MARCH / APRIL 2006

HARVARD MACY

Harvard Macy Institute brings customized course to educators at St. Matthew's University School of Medicine

Twenty-five health science educators from the United States and Grand Cayman gathered at the St. Matthew’s University (SMU) School of Medicine for a six-day professional development program.

The course, held in December, was customized using elements developed for the Harvard Macy Institute. Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD, head of the Institute and director of education programs at HMI, co-directed the course along with Karen Mann, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the Division of Medical Education at Dalhousie University. Amy Smith, PhD, Medical Educator at SMU, and Gordon Green, MD, who is executive dean and chairman of the Department of Pre-Clinical Medicine at SMU, also served on the program’s faculty. Mr. Bruce Carlson, chief executive officer of Grid,  a management training organization, was on hand to lead a session on team behaviors.

Elizabeth Armstrong speaking at graduation ceremonies for SMU students last year.

“This course was designed with three major objectives in mind: to help the participants examine approaches to teaching, to enable SMU to improve as an institution, and to help foster a community of scholars focused on improving medical education among universities in the Caribbean,” said Armstrong.

Green, an alumnus of the Institute’s Boston-based programs, said that the course succeeded in providing the foundation for a network of like-minded educators addressing similar challenges in education.

The course resulted in the design of five institutional projects, including a curriculum design program aimed at integrating the basic science and clinical curricula throughout the four years of medical school. Another project has the goal of standardizing the education component of the third-year clinical rotations at SMU. Other projects included an effort to create online teaching tools for students in the clinical years, and a collaboration, developed by a group from one of SMU’s clinical sites in the U.S., focused on increasing scholarly activities among their faculty.

“Each of these projects generated a significant amount of enthusiasm among the program’s participants,” said Armstrong. “Ultimately, the best measure of their success will be their implementation and full integration into the curricular planning of the institution.”

A follow-up workshop will be held at the end of the April to review the progress of each of the projects and continue the work of buliding communication links among the faculty and participants.  

Copyright 2006 Harvard Medical International