1. R. Steigbigel (Director of Basic Science Director's Subcommittee)- at the April 15 meeting the students presented an AIMS program. Moshe Eisenberg announced that Pharmacology is going to be interdigitated into the 2nd year Systems Course starting with the 2004-2005 school year. Roger Cameron announced that he was stepping down, as chairman of the Basic Science Course Director's Subcommittee and Dr. Roy Steigbigel will be replacing him. Dr. Steigbigel is concerned which committee is reviewing which courses: Curriculum Committee vs. Didactic Course Director's meetings. Maybe this issue can be placed on the June agenda for the Curriculum Committee meeting. The new course director's handbook is available, but they are still waiting for the new faculty handbook.
2. J. Sorrento (Director of Clinical Courses Director's Subcommittee)- the subcommittee will devise a standardized evaluation that all course directors will be using to grade the medical students. Further development of this form will continue at the May 5th meeting. Moshe Eisenberg will be entering the completed evaluation form on Cbase once the committee finalizes it.
3. A. Jaffe (Evaluation)-nothing to report.
4. R. Barraco (Teaching/Learning Strategies)- An assessment to all faculties have been sent out to develop a program in teaching. To ensure the most complete capture of responses, Dr. Barraco would like to address the staff for a few moments during the month of May at Grand Rounds and Faculty Staff meeting. He expects to have the summarized results by the summer of 2003.
5. P. Viccellio (IT)- Meets monthly (or as needed) to discuss requests for software and hardware equipment acquisitions that would benefit the academic mission of the SOM. Recently this committee approved the renewal of the 5-year license agreement for Clinical Pharmacology On-Line and Clinical Pharmacology On-Hand from Gold Standard Multimedia. Currently the committee is considering the implementation of an effective process of communication within the SOM for the purposes of keeping all informed on what software, applications, and other IT related facilities already exist and are available to the SOM community at large.

1. Course Evaluation of Medical Physiology (R. Cameron, Director)-Richard Bronson, Michael Hayman- This is a first year course. Dr. Cameron is the course director and receives uniform praise from the students as he did when the course was reviewed in September of 1999. At that time, he was the director for two years. Medical Physiology gives the students a basic understanding of the normal function and structure of the human organs. There are over 80 lectures presented by 14 lecturers & the objectives of each lecture are clearly explained by a written summary provided to the students.
• The course receives the highest evaluations by the students. This information was provided to the LCME committee and is evident by the course evaluations.
• Dr. Cameron consistently receives outstanding recommendations, but some of the other lecturers continue to have lower scores.
• The most significant identifiable problem with the course was the disparity in teaching quality of the faculty. In the past two years, it is clear that this is no longer a major problem for the course.
• There was a need to improve the "workshops". The workshops consist of five small group sessions, one for each major organ system, which have a concentration on a clinical problem. This seems to have strengthened the course.
• The clarity of exam questions and the grading seems to have improved in the past two years.
• Dr. Cameron would like to expand the format and include more clinicians. Time constraint has made this difficult in the past.
• He is working on a CD to provide a virtual microscopy section for next year.
• Dr. Cameron has one concern, the lack of continuity from his course into the second year courses. He would like to give an introductory lecture where appropriate to provide continuity for the students.
• More money is needed for adjunct professors. The faculty are paid 100% state salary, but they only receive 88% of it, so the faculty must do research to make up the 12% of the salary.

2. Course Evaluation of Sub I: General Surgery (L. Merriam, Director)-Anita Belman, Jorge Benach- This is a fourth year one-month experience in the management of surgical patients. It is offered at Stony Brook Hospital and Winthrop University Hospital with a maximum of 2 students per month per Sub I rotation available on a monthly basis. Most students seem to take it at the beginning of their fourth year. A general surgery Sub I is given at Winthrop verses the choices of: general surgery Sub I, SICU, Sub I, or trauma Sub I are all offered at Stony Brook. Dr. Merriam, the course director, meets with the students on the first day of the rotation & provides them with an introduction to the Sub I reviewing the objectives of the Sub I, the monthly schedule, & the student's responsibilities. Dr. Vithiananthan serves as the site director for Winthrop. Dr. Barraco is the preceptor/director of the trauma Sub I and SICU Sub I, and Dr. Merriam is the preceptor/director for the general surgery Sub I.

Summary & Changes:

• There have been positive changes since Dr. Merriam has taken over as course director of Sub I: General Surgery.
• The Cbase evaluations are high mean level scores.
• The students are very enthusiastic about the course.
• More students take this course before taking Step II.
• Many students feel the surgery instructors do an excellent job in providing meaningful teaching experiences.
• Dr. Merriam has the students do write-ups on the patients. He reviews them right away & evaluates them. He gives his feedback to the students in the reviews.
• Positive comments vastly outnumbered those that could be considered negative. One student commented that there were no formal lectures at Winthrop & another felt that more didactic teachers were needed.
• The course description & objectives have been revised & updated.
• The students clearly know their responsibilities.
• Frequently, the director/preceptors have direct contact with the students.
• The Conet system allows the students to comment. The Curriculum Committee is revising the Conet evaluation forms for the students & faculty to be used by all of the clinical rotations.
• There is limited outpatient exposure, but that is obtained in the 3rd year surgical clerkship rotation.
• The surgical Sub-internship is extremely useful for students who are going on to a residency in general surgery or a surgical subspecialty.

