June 2, 2003
Volume 7, Number 22 • Indianapolis, Indiana

• IUSM recognized nationally for curricular innovation
• Pardon me, Roy, is that the Clarian choo-choo?
• Competency: Problem Solving
• Groh to appear Tuesday on Good Morning America (postponed one week)
• Duffers with a cause
• Faculty appear on genetics panel
• Caldicott presentation postponed
• June 17 Combined Seminar Series cancelled
• Indiana Health Industry Forum – June 5
• Openings available at Center for Young Children
• Free colloquium to discuss life sciences data
• Faculty invited to apply for Round 5 SBC Fellowships
• AAMC, NIH create international training program
• Grants & Awards
• This week on Sound Medicine
• IUSM Special Events Calendar online
• Submissions to SCOPE

IUSM recognized nationally for curricular innovation

For the second consecutive year, IUSM was one of only seven United States medical schools invited to participate in the Millennium Conference. This annual conference is sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Deaconess Medical Center.

The theme for this year’s conference was “The Continuum of Clinical Training in Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education.” A major goal of the conference was to explore the appropriate structure and environment needed to ensure a continuum of core competencies in clinical training, generally and more specifically, in the disciplines of internal medicine and family medicine.

As graduate medical education moves in the direction of assuring competency in the residents and fellows graduating from accredited programs, it was critical that institutions with experience in competency-based undergraduate education participate in the Millennium Conference. IUSM was a logical choice since it is one of only two medical schools in the nation with a competency-based curriculum.

The conference allowed cross-pollinization of ideas among the participamts on enhancing the continuum in medical education as well as allowing the IUSM team to critically focus on local programs that will enhance the competencies in our own medical school’s undergraduate and graduate programs.

The team from IUSM who participated in the Millennium Conference was Stephen Bogdewic, PhD, Meredith Hull, MD, Richard Kohler, MD, Stephen Leapman, MD, Debra Litzelman, MD, Peter Nalin, MD, Brenda O’Hara, MD, and Robert Vu, MD

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Pardon me, Roy, is that the Clarian choo-choo?

You have seen it passing silently overhead for weeks now, testing its “footing” on the new tracks that carry the Clarian People Mover between the IU Medical Center and Methodist Hospital. What you don’t see are passengers. That is about to change.

The People Mover will be dedicated – and then begin carrying passengers – June 26 and 27. The event on Thursday, June 26, will allow city officials and the media to get a look at the only light-rail transportation system in the city. IUSM and Clarian employees and members of the Indianapolis community are invited to hop on the People Mover for a ride from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. that Friday. More details of the events will be published in Scope later in June.

The People Mover will begin its normal seven-day-a-week schedule on Saturday, June 28. Both People Mover trains will run from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. After that hour, the trains will not be running the circuit unless called by the push of a button at one of the stations. Response time should be about 5 minutes. Clarian shuttle buses also will continue to run on their normal schedule for the time being.

The train will transport patients, faculty, staff, students and the public from Methodist, IU and Riley free of charge. The People Mover route will be east from Riley Hospital on Walnut Street to IU Hospital, north on University Boulevard, east on 11th Street to Senate Avenue and then north to Methodist Hospital.

It is estimated the People Mover will carry 500,000 passengers annually in the five-minute, 30-mph trip from Methodist to Riley hospitals. Each train can carry 80 passengers.

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Competency: Problem Solving

Students who achieve competence in Problem Solving can a) recognize that a problem exists b) characterize it clearly and objectively c) examine it from different points of view d) collect and integrate necessary information related to solving it e) generate a set of potential solutions f) formulate a plan to address it g) implement a solution and h) assess results.

In the first two years of medical school, especially at Northwest, but also at Indianapolis and Lafayette, faculty use Problem-Based Learning small group techniques, for some or all courses. At other centers, problem-based learning has not yet been introduced as a separate course or program, and other measures are used. Observant faculty members assess problem-solving competence as it is used in these settings; but in addition, a statewide case-based exam, called the Triple Jump (taken in three steps) is used as a threshold exam at the end of year 1 to assess several competencies, including problem solving.

Students who do not show competence in problem solving can be helped by individual remedial activities that require practice in problem solving skills, often using case studies or practice triple jump exercises.

In the third year, problem solving is formally addressed in the surgical clerkship through small group surgical case studies that are assessed with higher expectations than in the first two years. For the future, we hope to integrate formal fostering and assessment of problem-solving skills in the clinical context in the other clinical clerkships and in fourth-year electives, where it is often informally done now, an example of which is the student’s assessment of a new patient. This will require faculty development.

