In this issue:

  Online training program will ease the stress of surgical residency

  First global BioSecurity conference will be held in November

  Leaders from China Worldbest Group visit HMS to discuss large-scale health care program

  HMI Trauma and Disaster Institute honors Dr. Tom Durant

  Upcoming Practi-Med in Japan will bring attention to primary care

  Mannheim medical students propose their own new pathway

  Dominican Republic project will lay plans for med school and hospital

  Former Dean Tosteson honored by Munich medical school

Online training program will ease the stress of surgical residency
Each year fewer medical students in the US choose to become surgeons because of the severe lifestyle sacrifices required of surgical residents and by the profession. To help improve the daily lives of surgical residents and stem a growing crisis in surgical education, Harvard Medical International (HMI), the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and Intuition, a leading e-learning company, have together created the first international comprehensive online surgical training prgram. BeST Resident (www.intumed.com) was launched in the United States at Surgical Education Week, the joint annual meeting of the Association for Surgical Education and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery in Baltimore April 1-6.

Surgical residency applications have declined significantly in recent years: in this year’s match results, released March 21st, the number of US medical graduates who matched surgical residencies dropped from 821 last year to 782. This is because of the demands of surgical residencies—demands that can leave young physicians overworked, overwhelmed and without time for personal lives or in-depth study, says William Silen, MD, Johnson & Johnson Distinguished Professor of Surgery, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School. “This program will address the diminishing time available to residents for in-depth study,” says Silen,” who voiced his concerns about the impending crisis in a recent editorial published by the American College of Surgeons.

A screen from BeST reviews surgical techniques with text and diagrams.

Reviewed and approved by nearly 200 Harvard Medical School and RCSI faculty and designed specifically for the web, BeST Resident gives real-time availability and immediacy to content using all the potential of multimedia and the web. Initially launched in Ireland last summer, BeST Resident was reviewed and revised by Harvard faculty to meet the American in-service exam requirements.

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First global BioSecurity conference will be held in November
Harvard Medical School, HMI, and Key3Media Group, Inc. will jointly present the first global BioSecurity conference, November 18 - 22, 2002, in Las Vegas. BioSecurity 2002 is an international scientific and educational conference designed to provide a forum for senior government officials, scientists, researchers, physicians, public health and hospital officials, nurses, and first responders to prepare for and learn how to control bioterrorism threats.

The event will feature a comprehensive educational program with keynote speakers representing senior world leadership in the field, plenary sessions that explore common interests across disciplines, and a trade exposition showcasing biosecurity solutions from companies around the world.

"It is a privilege for Harvard Medical International to serve as a means to bring together professionals from all over the world, with very different perspectives, to collectively work toward solutions for problems of immense global significance," said Dr. Robert Crone, president and CEO of HMI. Conference co-chairs for BioSecurity 2002 are Key3Media senior vice president Bob Howard, a former senior official at the National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC, and Dr. Miles F. Shore from Harvard Medical School, HMI, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Click here for more.

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Leaders from China Worldbest Group visit HMS to discuss large-scale health care program
On April 27th, a group of representatives from the China Worldbest Group Company (CWGC) of Shanghai visited HMI to discuss a unique hospital and health services development project in China. Their activities included a meeting with Joseph B. Martin, dean of Harvard Medical School, discussions with select faculty at the Harvard schools of Medicine, Business and Government and tours of clinical and educational facilities at several different Harvard affiliated hospitals.

Members of the CWGC delegation met with Dean Joseph Martin and Dr. Robert Crone during their recent visit to HMI.

CWGC was formed in 1992 out of the largest state-owned enterprise in China, reflecting China’s entry into world markets as a publicly owned, multinational company. Starting from roots in the textile trading business, CWBG initially focused on manufacturing, but more recently has moved into information technology, biopharmaceutical technology development, and pharmaceutical sales. Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Zhou Yu Cheng, CWGC’s most recent initiative is the development of a health services division in which it plans to develop a group of hospitals and outpatient services for the country, following the government’s desire to privatize a number of its premier health care institutions. It will also develop a “medical park” in Wuxi, located 120 Km north of Shanghai, which will include a life science & technology industrial park, an international medical and healthcare facility, a center for research and development and education as well as parks and gardens.

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HMI Trauma and Disaster Institute honors Dr. Tom Durant

(left to right): Robert Crone, Thomas Flatley, Susan Briggs, Kathryn Brinsfield and Daniel Flatley stand with the cover of the Advanced Disaster Medical Response Manual at a reception honoring Dr. Tom Durant.

On May 1, members of the Harvard Medical International Trauma and Disaster Institute held a reception in honor of the late Dr. Tom Durant, who was a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School, and spent many years working with refugees around the world. The Institute was created from the generous support of the Flatley Foundation in honor of Durant’s humanitarian work. Dr. Susan Briggs, director of the Institute, spoke about its first project, an Advanced Disaster Medical Response Manual for providers, which will serve as a foundation for training programs in responding to natural and manmade disasters. Dr. Robert Crone, HMI president and CEO, described how HMI will work with partners to implement these programs internationally.

