Medical Education 2.0
by Christine Morris
When the members of the Miller School of Medicine Class of 2024 arrive next summer, they will be the first to experience a new curriculum that will truly be Miller School specific — one that Dean Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., hopes “in the next five to 10 years will become the envy of other medical schools throughout the world.”
Called NextGenMD, the curriculum renewal initiative is the inspired work of 177 faculty, students and residents on eight planning teams who have been meeting to design a new way of teaching and learning. Among the recommendations are earlier and integrated clerkship experiences for students, an emphasis on personalized plans for a second degree or pathway of excellence, a strong focus on population health, an opportunity for some students to enter residency early, and an overhaul of the way students are evaluated.
“The new curriculum will produce physician leaders who will have the opportunity to shape the future of medicine, direct health systems, and champion discovery and its translation into clinical interventions,” said Laurence B. Gardner, M.D., executive dean for education and policy.
A core group of Miller School master educators will do the bulk of the teaching, in small groups with team-based collaborative learning approaches. The new clerkship experience will reflect the best ways to learn the science, art and practice of medicine, and help students plan their future areas of concentration.
“This truly is an extraordinary effort,” said Alex J. Mechaber, M.D. ’94, Bernard J. Fogel Chair in Medical Education and senior associate dean for undergraduate medical education. “We’re all really excited about it because it is going to result in the transformational leaders in health care that we need.”