Patrick Bankston, PhD
Northwest Center for Medical Education
Statewide Competency Director – Problem Solving
pbanks@iun.edu

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Groh to appear Tuesday on Good Morning America

(Postponed one week)

IUSM cardiologist William Groh, MD, will appear live Tuesday on Good Morning America discussing a life-saving surgery performed on the same day to a mother and daughter. It is believed this is the first case in the world where both mother and daughter had implantable defibrillators placed in their hearts.

The segment will be televised from a cardiac cath lab at the Clarian Cardiovascular Center. Good Morning America airs from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on WRTV Channel 6. The time of Dr. Groh's appearance was not known by Scope at "Web time."

Also scheduled to appear are the surgery patients Heidi, 18, and Joyce Tierney.

Heidi collapsed Feb. 26 in the cafeteria at Blackford High School in Hartford City and was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. She was sent by Lifeline helicopter to the IU Medical Center where she was diagnosed with a genetic heart disorder called Long Q-T syndrome.

When doctors met with Heidi's parents Joyce and Patrick Tierney to explain their daughter's condition, Joyce passed out - an episode similar to others she had had over the past 30 years. She also was diagnosed with Long Q-T syndrome and mother and daughter were transferred to Methodist Hospital for surgery. The successful surgeries took place March 7.

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Duffers with a cause

The sixth annual Scholar Chip Golf Classic, sponsored by the IU Alumni Association, will be Wednesday, June 11, at Hanging Tree Golf Club. The tournament pairs foursomes of alumni and students against teams from the schools of law, dentistry and medicine.

The cost is $150 for individuals or $300 for team registration. Net proceeds go to support student scholarships at each of the three schools. There are a limited number of registrations accepted.

For information call the IU Alumni Association at 274-2317, or e-mail Stefan Davis at ssdavis@iupui.edu.

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Faculty appear on genetics panel

Two IUSM faculty members recently participated in the IU Poynter Center seminar, “Direct Marketing of Genetic Tests.”

Kimberly Quaid DeCordon, PhD, professor of clinical medical and molecular genetics, and Gail H. Vance, MD, associate professor and director of the IUSM Cytogenetics Laboratory participated in the seminar.

Their comments can be heard at www.broadcast.iu.edu.

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Caldicott presentation postponed

The Monday, June 2, presentation by Helen Caldicott, MD, founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility, has been postponed until further notice. She was scheduled to speak from 10 a.m. to noon in the IUPUI University Library Lilly Auditorium.

Dr. Caldicott is the founder and president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C., and is a leading spokesperson for the antinuclear movement.

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June 17 Combined Seminar Series cancelled

The June 17 Combined Seminar Series Special Seminar by M. Radhakrishna Pillai, FRCPath, PhD, director and professor of laboratory medicine, Regional Cancer Center, Trivandrum, India, has been cancelled. No replacement seminar has been scheduled.

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Indiana Health Industry Forum – June 5

The Indiana Health Industry Forum “Indiana Health Innovention ’03” will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, June 5, in the Indiana Convention Center.

As one of the sponsors, Indiana University is entitled to several free registrations for the event. These free registrations are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact William Stephan, IU vice president of public affairs, at wstephan@iupui.edu, to obtain a registration.

The agenda for the event can be found at www.ihif.org/agenda.aspx.

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Openings available at Center for Young Children

Has summer crept up on you? Wondering what to do with your children this summer? The IUPUI Center for Young Children has several openings for the summer. It is accepting children ages 2 through 12 years. Fun summer activities, meals, and learning all included. It's also not too early to plan for the fall. The center will have openings in our classes for 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds.

For more information, call 274-3508, or see www.childcare.iupui.edu.

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Free colloquium to discuss life sciences data

The Centralized Life Sciences Data (CLSD) is hosting a free infoshare from 10 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, June 3, in room 3003, Business/SPEA Building on the IUPUI campus.

The Centralized Life Sciences Data (CLSD) service provided by UITS provides researchers with local access to popular molecular biology databases like LocusLink, UniGene, and dbSNP. It allows researchers to run BLAST queries against sequence databanks like the NCBI’s nr, nt and swissprot databanks. Learn how to use application already making use of CLSD.

This infoshare is free and open to the public. Advance registration is strongly recommended. For more information about these and other workshops offered by IT Training, see the IT Training & Education web site at ittraining.iu.edu/iupui/, or call 274-7383.

