med ed
A newsletter for faculty, staff, and students of the University of Minnesota Medical School

No. 381, June 2005

Editor: Kathleen Watson, M.D., drwatson@umn.edu

Editorial Assistant: Allison Campbell, aac@umn.edu

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SNMA National Leadership Institute convenes here

The University of Minnesota Medical School and Mayo Medical School host the Student National Medical Association Board of Directors' third annual National Leadership Institute, June 17-19, 2005, in Minneapolis. The leadership institute trains selected members of the Student National Medical Association, participants from its current board of directors, regional leadership, chapter members, and selected pre-med students. The SNMA chapter at the University of Minnesota Medical School, says Director of Minority Affairs and Diversity Mary Tate, is "particularly active and is gaining national recognition for their work to give underrepresented minorities the opportunity to pursue their passions in medicine, and to provide a forum that addresses health care disparities in our local communities." The NLI was established to develop leadership skills for future physicians, to educate participants about the mission, vision, and functions of the SNMA, and to allow participants to attend an SNMA Board of Directors meeting. This is the first time pre-med students will observe the workings of an organization that is committed to increasing socially conscious physicians equipped for the 21^st century medicine. For more information, visit the SNMA Web site at http://www.snma.org.

MED 2010: Web site resources

Dean Deborah Powell, M.D., led the AAMC working group on Student Educational Costs and Debt, which published its report this spring. It's the latest posting to the MED 2010 Web site, http://www.med.umn.edu/education/curriculum/, your resource for innovative ideas, seminal analyses, and in-depth reports about medical education.

MEDS participants work globally

Nearly half, or 40 percent, of the first year students at the University of Minnesota Medical School-Duluth campus will participate in our summer international service and education program, Medical Education through Diversity and Service (MEDS). This is the fourth year that MEDS students will participate in international and domestic programs they design. The programs provide an opportunity for service education and international or multicultural medical educational experiences. The students travel between their first and second years of medical school. This summer, medical students from Duluth will be in Cameroon, Peru, Egypt, Argentina, Honduras, Guam, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, as well as sites in Alaska. The MEDS student officers are President Dan Hoody, Vice President Claire Lewondowski, Secretary Libby Wagner, and Treasurer Stephanie Fritch. The faculty advisor is Glenn Nordehn, D.O., from the Duluth Department of Family Medicine.

Weissmann: Human dimensions of care

"The relationship between doctor and patient is the primary unit of health care," says Peter Weissmann, M.D. "If we can't communicate well with our patients, it doesn't matter how good a diagnostician we are." Weissmann, who practices at Hennepin County Medical Center, also is a faculty member leading a Medical School faculty development task force on teaching human dimensions of care. Working with peers from five other medical schools, Weissmann strives to transcend the usual definitions of teaching professionalism, to enhance faculty skills so that they can better teach their medical students and residents. "To me, the most important thing is overtly conveying a sense of respect and appreciating the uniqueness and humanity of the people we take care of, as opposed to treating them in mechanistic fashion," he says, "[like] their machines are broken and we'll replace your broken screw." While our medical school and others do a good job of teaching these attitudes in years one and two, he says, students on the wards in years three and four may see negative role models that arise from fatigue or pressure for efficiency. In the long run, he'd like to see students learn from faculty about the pain and suffering that someone is going through as a human being in addition to learning about the biomedical aspects of a particular disease. Weissmann belongs to the American Academy on the Physician and Patient, which highlights these concerns on its Web site (www.physicianpatient.org).

Faculty promoted

Please join me in recognizing faculty within the Medical School who have been promoted from associate professor to professor. On the Duluth campus, James G. Boulger, Department of Behavioral Sciences, was promoted to professor.

On the Twin Cities campus, those promoted to professor are:

James R. Carey, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation;

Scott Crow, Department of Psychiatry;

Carl Elliott, Department of Pediatrics;

Christopher Honda, Department of Neuroscience;

Ronald Jemmerson, Department of Microbiology;

Robert F. LaPrade, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery;

Linda K. McLoon, Department of Ophthalmology;

George Realmuto, Department of Psychiatry;

Julie A. Ross, Department of Pediatrics;

Leslie A. Schiff, Department of Microbiology;

J. Thomas Vaughan, Department of Radiology;

Manoj Monga, Department of Urologic Surgery;

Gregory A. Filice, Department of Medicine;

Conrad Iber, Department of Medicine;

Douglas B. Nelson, Department of Medicine;

Matthew D. Putnam, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery;

Jeffrey B. Rubins, Department of Medicine; and,

Samuel B. Ho, Department of Medicine.

Congratulations to all!

Residents: Register and see R.E.D. (Resident Educator Development)

Teaching professionalism (June 17) and team leadership (July 15) are upcoming topics during the monthly Resident Educator Development (R.E.D.) training sessions. R.E.D. sessions are scheduled for the third Friday of the month from 7 to 8 a.m. in B-646 Mayo. Breakfast is provided and parking is validated. All residents who are involved in teaching are strongly encouraged to participate. To find out more, and to register, click on www.meded.umn.edu/red/ .

Minnesota applicants increased in 2005

The number of Minnesota applicants to the Medical School's Twin Cities and Duluth campuses increased from the previous year. The Twin Cities Admissions Committee received 6.7 percent more in-state applications and the Duluth Admissions Committee received 6 percent more in-state applications. Minnesota residents make up 95 percent of the incoming class at Duluth and represent 31 counties in Minnesota.

Online evaluations coming

Beginning this fall, all medical school course evaluations will be conducted online. While the system for evaluating clinical courses have been on-line for a couple of years, the basic science courses continued to be evaluated with paper-and-pencil surveys. This year, we successfully piloted an online system for the pre-clinical courses, and all year one and two courses will use the online system this fall. The new system will help to get the data more quickly into the hands of those who need it for improving courses and curriculum.

Above average...

Recent results from the USMLE Step 1 indicate that our Twin Cities campus medical students performed just a bit better than the national average. Of those taking it for the first time in 2004, 95 percent of our medical students passed; across the United States and Canada, 92 percent passed. For those repeating the exam in 2004, 86 percent of our medical students passed, compared with 69 percent from North America collectively.

Contest on preventive medicine

The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) is offering an award for the best paper on preventive medicine written by a medical student. The winning paper will be published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The author will receive a $1,000 prize and will be honored at the ACPM's annual meeting. All prevention-related topics will be considered. Submissions must be received by Sept. 20. For more information, contact Erica Frank, M.D., M.P.H., Emory University School of Medicine, efrank@emory.edu .

Duluth Golf Classic July 20

The Duluth Golf Classic 2005 is scheduled for Wednesday, July 20, at the Black Bear Golf Course in Carlton. This event benefits the Medical Student Scholarship & Research Fund. Six $1,000 scholarships were awarded to students this year and the Golf Classic Committee hopes to increase the scholarships to $1,500 each for 2006.  The 4-person scramble will tee off in a shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. Following the event, there will be a dinner and a short program. The $100 entry fee ($38 of which is tax-deductible) includes green fees, cart with GPS, use of the driving range and putting green, dinner, and prizes. Only the first 100 registrants will be accommodated. For more information, please contact Vicki Everett at 218-726-7673 or veverett@d.umn.edu.

Amnesty International grant winner

Medical student Stephanie Smith has received a 2005 Amnesty International Human Rights grant for student activists to complete a human rights project abroad. She will be going to Cape Town, South Africa, this fall to work with EQUINET, the Regional Network on Equity in Southern Africa, on a human rights and health equity project in collaboration with the University of Cape Town.

Literary inspiration

The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.