MDeltaBrochure_5.3.16

Introducing… The Curriculum

The Undergraduate Medical Education Leadership Team:

Suzanne Rose, MD, MSEd, Senior Associate Dean for Education
David Henderson, MD, Associate Dean for Student, Multicultural and Community Affairs
Christine Thatcher, EdD, Associate Dean for Medical Education and Assessment, Director of LEAP
Melinda Sanders, MD, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education & Teaching Enhancement
Ellen Nestler, MD, Clinical Principal and Director of Clinical Education
John Harrison, PhD, Basic Science Principal and Director of the Human & Virtual Anatomy Labs
Thomas Manger, MD, PhD, Director of Stage One and COrE
Zita Lazzarini, JD, MPH, Director of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Paige Dunion, MSEd, Administrative Manager of Academic Affairs
Ursula Knapik, Academic Affairs Officer

The University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Medicine (SOM) is Woven Curricular Threads
implementing a bold and innovative curriculum reform effort in August The MDelta curriculum will have a number of curricular themes
2016. The current curriculum, in place since the mid 1990’s, was woven throughout the curriculum including radiology, health
cutting edge for its time with courses that were integrated and with a disparities, geriatrics, and nutrition. Each theme will have
longitudinal ambulatory patient care experience. champion faculty who make sure that objectives are met
related to the theme and that assessments follow.
The curriculum refresh process began 3 years ago (after a Limited
LCME Site Visit resulting in zero citations), with vision and with purpose, Entrustment - At the completion of our curriculum, UConn SOM
engaging students, faculty, and staff. Two required faculty votes students will have achieved all of the graduation competencies
resulted in unprecedented support with 90% of those participating in and be entrusted to proceed to residency training.
favor of the mission and core values of the new curriculum and nearly
80% supporting the template for curriculum delivery. This provided MDELTA Calendar for Class of 2020
confidence, momentum and inspiration for educators and for
students.

Our planned new curriculum, entitled MDelta (Making a Difference in
Education, Learning and Teaching Across the Curriculum) has several
innovative components.
• Team-based learning will be a main pedagogy for two of the main

courses in the first stage.
• A hybrid human anatomy and virtual anatomy lab (HAL and VAL)

experience will include active learning and integration of
anatomy with clinical medicine and radiology.
• We will also implement a novel course called VITALS (Vertically
Integrated Teams Aligned in Learning and Scholarship) that brings
teams of students together across all four years with dental
students and other interprofessional partners to learn about health
care policy, ethics, and to examine topics in current events that
affect the health care of our communities (e.g. Ebola,
immunizations, gun violence).
• Our plans for early clinical exposure include a doctoring course, a
continuity longitudinal experience and an innovative course
called Clinical Home that will place students in one of our four
large hospital systems in the Hartford area where they will learn
about health care delivery and policy in authentic environments.

