Neurobiology:
Study Sees Brain in Process of Seeing

Cell Biology:
Finding NEMO: Latest Crohn’s Disease Clue

Public Health:
Prevention May Double the Effectiveness of Global HIV/AIDS Treatment

Genetics:
Do-It-Yourself DNA Poised to Remake Molecular Biology

Inflammation’s Other Face: Repairing Injury to the Brain

RNA–Protein Binding Makes Pathogen Irresistible

Down Syndrome Diagnosis Need Not Be Negative Experience for Mothers

Proceedings of the Harvard Medical School Faculty Council

Cambridge Health Alliance Gains HMS Affiliation

Fineberg Professorship Established to Advance Practice of Public Health

New Faculty Appointments to Full and Named Professorships

Connelly Named Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs

News Brief

Ed Reform at a Critical, Malleable Phase

Front Page

Ed Reform at a Critical, Malleable Phase

Medical Education Reform at HMS is at a critical juncture with the input from faculty and students over the next few months being key to the evolution of our medical school curriculum to significantly improve on the strengths of our current system while addressing its imperfections. Since the reform effort began three years ago, a series of committees, task forces, and working groups have issued a number of thoughtful reports. These reports provide a basis for discussion during this next phase and are intended to be implemented until extensive further input from faculty, staff, and students. No aspect of our reform effort is a fait accompli at this point and your input is welcomed and strongly encouraged.

HMS dean Joseph Martin says that education reform is now his highest priority and will be for the foreseeable future. (Photo by Graham Ramsay)

Education reform is now my highest priority and will be for the foreseeable future. As I have informed most of you through e-mail, I have assumed interim leadership of the Program in Medical Education while a search is under way for a new dean for medical education. Raphael Dolin, dean for academic and clinical programs, is chairing the search committee, which comprises the faculty deans who serve on the Council of Academic Deans (CAD). Other members include selected faculty and students. I encourage you to forward names of potential candidates directly to him. Supporting me in my reform leadership efforts are Jules Dienstag, associate dean for academic programs and medical education, and George Thibault, director of the Academy at HMS.

“No aspect of our reform effort is a fait accompli at this point, and your input is welcomed and strongly encouraged.”

Five design groups are being formed to explore the feasibility and appropriateness of the curriculum ideas generated so far. The design groups and their chairs are 1) Introduction to the Profession (Kate Treadway and Phil Leder); Fundamentals of Medicine (Peter Howley and Barbara McNeil); Principal Clinical Experience (Ed Benz and Steve Calderwood); Advanced Clinical and Science Experiences (Bob Dluhy and Joan Miller); and In-Depth Educational Experiences (David Golan and a cochair to be named). I invite you to suggest members from the HMS community to participate in these design groups. The design committees will meet at least once prior to the March retreat of all HMS chairs of basic science and clinical departments. Each design group will prepare position papers to inform the chairs’ deliberations.

Several additional meetings are being planned over the next couple of months. I will be meeting with the executive committees of each of the clinical departments, the preclinical department chairs, the basic science course directors, the full complement of preclinical course directors, including those from the Health Sciences and Technology Division, and the core clinical clerkship directors.

In parallel, I have scheduled meetings with hospital CEOs, selected trustees, the Development Office, and President Summers to work on bolstering the financing of medical education at HMS. One of the original MER working groups, chaired by Robert Moellering, has spent the past few months looking at this issue and has recently submitted its report to me. Initial goals for increased financing of medical education are being finalized now. I encourage you to read my next e-mails to learn where we are headed in this critical aspect of education reform.

If you have not already had a chance to read the December MER summary, “The Status of Medical Education Reform at HMS,” I urge you to download the report and to send your thoughts and suggestions to me via e-mail.

Many of you have already sent your thoughts and suggestions, and I will be taking those to various meetings of the design groups. I hope this level of enthusiastic engagement of the faculty and students will continue, and I look forward to expanding the dialogue.

—Joseph B. Martin
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine