Medical schools should know about these online teaching resources

In the wake of COVID-19, the need for high-quality e-learning resources for undergraduate medical education accelerated as instructors and medical students adapted to the new learning environment. The AMA has developed a robust program that includes engaging, high-quality and interactive modules to easily fill emerging curricular gaps and support tracking of medical student progress.

The new online learning platform, called the AMA UME Curricular Enrichment Program, features more than two dozen online modules to keep medical students on track in three key areas: health systems science, medical student leadership and EHR workflow.

The AMA Health Systems Science Learning Series is made up of 13 modules that explore how health care is delivered, how health care professionals work together to deliver that care, and how the health system can improve patient care and health care delivery. The series covers these topics below.

• "How Systems Thinking Applies to Health Care" introduces learners to systems thinking skills—specific habits of thinking and strategies to navigate the complex health care environment. Systems thinking is critical to understanding and influencing the structures and policies of U.S. health care systems at all levels to promote holistic patient-centered care.
• "What Are Social Determinants of Health?" provides the foundation for recognizing and addressing the social determinants of health during a clinical encounter to improve outcomes and health equity.
• "What Are the Components of Value-Based Care?" defines high-value care as high-quality care—in terms of outcomes, safety and service—delivered at a reasonable cost. It also explores the value equation as a tool to measure value, as well as specific actions health care professionals can take to promote high-value care.
• "Essentials of Quality Improvement" introduces learners to quality measures, data resources, interventions to address common quality issues and factors contributing to the sustainability of improvement efforts.
• "Identifying the Fundamentals of Medical Ethics" examines how systems-based practice raises new ethical challenges. It also details the fiduciary nature of the patient-physician relationship and explains the relationship between ethics and the law.

Meanwhile, the AMA Medical Student Leadership Learning Series modules walk medical students through the basics, as well as some of the nuances, of developing leadership skills that last a lifetime.

They focus on a variety of topics.

• "Conflict Resolution" starts by defining conflict and its sources. It also describes conflict management styles and explores conflict resolution strategies.
• "Effective Communication" shows learners the importance of strong communication skills, identifies key principles and styles of communication and demonstrates the components of effective feedback.
• "Managing Stress While Leveraging Your Unique Experiences" introduces learners to this essential skill for thriving in medical school and throughout one’s career. They will learn to recognize the signs of stress and burnout in themselves and others and also identify steps, strategies and their own core values to help reduce stress and burnout.

The AMA UME Curricular Enrichment Program also features a learning series, developed in collaboration with EHR-savvy residents, on key EHR skills to support clinical student workflows, with seven modules focused on:

• "Collecting and Prioritizing Your Patients"
• "Inside the Patient Chart"
• "Using EHR Configurations"
• "Using a Note Template"
• "Dealing with Missing Data"
• "Improving Efficiency with EHR Dashboards"
• "Alerts, Warnings and AI"

The AMA UME Curricular Enrichment Program enables educators to assign specific elements and receive reports on student progress, track via a dashboard, send reminder emails and customize reporting options. Request a demo.