Harvard Macy Institute website will keep the community of scholars connected

Since its inception in 1994, the Harvard Macy Institute has been an important link between the vast resources of Harvard University and the rest of the world. The Institute’s annual programs have helped to foster a community of physician-scholars and institutional leaders devoted to effecting positive change in their respective medical education communities. Now, this growing community of Harvard Macy alumni and educators will have a new virtual home on a website launched by the Institute.

The Harvard Macy Institute is currently putting the finishing touches on a new website at www.harvardmacy.org. The site’s creation is in response to an overwhelming desire on the part of the Harvard Macy alumni to extend their relationships with the Institute beyond the narrow timeframe of the programs. To date, many participants in the Physician-Educators and Leaders programs have returned as instructors, and the website will provide the resources, interactivity, and connectivity to enable alumni and prospective Harvard Macy scholars to access the growing knowledge base that is a natural outgrowth of each program. Alumni visitors to the site will be able to find information, through a searchable database, on past alumni projects, as well as post updates regarding their own.

The new website will enable collaborations, like this one from the recent Program for Leaders in Medical Education, to continue beyond the duration of the Harvard Macy Institute programs. (Photo by Liza Green, Copyright 2003, President and Fellows of Harvard College on behalf of HMS Media Services.)

“People have been wanting a website like this,” said Teresa Cushing, program manager for the Harvard Macy Institute. “Many of our alumni have communicated the desire to maintain the community aspect.” Cushing also notes that the site’s self-serviceability will allow program applicants to apply online, view biographical sketches of other scholars, and help themselves to a buffet of online resources. “There will be a lot of data imported from our current database, but users of the site will be expected to contribute project information and updates,” she said.

Dr. David Salter, of the George Washington University Department of Surgery, is among the Harvard Macy alumni who feel strongly about the benefits of a thriving online community of scholars. As co-author of a paper entitled “Creating Virtual Workplaces to Share and Solve Problems with Distant Colleagues,” he builds a case for such communities and the collaboration that takes place therein: “Academic medical communities often harbor islands of bright, committed but disconnected scholars who work independently, like small poorly nurtured bacterial colonies on an agar plate.” He goes on to say that the academic community “should be thought of as an ecology rather than a bureaucracy,” and that connections like those fostered by the Harvard Macy Institute intranet help to “melt barriers of departments or divisions and intermingle generations that are critical elements in the ultimate success and sustenance of an academic community.”

The functionality of the Harvard Macy Institute website will be enhanced as necessary, but in its launch form there is already much to offer, including a discussion board where scholars can exchange ideas and tackle issues of shared concern, a survey function, downloadable video, and a calendar of events—in addition to a database searchable by country, project, scholar, and year. Harvard Macy alumni will be issued passwords enabling them to view this material, while all visitors will have access to general information about the Institute’s programs and be able to apply online.

It is important to view the new website not only as a convenient way to exchange information and connect like-minded professionals, but also as another web-enabled step in the progress of continuing medical education (CME). While the Harvard Macy Institute will continue to bring together scholars for face-to-face learning opportunities, the website provides the potential for lifelong learning, as fellow scholars continue to interact and become colleagues connected by the Web, their collaborative efforts unhindered by geography.

The scholarly article cited in this story, entitled “Creating Virtual Workplaces to Share and Solve Problems with Distant Colleagues,” has been accepted for inclusion in the Fall 2003 issue of FOCUS, a publication of the Association of Surgical Education. Dr. Salter’s co-authors are Carolyn G. Stone, VCU School of Medicine, MCV campus, Richmond, Virginia, USA; and Kieran J. McGlade, Queen ’s University, Belfast, Ireland.