Clinical Immersion Stage 2 will begin in March of the second year and AMA Grant
will allow for flexible time for board study, electives and will include The UConn SOM UME team successfully applied for and
longitudinal clinical experiences as well as in-patient and out-patient received one of the prestigious AMA grants for accelerating
clinical immersion. change in medical education. The focus of the UConn project
is to create a family of virtual patients as the basis for the
Students will be able to choose selective experiences to supplement curriculum that will be embedded in a teaching EMR (tEMR).
the required clerkships. Requirements will include experiences in: Working with Indiana University (IU) SOM and other partners, our
goals are to immerse the students early on in engagement with
• Internal medicine (including Geriatrics) the EMR and to utilize the large numbers of misidentified
• Pediatrics patients in the IU database to explore issues in public health.
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Surgery Foundation of the Curriculum
• Psychiatry The curriculum was established, based on three documents:
• Family Medicine
• Neurology 1. The USMLE list of topics
2. UConn SOM Graduation Competencies
Transformation Stage 3 will include advanced clinical experiences and 3. EPAs for Entering Residency
a transition to residency program. The required advanced offerings
include: Principles of the MDelta Curriculum
The MDelta Curriculum was devised to highlight the following
• Subinternship precepts:
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine • Self-directed, individualized, lifelong learning
• Patient-centered educational experiences
Interested students will receive formal training in teaching and will • Interprofessional learning
participate as key educational leaders for their peers in the Stage 1 • Active learning with an emphasis on team-based
courses. learning
• A commitment to patients and our communities
Scholarship • Integration (radiology, health disparities, health systems)
Scholarship is a key component of the curriculum woven throughout • Scholarship
all stages of MDelta. In Stage 1, there will be a defined curriculum • Service
which will occur in each LEAP period. Students who opt to do
research and discovery in the summer after the first year of medical Stages of the Curriculum:
school will be able to pursue enrichment opportunities to support the The curriculum will be divided into three stages and culminate in
research experience. During the summer after Block C in Stage 1, Entrustment. We are referring to the Stages as Ex·CI·T·E:
students will have 12 weeks to pursue scholarly work, which they can 1. Exploration
continue throughout their time in medical school. There will be flexible 2. Clinical Immersion
time in Stage 2 to continue research experiences and a capstone 3. Transformation
experience is required of all students in Stage 3 which could be fulfilled 4. Entrustment
through bench research, translational research or other scholarly
works in global health, advocacy, service, the humanities, health
policy, medical education and other areas.

Exploration Stage 1 will last for 18 months and will follow a LEAP SCHEDULE
Launch into the curriculum. Students will also be offered pre-
matriculation materials. The Exploration Stage 1 will be
centered on a team-based learning (TBL) curriculum that is
patient-centered and case-based. Students will have a student
continuity practice and the plan includes placing students in
clinical homes. Laboratory (including cadaver dissection as well
as technology enhanced virtual laboratory experiences),
simulation and a doctoring course will also be included in the
Exploration Stage. The TBL experiences will be supported by
ReALM (remote active learning materials). Experiences in
interprofessional teams will be included in this Stage as part of a
novel course called VITALS (Vertically Integrated Teams Aligned
in Learning and Scholarship), which will include teams of
students across all stages of the curriculum with dental students.

There will be five 10-week blocks (A through E) of the curriculum,
each followed by a two-week assessment and enrichment
period known as LEAP.

Assessments in Stage 1: COrE Course Description
(Case Oriented
LEAP: Learning Enhancement and Assessment Period Essentials) Team Based Learning is the key pedagogy in this offering, which is
• Stage One will be offered in 5 ten week terms broken into five separate courses over time, each progressing the
• Each term will be followed by a 2 week intersession called Fabric of student toward greater independence and enhanced clinical
Anatomy & reasoning skills. The sequence of cases helps the student to develop
LEAP Biology Lab foundational knowledge in biopsychosocial science through the
• LEAP will begin with a holistic assessment with quick turn- presentation of virtual patients and families.

