A Framework for Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Cancer Survivorship Curriculum for Medical Students

Cancer survivorship care is not adequately addressed in current medical school curricula. To develop, implement, and evaluate a modular cancer survivorship curriculum that is portable to other educational settings and is designed to provide medical students with a foundation of knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to care for cancer survivors. An expert consensus panel developed a set of learning objectives related to cancer survivorship to guide the development of educational modules, such as computer-based self-instructional modules, problem-based learning cases, videos, and clinical exercises. Course and clerkship chairs were directly involved in the development and implementation of the modules. A cohort study with a historical control group demonstrated that fourth-year medical students increased their knowledge in survivorship issues and their self-reported level of comfort in care activities compared to similar students who did not receive the survivorship curriculum. Our framework resulted in a cancer survivorship curriculum that was implemented in a modular manner across the medical curriculum that improved learning and that is potentially portable to other educational settings