Henry J. Schultz MD, FACP, GME Physician Leader

Henry J. Schultz MD, MACP, GME

Current position(s) and title(s)

Professor of Medicine, Consultant in Primary Care Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, and Distinguished Mayo Educator, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

Educational background

• BS, Bowling Green State University, 1972
• MD, Ohio State University College of Medicine, 1975
• Residency and general medicine fellowship, Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, 1975-1979

Special area(s) of clinical/research/educational interest

• Program director of the Mayo internal medicine program, 1987-2002. Over 1,200 residents completed training during this tenure.
• President, Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM) 1998-1999.
• Co-founder and past chair of the Organization of Program Director Associations (OPDA) of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies. OPDA is a consortium of the leadership of the program director societies representing all ACGME-recognized specialties.
• Immediate Past Chair of the Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine (RRC-IM)
• President-Elect for the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP)
• Received the "Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award" from the ACGME in 2002
• American College of Physicians, Minnesota Chapter, Laureate Award, 1998
• Will be inducted as a Master of the American College of Physicians in April 2007

Why are you a program director/DIO/leader in GME?

Working as an associate program director under two former program directors (Ed Rosenow and Pat Palumbo) showed me that educational scholarship and administration was a legitimate career path in academic medicine. Starting in the early 1980s I devoted my energy to resident education. Through work as program director, service in national GME organizations, and educational scholarship (presentations and publications about GME) I was promoted to professor of medicine.

National leadership roles were never sought after, but were accepted as an opportunity to make a difference in resident education. As presidents of APDIM, Tom Nasca, Tom Cooney, and I spent a great deal of time trying to influence GME accreditation by the ACGME and the RRC-IM. As a result of that effort, each of us subsequently was appointed to the RRC-IM, and at least one of us has served as chair or vice chair since 2001. During that time, we have been able to accomplish at least three important objectives:

1. The program requirements for core internal medicine and the 17 internal medicine subspecialties accredited by the RRC-IM have been extensively revised and rewritten in collaboration with the program directors and specialty societies. The protection and enhancement of the educational milieu is central theme in these requirements.
2. The RRC-IM has successfully made the interpretation and application of these requirements more transparent, through a series of program director workshops and FAQs published on the RRC-IM website
3. The relationship between program directors, program director societies (APDIM, ASP, and the subspecialty PD societies), and the RRC-IM has evolved from a contentious environment between programs and accreditors to a much more collaborative process designed to improve GME.

What are the most important issues today in GME?

1. Service-education balance. Teaching hospitals have developed an unhealthy dependency on the service provided by residents and fellows. Accreditation bodies like the ACGME exist to ensure that residents are not exploited, and that their curriculum is driven by educational imperatives. The on-the-ground application of this principle falls to key faculty, program directors and administrators, and DIOs supported by program requirements that delegate appropriate authority for the educational program.
2. Competency-based education and outcomes-based evaluation. David Leach recently announced that he will be retiring after 10 years as the executive director of the ACGME. One of his legacies will be the transformation of our thinking about how our adult learners--residents and fellows--should be trained and evaluated. We are seeing that transformation of that educational paradigm carried out in GME programs nationally. But while the ACGME can provide tools and examples, "All solutions are local." Implementation requires the efforts of innovative program directors and faculty using the resources available at their institution. And successful innovations must be shared with the greater community so that they may be field tested, improved, and adapted by other programs. Medical education scholarship--studying what we do and publishing those results--has never been more critical than it is now.

If you only had a minute, what advice would you give to a physician in training?

Read every day. The very best residents and clinicians develop that competence through experience that is informed by a consistent program of reading. Patients will assume that you are knowledgeable and competent because of your degree and training. Honor that trust by staying as current as possible with medical practice through reading, conference attendance, and "just-in-time" patient-centered reading using Web-based resources for patient care.

What advice do you have for aspiring GME leaders?

In the past 20 years, I have watched a generation of program directors choose a career in GME administration. Further advancement of GME will occur only through the efforts of program directors and educational administrators who dedicate their careers to the science of medical education.

AMA member since...

I joined the AMA in 2000, prior to my appointment to the RRC-IM. Only after joining did I realize what a major player the AMA was in GME through activities like FREIDA Online, the Graduate Medical Education Directory, GME Track, the JAMA medical education issue, the AMA Council on Medical Education, Awakening Hippocrates: A Primer on Health, Poverty and Global Service, and more.

Personal (family, hobbies)

Wife Chris and I have three daughters: Melissa (forester, Zumbrota, MN), Katie (kindergarten teacher, Madison, WI), and Julie (nursing student, Madison, WI) and three grandchildren ages 12, 8, and 1. We recently moved to a 20-acre hobby farm north of Rochester where we enjoy Bible study, country life, and our English Springer Spaniel "Sparkle."