The 2010 award recognizes the significant changes in content and direction the School of Medicine instituted to turn an ineffective program into one that has significant impact on medical students’ academic careers.
ICM was created in 1994 as the Introduction to Medical Practice (later called the Clinical Practice Sciences) and experienced frequent changes in leadership, inconsistent approaches to educational design and failure to achieve meaningful educational goals for preclinical medical students. Student complaints were significant.
In recent years, the School of Medicine has worked to improve its curriculum, collaborative teaching, consistent course processes and policies and student-centered teaching. These efforts not only have dramatically improved students’ reception of ICM, but also its impact and effectiveness.
ICM prepares medical students for their clinical work in the latter two years of medical school. The course addresses such topics relevant to early medical training as patient history, physical examination, ethics, nutrition, biostatistics, health behavior counseling, evidence-based medicine and humanism.
Beyond clinical skills, however, it teaches lifelong learning skills and attitudes appropriate for physicians in training.
Coursework spans all four semesters of the first two years of medical school. The total 18 credit hours is 22 percent of the total two-year preclinical course load and about an eighth of the entire medical school MD curriculum.
Introduction to Clinical Medicine includes faculty and staff from eight departments:
Family & geriatric medicine: Jonathan Becker, Victoria Dahill, David Doukas, Scott Heflin, Charles Kodner, Lana Metzler, James O’Brien, Michael Ostapchuk, Donna Roberts, Paul Simmons, Jessica Stumbo, Chad Vaugh; medicine: Phillip Bressoud, Amy Holthouser, Elearnor Lederer, Stephen McClave, Stuart Urbach; Office of Medical Education: Carrie Bohnert, Mary Carter, Ruth Greenberg, Wendy Martin; pediatrics: Pradip Patel, Charles Woods; philosophy: Stephen Hanson; physiology: David Wiegman; psychiatry: Brian Briscoe; and surgery: Toni Ganzel.
UofL established the Paul Weber Award for Department Excellence in Teaching in 2005 in memory of the late Paul Weber, a distinguished teacher, scholar and mentor at UofL. The award honors Weber’s commitment to teaching excellence and is intended to foster and sustain UofL’s culture of teaching excellence. The awad is administered by the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning.
The Celebration of Faculty Excellence took place Oct. 13 at the Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Brown & Williamson Club. Administration honored:
- the President’s Distinguished Faculty Awards for outstanding service; teaching; and scholarship, research and creative activity
the President’s Exemplary Multicultural Teaching Award
newly endowed chairs and professors
the Paul Weber Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award
university scholars and distinguished university scholars
creative work resulting in new patents and licenses
UofL Today featured recipients of the President’s Distinguished Faculty Awards and the President’s Exemplary Multicultural Teaching Award on Oct. 19, newly endowed chairs and professors on Oct. 20 and new university and distinguished university scholars on Oct. 21. Monday we will feature new holders of patents, licenses and options.
(Editor’s Note: The Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning will have an information session Thursday, Nov. 18, noon-2 p.m., in Room 244, Ekstrom Library, for departmental representatives who want to learn more about how to assemble a competitive Weber award application. Application deadline for the 2011 awards is Jan. 24.)