The emerging health crisis of the 21st century may not be associated with a particular ailment, such as heart health or diabetes. In fact, it may prove to be a simple matter of supply and demand. That is, as an aging population of baby boomers enters its retirement years over the next two decades, the need for trained medical professionals is expected to be greater than ever.
The Council on Graduate Medical Education has recommended that medical schools expand their graduate numbers to 3,000 per year by 2015, requiring the equivalent of about 20 new schools. In response, the allopathic and osteopathic (D.O.) professions are opening new medical schools and increasing class sizes.
But increasing the number of physicians requires trained educators who are able to merge the latest in teaching technology with recent medical advancements.
Enter the educators at NYIT’s New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM), who cite this impending shortage of practicing physicians and medical educators as “imminent.”
“There’s been a lot of talk about the projected physician shortage crisis but very little attention given to the shortage that is sure to occur in medical educators,” says Dr. David Elkowitz, director of NYCOM’s Academic Medicine Fellowship program. This new initiative is designed to train students to pursue careers in academic medicine, including medical education, research and clinical practice in an academic healthcare setting.
“If universities are offering up new schools and upping class sizes,” says Elkowitz, “it follows that the number of trained academic physician instructors would need to increase as well.”
“We’re really excited about this new fellowship program,” says Thomas A. Scandalis (D.O. ’87), FAOASM, who is the current dean of NYCOM. “We believe that NYCOM is one of the first medical schools in the country that is training students to become the academic physicians of the future.”
As part of the program, fellows agree to spend five years at NYCOM with the school paying for the last three years of their education. These future educators not only work in labs and lectures, but are also enrolled in educational courses, attend research seminars and journal clubs, and conduct research projects.
“The nursing industry is facing and addressing a very similar situation,” says Elkowitz. “This fellowship program was created as a model to alleviate the potential shortage of qualified academic physicians.”
NYCOM’s ultimate goal is to produce a cadre of physicians who, after residency, will go on to succeed as the medical educators of tomorrow.
“Graduates will not only be able to take care of their patients but be able to teach others while doing so,” says Elkowitz.
NYCOM is also planning to launch a new master’s degree in neuromusculo-skeletal science that, according to Scandalis, is “designed and implemented to give graduate credit for the additional scholarly work that is done during the Academic Medicine Fellowship program.”
Specifically, the degree offers additional credit to fellows who spend an extra year at NYCOM involved in teaching, research and patient care in an academic environment.
After receiving curriculum approval from the New York State Education Department in late July, NYCOM educators were quick to finalize the design and planning of the program and hope to offer the degree this fall. Future plans call for additional master’s degree programs that can be taken simultaneously with a D.O. degree, says Dr. Howard Teitelbaum, NYCOM’s associate dean of graduate and professional programs.
Student-Centered Education
NYCOM programs have always incorporated the latest technology to help shape the next generation of medical educators. Indeed, the college’s earliest students from 30 years ago would be astonished by today’s teaching tools, which include digital streaming of video lectures, robotic patients and instant access to a patient’s medical history through the use of handheld devices.
“We are very high-tech,” says Dr. Ron Portanova, NYIT’s associate dean for educational development and chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences. “NYCOM is at the forefront of incorporating information technology into its curriculum.”
To complement its cutting-edge technology, NYCOM educators now provide students with the opportunity to engage in new ways of learning using an optional, problem-based curriculum. Though still in its infancy (the new curriculum was introduced last year and is available to only 30 students), this novel approach has already shown promise and offers a fresh alternative to medical education that goes beyond traditional lecture halls and classrooms.
“The new curriculum uses a student-centered, active learning environment with a strong focus on small-group, case-based learning,” says Portanova, who headed a similar program for more than 10 years at Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. “Students meet with two faculty members, whom we call facilitators, three times a week and work through paper cases that are based on actual patient cases. All of their casework is presented in what is known as a progressive disclosure format, which means that the students get the information progressively, a little bit at a time, in drips and drabs – the way they would actually garner information if they were treating a real, live patient.”
That is, all of the cases begin with a chief complaint (the ailment that brings the patient in to see the doctor). After recording the history of the complaint, including social habits and family history, they measure blood pressure, heart rate, etc., and use all of the information to formulate a working differential diagnosis, which is then refined through lab work, until the students determine exactly what is wrong with their patient.
“Under this curriculum, students play a very big role in their own education,” says Portanova. “They are actively beginning to think and act like physicians from the first day of medical school.”
In addition, he says that the curriculum is advantageous to NYCOM faculty members. “It’s a living, breathing way to introduce faculty to an alternative method of teaching.”
Embrace the Future
By their very nature, medical schools cannot afford to rely on traditional teaching techniques and methodology that have existed for decades. Adapting to technology, incorporating the latest scientific research and interpreting the needs of future generations of patients are crucial components that will define 21st-century medical education.
“Change is nothing new when it comes to NYCOM,” says Portanova. “The science and art of medicine are constantly evolving. Educators need to look for better and more effective ways of training student doctors.”
NYCOM’s latest efforts to address the growing need for the best-trained physicians and highly competent medical educators are a clear sign that the college continues to remain a step ahead. |