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Upcoming Practi-Med in Japan will bring attention to primary care
A one-day Practi-Med course will be held in Tokyo, Japan on September 15 this year by HMI in partnership with St. Luke’s Life Science Institute in Tokyo. The event, entitled “Advances in Medical Diagnosis and Management” will feature symposia led by editors of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jeffrey Drazen and Dr. Thomas Lee. Presentations will cover some critical topics in primary care, such as asthma, depression, antibiotic use, and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, M.D., Ph.D. Hon.F.A.C.P., F.A.C.C.

The event is an initial attempt to establish annual primary care symposia in Japan, where primary care is not as established or recognized as in the U.S. Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, Honorary President of St. Luke’s International Hospital and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at St Luke’s Life Science Institute, has been instrumental in bringing Practi-Med to the region. A specialist in internal medicine, Dr. Hinohara is one of Japan’s most prominent physicians, and has devoted a lifetime to education and research. He is best known for pioneering modern hospital practice, primary care and nursing education in Japan.

Dr. Hinohara was a member of the advisory committee of the Ministry of Education for 24 years. He was the first who emphasized the importance of primary care medicine back in 1970, and recommended drastic changes of graduate training for residents in introducing primary care medicine when he was the chairman of the advisory committee of graduate medical education of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1972.

He was the founding member of specialty board of Internal Medicine, and became the chairman of all specialty boards of Clinical Medicine in Japan from 1981 to 1986.

“Continuing education for Japanese practitioners in general medicine is in need of much advancement, and Practi-Med can contribute much to future progress in this field,” Dr. Hinohara said. He believes that the Practi-Med under the sponsors of Harvard Medical School, New England Journal of Medicine and St. Luke’s Life Science Institute would attract many participants.

Practi-Med is a course that focuses on health care delivery for the frontlines of care—primary care physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals. HMI piloted the first such course in Brazil in 1999. Click here for a more detailed description of the Brazil course and Practi-Med’s goals.

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Mannheim medical students propose their own new pathway
As part of an educational alliance with HMI, five medical students from the University of Heidelberg, Faculty of Medicine at Mannheim in Germany recently completed two months of electives at Harvard affiliated hospitals and a parallel course entitled “Introduction to Medical Education.” The purpose of their stay was not only for personal development but also to gather innovative ideas and techniques to implement in the Mannheim curriculum. The students, all active participants in the current curriculum reform movement in Mannheim, viewed their short stay here as a highly valuable experience that provided an insight as to how medical education “could and should work.”

Their next step is to work with the faculty to integrate changes in what they view as the three major areas in need of improvement: practical education, appeal of the school to incoming students, and exam results/research activities.

Peg Hinrichs, left, course manager at HMS, leads a standard patient exercise with Mannheim students Johannes Horter and Mathias Bechtler.

Most German medical students take six and a half years to complete their education, with over five years of coursework in theory and just one year of clinical experience. Although students value their strong theoretical background, they feel they have an inadequate amount of practical experience. Some of the Mannheim students’ suggestions for improving their practical education included: continuous patient-doctor training, integration of all clinical subspecialties, use of standardized patients and varied assessments and exams.

Modeled after U.S. universities, the students proposed a corporate identity for Mannheim with complete merchandising of school insignia and an active Alumni Association, both of which are new concepts for German Universities. With an improved curriculum and the creation of BRAND Mannheim ™, the students hope to increase attraction to the University. As a result of these proposed changes, the students argue that Mannheim will be able to produce better-educated and motivated students, who perform better on national exams and have increased interest in research activities, which are two key factors in funding from the national government. All of the visiting students will be completing their medical studies this year and many hope to stay at Mannheim and be granted the opportunity to work with the Faculty to implement their ideas for change.

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Dominican Republic project will lay plans for med school and hospital
HMI has begun a six-month project with the Dominican University of Operations and Methodologies (O&M) in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. O&M is the largest private university in the Dominican Republic and is known for its programs in law, engineering, business administration, and information technology. The school is interested in establishing a medical school as well, because there are currently no medical schools in the country with dedicated teaching hospitals and the leadership at O&M believes there is a need for a school with higher standards of education. HMI will provide consultation and assistance in developing this idea into a business plan for a school as well as a teaching hospital.

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Former Dean Tosteson honored by Munich medical school

Dr. Daniel Tosteson is handed an honorary doctorate by Dr. Klaus Perter, dean of the faculty of medicine at LMU.

Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany, honored Dr. Daniel Tosteson, former dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard and the Caroline Shields Walker distinguished professor of cell biology, with an honorary doctorate for his outstanding contributions to medical education and commitment to the partnership between LMU and Harvard Medical School. Only a handful of people have received this honor. Tosteson received the doctorate during the opening ceremony of LMU’s Institute for Improvement in Health Education, where he gave a talk entitled “Planetary Medicine.”

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