Medical Schools

AMA to fund virtual patient cases for student training

Medical students will be able to cultivate their clinical diagnostic skills with "hands-on" practice using simulated interactive patient encounters, thanks in part to a newly announced grant from the AMA.

The AMA has awarded $100,000 to i-Human Patients, Inc. for the development of internal medicine cases authored by a consortium of faculty at eight prominent medical schools. Students who use the software will be able to augment their classroom experience with simulated patient visits that help apply clinical reasoning and scientific principles.

"The AMA is funding the development of medical school cases and other interactive content for the i-Human Patients educational services platform because we see a need to accelerate student training in patient assessment and diagnostic skills," said James Madara, MD, executive vice president and CEO of the AMA, in a news release.

The consortium responsible for developing the new internal medicine cases includes faculty from:

• Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
• Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Rush Medical College
• Stony Brook University School of Medicine
• Tufts Medical Center
• University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
• University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
• Weill Cornell Medical College

UT Southwestern wins latest Event of the Month award

University of Texas Southwestern Medical School is the latest winner of the AMA Medical Student Section's (MSS) new "Event of the Month" award, which showcases recruitment, community service, education and AMA-MSS National Service Project events coordinated by individual AMA medical student sections.

UT Southwestern won for its Holiday in the Park event held on Dec. 15, an annual winter carnival and toy drive held by the local AMA and Texas Medical Association sections at UT Southwestern. This year, the local sections partnered with Center of Hope, a shelter for women and children. More than 200 shelter residents attended the carnival which consisted of several activities and games, and over 200 toys were distributed to children. The AMA provided funding for the activities and games, food and beverages at the event. Visit the Event of the Month web page for a detailed description of the event.

Is your AMA medical student section holding similar events? When you request a grant through the AMA Section Involvement Grant (SIG) program, you are automatically eligible for the "Event of the Month" award, which the AMA selects each month. At the end of the school year, all monthly awards will be showcased in June at the AMA-MSS Annual Assembly Meeting and be voted on by students for one "Event of the Year" winner.

Through the SIG program, the AMA-MSS provides an opportunity for local AMA medical student sections to:

• Educate students about the AMA and provide an opportunity for students to get more involved.
• Help put AMA policy into action by providing a service to medical school campuses or communities.
• Engage in activities that focus on AMA's top priorities.

Med schools offering shorter training, smaller tuition bill

New York University (NYU) and a handful of other medical schools are among the first to begin shortening medical school and, ultimately, reducing the cost of training, according to a recent report in the New York Times.

These efforts are reflected in the AMA's Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative, which supports, for example, new methods for measuring and assessing key competencies for medical students and physicians to create more flexible, individualized learning plans.

Administrators at NYU say they can make the change without compromising quality by eliminating redundancies in their science curriculum, getting students into clinical training more quickly and adding some extra class time in the summer, the Times reports. And all while saving a quarter of the cost of tuition, which at NYU comes to $49,560 annually. This could mean substantially less debt as medical students move into their residency training.

"We're confident that our three-year students are going to get the same depth and core knowledge, that we're not going to turn it into a trade school," Steven Abramson, MD, vice dean for education, faculty and academic affairs at NYU School of Medicine, told the Times.

The movement is not without critics, the Times reports. Some say that a three-year medical program would deprive students of the time they need to delve deeply into their subjects, to consolidate their learning and to reach the level of maturity they need to begin practicing, while adding even more pressure to a stressful academic environment.

AMA resources for medical schools and students

• Get trend data on undergraduate and graduate medical education.
• Learn about the AMA Medical Student Section.
• Learn about the AMA Section on Medical Schools.
• Learn about the AMA Council on Medical Education.
• Check out the AMA's Academic Leadership Program.
• Learn more about patient safety in medical education.
• Follow the AMA medical education and professional ethics Twitter pages.
• Read the latest issue of American Medical News.