In this issue:

  Symposium proceedings gauge the impact of genetics, proteomics on medicine and health

  Tutor training in Croatia polishes teaching skills

  Exchange students and faculty from U.S., Europe meet in Boston

  In Rotterdam training program, simulator becomes teaching tool

Symposium proceedings gauge the impact of genetics, proteomics on medicine and health

The Journal of Genetics in Medicine

Proceedings of the symposium “Genomics and Proteomics: Impact on Medicine and Health,” sponsored jointly by Asan Medical Center and HMI, are published in the November/December issue of the Journal of Genetics in Medicine (GiM). This third biennial Asan Medical Center/Harvard Medical International Symposium, held in Seoul, Korea in July 2001, attracted nearly 800 physicians and medical scientists as registrants to hear lectures and commentaries by 14 American and Korean investigators. The presenters took stock of the sweeping changes affected by genomics and proteomics that are transforming biomedicine, and looked at ways the new knowledge of human biology and developing technology will impact research, medical education, clinical practice, ethics, and public health. GiM is published online and accessible at: http://www.geneticsinmedicine.org.

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Tutor training in Croatia polishes teaching skills
Twenty-four members of the faculty at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine recently took part in a tutor training program on case-based teaching and assessment. The program, which took place in Zagreb Nov. 21-24, drew upon the expertise of faculty members Dr. Tom Aretz, medical director for international education at HMI; Dr. Dimitri Krainc, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School; and PD Dr. med. Frank Christ, professor of anesthesiology at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. The same faculty members led a similar course last May for a different group of faculty.

Faculty participants from Croatia learned new tutoring skills.

The training program included an introduction to the principles of problem-based case writing for graduate medical education. The program relied on role-playing, as faculty members took the roles of students in a small-group tutorial setting. They followed scripted problem tutorials in which faculty members role-played students with challenging personality traits, challenging the tutor to keep the tutorial on track. An exploration of student assessment methods examined the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes, and a microteaching session allowed faculty members to practice delivering a lecture to a small group, and giving and receiving feedback.

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Exchange students and faculty from U.S., Europe meet in Boston

Pernille Martins, a 2002 exchange student from Denmark.

Students and faculty participating in the United States-European Union Medical Educational Exchange (USEUMEE) met in Boston November 15-16 for the program’s annual conference. Students who have participated in the exchange in the past came to give advice and talk about their experiences with this year’s incoming exchange students. The multinational medical exchange program has ambitious goals: rather than simply doing clinical rotations in another country, students are asked to develop a case study based on a patient experience that promotes a comparative analysis of the health care delivery system of that country. Each student focuses on one disease area, and is encouraged to examine how factors like insurance and health care facilities influence the care of a particular patient.

Pernille Martens, from Copenhagen, Denmark, completed a dermatology rotation at Massachussetts General Hospital focused on psoriasis, while Jamal Harris of Harvard Medical School completed a parallel rotation in Denmark. Martens said she saw many strengths in the U.S. system and the quality of care it provided; however, she said, “I reflected a lot on the Danish health care system and came back a lot more positive about it.” Among her concerns were the long hours for clinicians at MGH and the large patient volume. However, in discussions about health care systems, others mentioned the growing concerns in Denmark and Sweden about long waiting periods for non-urgent procedures, as well as the high tax rates to support universal insurance converage.

A group of 2003 exchange students talk about their upcoming projects. Clockwise from top left: Benedikt Aulinger from Munich, Steveen Balt and Anne Ratiner from HMS, and Benjamin Jelen from Munich.

Each of the students is required to write a detailed case based on a particular patient. They chronicle the details of the patient’s experience in the medical system, but also draw upon their knowledge of that country’s health care system to show how the case illustrates some larger principles. Anne-Marie Dogonowski, also from Denmark, is looking forward to coming to New York this spring to study congestive heart failure. “I think it’s a very human approach,” she said. A recent graduate of Harvard University, Lou Salamone, is working to compile all of these cases into a form that could be used as curricular material in future courses that focus on health care delivery systems.

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In Rotterdam training program, simulator becomes teaching tool
From Dec. 8-10, eight members of the department of anaesthesiology at University Hospital Rotterdam, and six faculty members from area schools in the Netherlands, gathered for a training program in problem-based learning that emphasized the use of simulation in teaching. The group worked together to gain an understanding of adult learning models in medicine and the active ingredients of problem-based learning. The course was led by Dr. Tom Aretz, medical director for international education at HMI, Dr. Paul O’Neill, associate dean for medical undergraduate studies at the University of Manchester; and Dr. Sigrid Adam, anesthesiologist and intensivist at the University Medical Center Rotterdam, and an alumni of the Harvard Macy Institute.

The training program is unique in that many of the exercises took place at the anesthesia simulator. The group learned how to use the simulator as a teaching tool, as well as a tool for assessing student performance. For example, an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam) was held at the simulator and participants were “tested” on their skills in taking an anesthesia history, preparing epidural anesthesia, and inducing general anesthesia. These sessions focused on competency in evaluating students using OSCEs while providing faculty members with a new perspective on skills assessment.

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