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Faculty invited to apply for Round 5 SBC Fellowships

The SBC Fellows Program (formerly Ameritech Fellows) continues into its fifth year by issuing its latest request for proposals (RFP). Faculty on all campuses are invited to submit proposals for projects that advance innovation in the application of information technology (IT) to teaching and learning. The deadline for proposals is Friday, Sept. 12.

Awards will be announced Oct. 24. Proposal submission guidelines can be found at sbcf.iu.edu/.
Other SBC Fellows activities include:

SBC/TAG Fellows Summer Leadership Forum -- The annual Summer Leadership Forum provides an opportunity to discover the innovative ways IU faculty are integrating technologies into their teaching. SBC Fellows and Technology Assessment Grant award recipients will be at the forum to discuss their projects.

The forum will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, June 6, in the Lilly Auditorium, University Library, IUPUI. View the program and register online at sbcf.iu.edu/events.html. Questions can be directed to fellows@iu.edu.

SBC Fellows Share Good Practices -- Current and past SBC Fellows share the projects they developed with program funds. Projects are organized around seven established good practices in teaching and learning (Chickering and Gamson, 1987), and the site includes keyword searching. Browse projects by principle, such as "use active learning techniques," or search for your favorite teaching and learning keywords to learn how IU faculty are integrating technologies in their teaching.

For additional information, see sbcf.iu.edu/goodpract/.

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AAMC, NIH create international training program

The National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center (FIC) has developed a new program for early career opportunities for U.S. graduate students in the health professions to participate in mentored clinical research in developing countries.

Program support will come from FIC and the Ellison Medical Foundation. The AAMC, in collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health, will provide administrative support.

This new program, which offers one year of mentored clinical research training in the developing world, will expand international opportunities to U.S. graduate students, paired with students from the host country, with the hope that such experiences will encourage them to pursue careers in clinical research, particularly related to global health.

Initial training sites are in Botswana, Brazil, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mali, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda and Zambia. Each site has both an FIC international training grant and NIH-funded clinical research, strong ethical review and oversight of clinical research, committed interest and expertise in mentoring students, appropriate research facilities, and suitable infrastructure arrangements for housing, food,and transportation. Additional sites will be added in the coming years.

The first annual competition for the Fogarty-Ellison Program will begin in the fall of 2003 for training beginning in July 2004.

For additional information, see www.aamc.org/overseasfellowship.

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Indiana University School of Medicine
Grants & Awards
April 1 - April 30, 2003

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This week on Sound Medicine

Tune in at noon, Saturday, June 7, to Sound Medicine, the weekly radio program co-produced by IUSM and WFYI Public Radio (90.1 FM) in Indianapolis. The program is hosted by Barb Lewis. This week’s co-host will be Stephen Bogdewic, PhD.

Guests include William Beardslee, MD, professor of psychiatry at Havard Medical School and chair of psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Beardslee will address issues related to protecting and nurturing children when parents suffer from depression.

Harvard psychologist Carol Ginandes, PhD, will talk about her research using hypnosis to speed and improve physical healing among various patient groups.

Also in the lineup is James Skinner, PhD, an IU professor of kinesiology and an exercise physiologist, who will discuss why being active is more important than being fit.

Archived editions of Sound Medicine, as well as other helpful health information, can be found at soundmedicine.iu.edu/.

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Online IUSM calendars

A comprehensive listing on IUSM seminars, lectures and Grand Rounds can be accessed at www.medlib.iupui.edu/calendar. To place items on the Scientific Calendar, please forward them to Iona Sewell at imsewell@iupui.edu.

A Special Events Calendar for presentations, symposiums, conferences and other activities at IUSM can be found on the School's Web page at www.medicine.iu.edu. The calendar also can be accessed directly at wwwdb.ucs.indiana.edu/iusm/scripts/calendar/instr.cfm

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Submissions to Scope

Scope wants your news items.

The deadline for submission is 8:30 a.m. on Fridays. Scope is published electronically and sent to faculty, staff, students, and residents.

There are four easy ways to submit story ideas or information to Scope:

• fax the information to 278-8722
• e-mail the information to mhardin@iupui.edu
• mail the information to Mary Hardin, Z-7, Ste. 306, IUPUI
• paste your plain text message into Scope Web form on the IUSM faculty & staff page: http://medicine.iu.edu/faculty

Contributions submitted by e-mail should be forwarded in 12 point, plain text format.
To keep the electronic version of Scope as streamlined as possible, only seminars and lectures of general or multidisciplinary interest will be included.

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