around of data The laboratory experience includes Gross Anatomy, Virtual Anatomy,
• Coaches meet with each student to discuss portfolio and Histology, and early exposure to Radiology and Ultrasound in both the
Human Anatomy Lab (HAL) and Virtual Anatomy Lab (VAL). The goal
examination data of the Laboratory program is to provide students with fundamental
• Students will have the opportunity to fill learning gaps or knowledge of the anatomy and microanatomy of all clinically relevant
regions and structures within the human body. This knowledge will
enhance learning by taking a 5-day ILO (Independent inform physical examination and clinical reasoning skills. Students will
Learning Opportunity) learn to correlate state-of- the-art medical images with anatomy and
• Student wellness will be incorporated into LEAP to recognize pathological changes associated with anatomy.
• Each LEAP session will have a required Scholarship Laboratory experiences will also include physiology experiments.
component for students
DoCC Students will learn the necessary skills to interact with and examine
Coaching Program (Delivery of patients, and will be provided feedback for ultimate growth as a
• Basic Science and Clinical Coaching pairs Clinical Care) professional. The course will be integrated with the other courses in
• Each Coach is assigned 5 students, creating a 10 student Stage 1 and students will learn and be assessed in the Clinical Skills
Clinical Home Center in exercises with patient instructors.
learning community
• Coaches monitor progress through Stage One and will Students will be connected to one of our four major teaching hospital
systems. They will be introduced to the hospital system via a tour
follow students through Stages Two and Three based on a patient case and develop a familiarity with that institution.
• Coaches form relationships with students Activities at the clinical home will occur in teams. Students will
• Faculty Development to guide coaching will be provided develop a deep understanding of the workings of a health care
• Coach meets with each student during LEAP and registers system including the full continuum of care, health care economics,
high value care and patient safety and quality.
them for a LEAP program
• AAMC Careers in Medicine Curriculum will be implemented CLIC Students are paired with a physician in an outpatient practice,
(Clinical allowing the student to interact with actual patients with a focus on
with the learning community in sessions 3X/year Longitudinal primary care. Within a month of starting medical school, students
Immersion in the begin practicing the skills that they learn in DoCC in the authentic
Community) office environment. This experience lasts for at least the first three years
(may be continued during fourth year on an elective basis), allowing
VITALS for significant personal and professional growth. In the final 6 months
(Vertically of the third year, students may elect to spend time in a subspecialty
Integrated site.
Teams Aligned in Longitudinal teams of students from across the four years join dental
Learning and students to learn together and teach each other critical, timely
Scholarship) material across the spectrum. The content includes such topics as
Discovery and bioethics in the news, emerging diseases, health care policy and social
Scholarship determinants of health. These sessions support students’ future roles as
scholarly physicians, life-long teachers and learners.
ILO’s
(Individual Students receive instruction in Responsible Conduct of Research and
Learning core knowledge and skills for research and scholarly activity. Students
Opportunities) may choose either an individualized or team-based scholarship
project, which will be mentored. A capstone project suitable for peer-
review is completed in Stage 3.

Individualized Learning Opportunities: Students will have the chance
to pursue elective experiences through shadowing clinicians, working
on educational projects, service learning, exploring humanities in
medicine, research, global health programs, and other areas to
enhance their personalized learning experience and these will be
reflected in a student electronic portfolio. Time is set aside in LEAP
periods (see below) to pursue enrichment opportunities.

“In a time when our Institution is undergoing a revitalization, our “The MDelta (Making a Difference in Education, Learning and
School of Medicine (SOM) made the brave decision to move Teaching) Curriculum is an innovative, transformative, and
forward with an ambitious undertaking. With an explosion of educational program preparing students to take care of
scientific and clinical information, our school decided to patients and communities of the future. It is grounded in adult
change the 20 year-old curriculum they were using to one that learning theory with active and relevant learning that is patient-
will educate the next generation of clinicians and scientists. centered with the team-based learning pedagogy as one of
This MDelta curriculum will reflect new knowledge, new the main teaching methods. Early clinical exposure and
pedagogies, pursuit of scholarship, and remain relevant with involvement in the health system is integral along with
emerging topics. Medicine is changing and our faculty, interprofessional activities. A new course immerses the student
students, and staff are creating a curriculum that will change in health care policy and population health while exploring
with it. The caliber of students UConn School of Medicine emerging topics. Practical laboratories using simulation and
graduates is well known around the Nation. With virtual modalities support more traditional hands-on
implementation of the MDelta curriculum, not only will we experiences in anatomy, biology and
continue to train and graduate stellar students, but our students micropathology. Scholarship and discovery are embedded
will continue to make a difference in their selected avenues in throughout the continuum of the entire curriculum. A cutting
life and will be prepared to serve our patients and be the next edge holistic assessment program provides time for students to
generation of leaders for years to come.” evaluate their competencies as they reach milestones in their
development. Coaching support is featured during LEAP
Bruce T. Liang, MD, FACC (Learning Enhancement and Assessment Period) as faculty
Dean, School of Medicine work with students to plan for remediation and
enrichment. Individualized and personalized learning will be
emphasized. We, at UCONN School of Medicine, declare that
our Future is Unfolding Here!”

Suzanne Rose, MD, MSEd
Senior Associate Dean for Education