 

Improvements:
• It might be helpful to give the students a copy of the faculty evaluation form on the first day of the rotation.
• There should be uniformity between Stony Brook & Winthrop in response to meetings with the director/preceptor, stating student responsibilities on patient notes, write-ups & presentations on rounds.
• There was a question; are there more students interested in taking this rotation in the first few months, than there are openings? Would Northport VA be an acceptable site?
3. Course Evaluation of Introduction to Human Behavior (IHB) (E. Feldman & J. Sparfkin, Directors)-Sidonie Morrison, Sami Said- This didactic course was changed in 2002 from the second half of the first year to the first half of the first year. The course was condensed to 30 hours for 4-weeks from 6½-7 weeks. The course is topic-driven, with 14 faculty from 2 principal departments (Family Medicine, Psychiatry) & 4 others (Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, & Psychology). The course content covers materials familiar to the few psychology majors, but the large majority of the students have little or no familiarity with it. There was a decrease from 4 to 3 hours of small group sessions. The last session for 2002 consisted of interviewing a "stimulated" adolescent, an actor from the Dept. of Theatre Arts, playing a prepared role. The rest of the course is mostly lecture-based, with the intention to introduce "clinical relevance" into as many sessions as possible. There is one multiple-choice final exam & one mid-term, which comprises 1/3 of the course grade. The Mid-term exposes the students to Board-style questions, which the students are unaccustomed to. The mid-term & the final scores are mean & median scores. There are rarely failing grades, one or two a year.

Strengths of the course:

• The students are satisfied as a whole with the course as reflected in the Cbase questionnaire through 2002.
• Course directors are dedicated and accessible. They are humorous, calm, relaxed and very well liked.
• The teaching faculty and the adjunct faculty from outside have a positive impression.
• The course is consistently well organized; for example: course plans, course policies, and quality of teaching.
• The "Yellow Book" covers some material less densely than the textbook.
• The course objectives are clearly stated.
• There are annual evaluations & orientations of all of the faculty teaching in the course.
• They have TA's.
• There is one session of 8 actors as "simulated" patients with a primary care physician as facilitator, and a lecture with a "real" patient.

Changes:

• The author of the textbook is deceased, so consideration in changing the book to a new and less wordy textbook is being considered.
• Some students are still concerned with the relevance of the material in the course and their future practice.
• IHB would like to display web-based materials, but needs assistance from the IT Dept.
• The class attendance was low as of the last course review. To help with this matter, credit of 8% for attendance was voted in by the students to reward them for participation. Attendance now exceeds 90% even at exercises for which there is no grade given.
• One recommendation to eliminate heavy emphasis on reading & lectures would be to have interactive exercises on-line. This is not possible without the help of the IT Dept.
• Videotaping was suggested to improve uniformity for the less experienced teachers.
• Students should be aware that IHB has several purposes in their medical school agenda. It is not only a preview for psychopathology, but it also trains students how to approach & interview people empathetically.

ACTION: Dr. Cameron's commitment and leadership to his course of Medical Physiology shows within the student comments.

ACTION: Dr. Merriam is an excellent course director. The faculty is committed and enthusiastic. The ratio of students to faculty & housestaff strengthen the rotation.

ACTION: Drs. Feldman & Sprafkin are very dedicated course directors. They would like to move the IHB back to its original time, second half of the first year, and lengthen the course time. There is too much reading to comprise into the new time period. In addition, the transition for the medical students from college to medical school is a big adjustment for many of them. Many of the colleges do not require Psychiatry in their curriculum; this makes the course harder for the medical students without psychiatry exposure.

New Electives:

1. OB/GYN Ultrasonography: as of April 30, 2003, Course Director: J. Gerald Quirk, MD. The maximum # of students is one, for this two week elective. The Pre-requisties: successful completion of the 3rd year of medical school. The general description is: participation in performing and interpreting pelvic sonographic exams in pregnant women and women with gynecologic disease. The students will earn a final grade of Fail/Pass/Honors based on three items as described in the attachment of the elective. This is a highly specialized elective. Marilyn London stated that there are a few students that have already taken this elective. If the complete elective description is placed on the web, the students will only need an add/drop form instead of the elective approval form to sign up for the elective.
2. Neurosurgery: This new elective would allow students to have a regular elective program in Neurosurgery. The main approach will be clinical. The rotation should be at least two-weeks accommodating one student at a time, including attending rounds every morning with one of the attendings. After completing the morning rounds, the student would be expected to scrub in on any operation in progress. The two-week elective would expose the student to a broad range of neurosurgical patients and procedures and improve their understanding of Neurosurgery and neurology. The students will be graded on personal observation with Fail/Pass/Honors based on the four points mentions in the attachment of the elective.

ACTION:The committee would like to invite Patricia Coyle to a Curriculum Committee meeting to discuss the new selection of the course director. This is no reflection on Dr. Vaillancourt.

ACTION: the Curriculum Committee has approved the elective.

ACTION: The elective has been approved. An addendum to have the course re-worded to include the objectives and goals of the elective.