In the year since the AMA announced the participants in its unprecedented initiative to transform medical education and create new ways to train future physicians, there has been tremendous progress and consensus on new ideas.
Since the initial announcement of $11 million to 11 selected schools during the 2013 AMA Annual Meeting (principal investigators pictured left), teams of educators have met face to face three times and are participating in ongoing virtual interest groups to share and disseminate new ideas.
The AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education consortium of schools is initially focusing on learner competencies and methods of teaching and evaluating in new areas, including:
- Systems-based learning. Medical schools are working through barriers to incorporate systems-based learning into curricula, giving students a firm ground in working in physician-led teams and authentic experiences in quality improvement, policy and leadership. For example, students at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University participate in workshops with students from different health professions, working together to create specific care plans and negotiating the roles each person will play in care.
- Diversity, health care disparities and workforce issues. Schools are developing programs to train physicians from diverse backgrounds to meet the needs of underserved communities and address workforce gaps. The University of California Davis School of Medicine implemented a holistic admissions process and also is placing special emphasis on choosing students from economically challenged backgrounds in the hopes that these students will work in underserved communities. The students will complete their studies in primary care in three years.
- Competency-based assessment. New assessment frameworks will allow students who show competence earlier in certain areas to move ahead more quickly or focus more time on other areas in which they need more instruction, moving away from a one-size-fits-all education. Students at the University of California San Francisco and several others will have individualized educational trajectories built against standardized outcomes, allowing students to accelerate through their education while ensuring they meet specific milestones and demonstrate required skills.
- Adaptive, lifelong learning. The field of medicine and the health care system are rapidly changing, and tomorrow’s physicians need to be ready to adapt quickly. Schools like Vanderbilt University School of Medicine are training students to be adaptive learners. These learners will be able to assess their knowledge throughout their careers, take steps to fill knowledge gaps, ask for help when necessary and be flexible.
- New technologies. Schools are recognizing the evolving area of health information technology as a means to advance teaching goals, including the use of electronic portfolios that collect learner experiences and assessments and electronic health records (EHR) that students can use. For instance, Indiana University School of Medicine students will get immediate experience using EHRs populated with patient data, allowing students to discover and test hypotheses regarding care.
The 11 schools will meet again in September at Vanderbilt University, where they’ll evaluate their progress and share even more ways to transform medical education.
