Caribbean medical school to host program modeled on Harvard Macy Institute

The St. Matthew’s University School of Medicine in Grand Cayman will be the site of the latest professional development program modeled after the programs of the Harvard Macy Institute. The Program for Educators in the Health Sciences, which will be held December 10-15, has been designed to address the specific challenges facing faculty teaching in the Caribbean region. Elizabeth G. Armstrong, PhD, director of education programs for HMI, and Karen V. Mann, PhD, professor and director of the Division of Medical Education at Dalhousie University (Canada), will co-direct the course.

A select group of 40 health care educators will participate in a variety of exercises aimed at developing the knowledge base and skills to enhance their expertise as classroom educators. Despite years of experience in health science education, many faculty in the region have never received formal training in adult education methodologies. The university’s leadership see this program as an important step in the professional development of its faculty and academic programs, and an opportunity to stimulate education reform throughout the region.

Gordon Green: Macy Institute alumnus says program will help lead to “great strides in the development of innovative programs and teaching methodologies and further our credibility in the international medical education.

“ We all share the goal of advancing our educational programs and competing on the same playing field as programs in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom,” said Gordon J. Green, MD, executive dean and chief academic officer of SMU. “A Caribbean-based HMI program will help us to make great strides in the development of innovative programs and teaching methodologies and further our credibility in the international medical education arena.”

Green, a Harvard Macy program alumnus and faculty member, added that like the programs on which the course is modeled, the six-day program will include a range of learning formats, including large-group presentations, interactive exercises, practice teaching exercises with videotaping, observations, reflective use of journals, and individual and small group consultations. Prior to program, each participant will design an educational project of benefit to their institution which they will develop more fully during the program. The participant’s project will be the element that connects them to program concepts and themes.

According to Armstrong, the course will address four key educational objectives: help participants improve their teaching skills, introduce them to techniques for measuring education outcomes, develop strategies for project development, and help the faculty develop new perspectives on working in and with teams. “The course format is designed to help further each participant’s institutional project by providing a laboratory environment where individuals with common interests can contribute to each other’s efforts,” she said. “As with each of our programs, the broad objective is to help a group of individuals to inspire institutional change.”

The demand for its programs has led the Harvard Macy Institute to design customized courses for academic leaders and medical educators in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and Australia.

The deadline to apply to be part of this program is Friday, September 30. Notification of successful application will be sent in late October 2005. For more information, visit the program website.

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