“Yes, and …” Exploring the Future of Learning Analytics in Medical Education

This Conversations Starter article presents a selected research abstract from the 2017 Association of American Medical Colleges Northeastern Region Group on Educational Affairs annual spring meeting. The abstract is paired with the integrative commentary of three experts who shared their thoughts stimulated by the study. Commentators brainstormed “what\u27s next” with learning analytics in medical education, including advancements in interaction metrics and the use of interactivity analysis to deepen understanding of perceptual, cognitive, and social learning and transfer processes

Proposed Standards for Medical Education Submissions to the Journal of General Internal Medicine

To help authors design rigorous studies and prepare clear and informative manuscripts, improve the transparency of editorial decisions, and raise the bar on educational scholarship, the Deputy Editors of the Journal of General Internal Medicine articulate standards for medical education submissions to the Journal. General standards include: (1) quality questions, (2) quality methods to match the questions, (3) insightful interpretation of findings, (4) transparent, unbiased reporting, and (5) attention to human subjects’ protection and ethical research conduct. Additional standards for specific study types are described. We hope these proposed standards will generate discussion that will foster their continued evolution

A CME course aimed at addressing disruptive physician behavior.

Examine the results of a study of physicians with disruptive behavior who went through a special training program to help them better control their anger and outbursts

Diversity vs Pluralism? Notes from the American Experience

Europe is newly concerned with religious pluralism and questions of immigrant inclusion. Seen from the U.S., several issues stand out. First, our experience with diversity suggests that race is as much an issue as religion. Race is not just an American problem; race and religion are everywhere sources of identity and solidarity, just as they are sources of division. The Ellis Island model of immigration, in which churches helped immigrants adjust to American life, may have worked for Whites, but it did not work nearly as well for others. Don’t expect integration on that score. Second, American religious diversity is overstated. Figures show that the apostles of America’s new religious pluralism are talking about at most 9 % of our foreign-born immigrants and 4 % of our native population. The U.S. is still dominantly Christian, though that Christianity is internally diverse. Recently, sectarian Christian diversity has infected our politics, contributing to our current polarization. Racial, religious, and political conflicts are thus alive and well. Is ‘civil religion’ a solution? Not if the civil religion in question is of the priestly or the sectarian kind. At times, however, American civil religion has been prophetic, speaking to the country’s highest ideals. Only then has religion (of any form) been a resource for broad inclusion.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_chapters/1038/thumbnail.jp

Incorporating Students into Interprofessional Clinical Teams

In order to meet the challenge of providing health care in the 21st century, educators across the nation have called for new approaches to health professions education, including opportunities for work-based learning, longitudinal clinical experiences extending across the duration of the formal program, and the chance to work in interprofessional teams. To answer this call, a group of educators from Belmont University School of Pharmacy, Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy, Mid Tennessee Collaborative Master of Social Work Program at Tennessee State University Department of Social Work, andVanderbiltUniversitySchoolsof Medicine and Nursing designed an innovative program for incoming students. From the very start of their respective curricula, students contribute to the care of patients in meaningful ways by working in interprofessional clinical teams. The program is called the Vanderbilt Program in Interprofessional Learning (VPIL). Given the complex and fast paced setting of health care, it is not easy to have incoming students join a clinical practice, yet VPIL has succeeded with such integration. The working learning teams consist of attending providers, medical post-graduate trainees, and students from medical, nursing, pharmacy, and social work schools. The program has established interprofessional competencies for students to obtain in the clinical practice working teams, roles for students in the care of individual patients and populations, and several innovative technology tools to facilitate achievement of individual and team goals. This workshop focuses on how to incorporate a group of early students from a variety of fields onto a clinical team. We will explore how the program allows students to work together in ways that foster student growth and patient care, while not being too taxing on the physician leaders of the teams. Workshop participants will 1) reflect on their own established or planned programs to use working learning teams, 2) explore barriers and solutions to creating these clinical teams, 3) interact with students and attendings who have overcome common obstacles in working together for individual patients and a panel of patients, and 4) develop action plans to establish/augment similar programs at one’s institution. Learning Objectives: 1. Share competencies for interprofessional students to master in the clinical setting. 2. Identify barriers and solutions to having interprofessional students practice on a team together in the clinic setting. 3. Learn various strategies for incorporating technology for supporting working learning teams in clinical practice. 4. Develop an action plan for expanding interprofessional student training in clinical practice at one’s institution