Curriculum Re-Design

Vision and Guiding Principles

In November 2021, the Office of Curricular Affairs began the process of Curriculum Redesign for the MD program.  This process involves educators, staff, and students across the health system.

The anticipated rollout for the curriculum is July 2024.

CURRICULAR CONTENT

  • Create effective integration of the curriculum to promote efficiency in learning and teaching; integrate through all of the phases
  • Incorporate USMLE Step-relevant content as a necessary part of the curricular blueprint
  • Emphasize early and continuous development of clinical reasoning skills throughout the curriculum
  • Prioritize understanding of the diseases and health care issues of greatest concern for our communities
  • Promote experiencing the “whole patient” perspective – patient signs, symptoms, goals, values, lived experiences, and need for functionality, as well as the family caregiver perspective
  • Incorporate new and emerging patient-centered curricular threads 
  • Emphasize health systems science, team-based care and interprofessional education to prepare learners for our complex health care system.
  • Advocate for and meet the health care workforce needs for society in general.
  • Ground training in the underpinnings of social determinants of health and racism/bias
  • Teach foundations and mechanisms of basic and translational science to ensure understanding of the underpinnings of disease

SUPPORT & RESOURCES

  • Enhance individualization of student learning experience
  • Optimize career preparedness
  • Enhance student, faculty, and staff wellbeing and reduce burnout
  • Emphasize greater compassion and empathy for patients, in part through addressing wellness and burnout issues in students.
  • Achieve equity and justice in learning experiences and the learning environment
  • Provide resources for faculty and staff development, faculty and staff support and time 

CURRICULAR FRAMEWORK

  • Minimize extraneous cognitive load through more effective content delivery and integration
  • Provide opportunities for increased flexibility in engaging with curricular content
  • Contextualize biomedical, social, and health systems science through early and continuous clinical experiences  
  • Increase time and opportunity to develop lifelong learning and critical thinking skills 
  • Develop areas of concentrations for exploration of career paths
  • Provide training for faculty and staff for them to effectively perform their roles and functions

LEARNER ASSESSMENT

  • Design for more frequent learner feedback, including mechanisms for students and educators to track learner progression 
  • Provide simulation, standardized patients, and other interactive experiences to better prepare students to actively participate in clinical experiences
  • Utilize competency-based assessment and developmental outcomes at the core of training