BWH's Endocrine Division recently introduced a new educational tool for second-year students at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
According to Graham McMahon, MD, a fellow in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, students often find the transition from the tutorial room to patient care challenging. "We wanted to create a patient-centered environment that would stimulate the students to do their own learning," said McMahon, who explains that helping students develop more effective communication skills is critical.
The program was developed with Robert Dluhy, MD, a senior clinician from the division. Each final DVD product contains a patient interview, with x-rays and laboratory data for the students to learn from. Tutor guides, review questions and selected reading materials complement these "visual" cases that run three times a week for the duration of the course. The interviewees also meet with the students at the end of each week.
McMahon, a recent graduate from Harvard's Macy Program for Physician Educators, is evaluating the impact of this new approach on student learning, recognizing the potential for generalizing this model of teaching to other courses at the medical school.