reaching as many Japanese physicians as possible with the most up-to-date information on clinical medicine. Attendees have routinely applauded the quality of the presentations and discussions, and reported that they have found the course content to be immediately useful in their practice.

For more information, those interested can visit the program website at www.practi-med.com/japan.html.

Around HMI: New leader for CPQ, health care quality expert comes aboard, and summer interns contribute and learn

A renowned physician and surgeon notable for his expertise in health care systems development has been chosen to lead the Center for Healthcare Planning & Quality (CPQ) in Dubai. As chief executive officer of CPQ, Ivo Janecka, MD, MBA, FACS will head a team of health care professionals focused on developing CPQ into the region’s foremost regulatory authority on healthcare and medical education services.

CPQ was established as part of the strategic collaboration between HMI and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC). Staffed by full-time employees of HMI and based in Dubai, CPQ was launched to oversee health care quality management, medical education, training, and credentialing within DHCC, with the underlying goal of continuous improvement across every aspect of the medical complex.

Salem bin Dasmal, chairman of the CPQ Board of Managers, said CPQ is in the process of establishing a code of practices that will become the standard of quality in health care and medical sectors in the region. “Dr. Janecka assumes the mantle of CPQ chief executive officer at a most crucial juncture. We are fortunate to have an expert in quality to guide CPQ into the next and most critical phase of its operations and to establish CPQ as the leading-edge regulatory agency in the health care and medical planning and quality sector,” said bin Dasmal.

An expert on health care quality improvement and patient safety has joined HMI in the role of Senior Consultant.
Dr. John Helfrick has already made significant contributions to HMI’s health care quality initiatives in India and with the Dubai Healthcare City project. His rich background in this field includes playing major roles within Joint Commission International, the most important international accreditor of health care organizations. Trained as an oral surgeon, Helfrick has taught in the medical schools of Baylor and the University of Texas. He said, “My objective is to work with HMI and its partners around the world to develop and review patient-centered standards that are culturally adaptable, as well as a process that stimulates improvement.”

HMI welcomed four students onto the team to serve as summer interns. Stephanie Whalen, a doctoral student in pharmacy at Northeastern University, developed a medication safety project, and gave presentations to groups from both Hua Shan Hospital-Network (during Hua Shan’s health care management program at HMI) and Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute (via teleconference, as part of HMI’s ongoing video-CME collaboration with Sri Ramachandra). Pragya Rizal, who is pursuing a master’s degree in health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health, focused on best practices for instituting risk management policies in hospitals. Alex Sachs, a student at Emory University in Atlanta, analyzed HMI’s strategic collaboration with Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) and the key regional, professional, and business-related issues and obstacles involved in the development of DHCC. Albert Wong, a finance major at Bentley College, worked in HMI’s Administration division, and collaborated with team members throughout HMI to help develop strategies and recommendations to help HMI operate more efficiently going forward.