GORDON CENTER

The publication ofa multi-center studyon teaching withHarvey ® establishesits effectiveness.Installing a Harvey ® ateach Group member’sinstitution provided Dr.Gordon with access to agreater number of medicalstudents in cardiologyelectives for a series ofpublished multi-centerstudies. An initial articlein 1974 was followed in1980, also in the AmericanJournal of Cardiology. Thedata showed an averagegain in student bedsideskills of 32%, with as littleas one hour of study perdisease. Further studiesinvolving hundreds ofpractitioners of varyingskills levels showed93% giving Harvey ® anexcellent rating and allwishing to be taught withthe device in the future. Aseminal study funded bythe NIH and independentlyevaluated was publishedin September 1987 in theAAMC Journal of MedicalEducation. The resultsclearly demonstratedthat students taughtwith Harvey ® not onlymastered lessons betterthan conventionallytrained peers but thatthe knowledge and skillsthey gained effectivelytranslated to theirdiagnosis and interactionwith live patients.The Harvey ® Group wasa collaboration of expertsformed in the 1970s from eight medicalcenters throughout the United States.Dr. Gordon invited a select few academic cardiologists and a Ph.D. educator to join withhim in developing an NIH model for medical education using Harvey ® . He sought thebest, asking for referrals from leading educators at well-respected institutions. In additionto Dr. Gordon and colleagues Barry Materson, M.D. and Joan Mayer, M.D. at theUniversity of Miami, the original group included faculty from the Universities of Arizona,Florida, Illinois, and Nebraska, Duke and Emory Universities, and from the Mayo Clinic.To this day, many of the same colleagues are part of what is now the M.I.A.M.I. Group(Miami International Alliance for Medical-education Innovation). They meet semi-annuallyto ensure all programs developed at the center satisfy stringent standards of educationalexcellence and that they are beneficial for use by a variety of institutions.International outreach adds worldrenownedexperts in outcomesmeasurement to M.I.A.M.I. Group.Dr. Gordon met Dr. Ian Hart when he wasengaged by the University of Miami to evaluateits new medical student curriculum. His fortuitousintroduction to the founder of the CanadianAssociation of Medical Education led to his meetingDr. Hart’s close colleague and co-founder of theOttawa Conference for Medical Education, Dr.Ronald Harden, who also pioneered the ObjectiveStructured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Dr. Gordonimmediately recognized their impact when heinvited them to be part of the M.I.A.M.I. Group’sEvaluation and Assessment team.Expansion of the M.I.A.M.I.Group facilitated an increasein programs and a broadeningof target audiences.Over the years, Dr. Gordon addedto the consortium to recruit a morediverse body, adding emergencymedicine physicians, neurologists,nurses, and physician assistants. Hisvast network of esteemed colleagueshelped identify aspiring and dedicatedacademicians to consider.Nurses had learned withHarvey ® for years, but withthe profession’s expandinghealthcare role, the timewas right to tailor a Harvey ®curriculum specific to their needs.Dr. Gordon recognized early on that his educationalprograms would benefit nursing professionals, enlistingbenefactor Joan K. Stout, R.N., to establish a NursesTraining Program in her name. With the additionof nurses recognized as international leaders insimulation education, the M.I.A.M.I. Group was ableto customize the Harvey ® curriculum to reflect the waynurses approach the bedside exam. Two multi-centerstudies showed the new curriculum led to significantimprovements in bedside skills for advanced practicenurses (2009) and undergraduatenursing students (2010).Experience teachingphysician assistantstudents led to anational multi-centerstudy.About the time the worldwas preoccupied withY2K, Dr. Gordon showed again he was ahead of the curve,opening the 4-week Harvey ® elective to the Miami DadeCollege Physician Assistant (PA) program. A decade ofsuccess encouraged him to establish a sub-group of PAeducators to create a curriculum specifically geared to theirlearners. He asked faculty member Ross Scalese, M.D., tooversee the ensuing four-center study that confirmed itseffectiveness and was presented at the 2011 PA EducationAssociation forum and the International Meeting onSimulation in Healthcare held in January 2012.4 The Gordon CenTer for researCh in MediCal eduCaTion Visionary • Innovator • Educator 5