Department of Medicine - Surgery - University of Minnesota

L. James Nixon, M.D.Medicine Clerkship DirectorPeter Duane, M.D.Interim Residency Program DirectorKelly Frisch, M.D.Associate ResidencyProgram DirectorHeather Thompson, M.D.Associate ResidencyProgram DirectorDepartment of Medicine Educationhours on student perceptionof resident teachingwas nominated for the bestresearch paper at the 2005Clerkship Directors of InternalMedicine (CDIM) meeting.In addition, he proposed andnow heads a national effort ofthe CDIM affiliates to developinteractive web-based casesto support medicine clerkshipcurriculum.Karyn Baum, M.D. is directorof the year two Physician andSociety Course, the contentof which centers around acommunity service projectdesigned to engage medicalstudents with regional organizationsfor improvement ofcare, especially those involvedin addressing health caredisparities. Her strong effortsin building a curriculumemphasizing interdisciplinaryteamwork are also reflected inher advisorship for CLARION,described below.Graduate medical educationcontinues to be the core ofthe department’s educationalactivity. Peter Duane, M.D.,Associate Program Directorfor the past eight years, hasserved as Interim ProgramDirector during our nationalsearch for a program director.Dr. Duane has been aremarkable leader and anoutstanding supporter andadvocate for residents, as wellas a superb recruiter. Peter isalso leading the task force tomake recommendations forthe structure to combine theUMMC and ANW residencyprograms. Kelly Frisch, M.D.and Heather Thompson, M.D.have been very involved inthese plans as well. Dr. Frischalso heads the curriculum andplanning for improvementsin resident ambulatory careeducation. Dr. Thompsonleads the Resident EducatorDevelopment (RED) programand, has generalized this curriculumto include trainees inother departments, and hasdelivered a faculty developmentworkshop at the Duluthcampus during the past year.Brad Benson, M.D., Medicine-Pediatrics Program Director,has done an outstanding jobbuilding the excellence andculture of Med-Peds. He is awonderful innovator and hasled the way for use of electronicportfolios for reflectionand evaluation of competencein Med-Peds residents. DavidLeach, M.D, director of theACGME (who accredit residencies),recently visited anddelivered Medicine GrandRounds. His topic was theuse of portfolios. He was veryimpressed with Dr. Benson’scutting-edge use of portfoliosin the Med-Peds Residencyand the ACGME ManagementGroup has invited Dr. Bensonto work with them in developingportfolios for national usein residency education. Thisyear, Dr. Benson founded theMinnesota Association ofMed-Peds, which held its firstmeeting in conjunction withthe Minnesota ACP meeting.Dr. Benson serves as secretary-treasurerof the nationalMed-Peds Program DirectorsAssociation and is in a fouryearterm on the executivecommittee of MPPDA.Drs. Watson and Baum (alongwith Powell) have continuedto be active in the Institutefor Healthcare Improvement(IHI). The University of Minnesotahosted the national meetingin 2004, a meeting whichresulted in a number of activities.Drs. Benson and Nixonwere invited to a number ofmeetings to present, “How toTeach Practice-Based Learningand Improvement,” and,in fact, they presented themost highly ranked workshopat AAIM this year. The interdisciplinarygroup, CLARION,presented their case analysiscompetition model in whichstudent groups suggest solutionsto patient care problems/errors.In April of thisyear, the University of Minnesota(with Dr. Baum as anadvisor to the group) hosteda national case competitionamong interdisciplinary studentgroups from seven medicalschools.