Medical school plans for new curriculum, higher standards

Many changes are expected within the School of Medicine as plans are in place to redesign its curriculum and minority admission rates increase.

Following an evaluation by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education in March 2015, the medical school fell short of accreditation requirements and in violation of certain statutes. Now, action has been taken to ensure that standards are met.

Vice Dean of Medical Education Dr. Richard Baker said the SOM had become complacent over the years because they had grown comfortable with good outcomes in terms of their students. He said LCME prompted efforts to keep up with new developments and prepare for the future.

In terms of a new curriculum, Baker said "everything will be changing."

“What we’re moving towards is basically a curriculum of the future,” said Baker. “Our focus here now is urban clinical excellence.”

Citing changes over the past 10 to 20 years in both education in general and medical education, Baker said Wayne State will be joining the ranks of medical schools across the country that have embraced more innovative methods of teaching.

“What’s different today is more of a student focus,” said Baker. “Our job is to prepare the best physicians for tomorrow.”

Baker said the SOM has since instituted an Office of Learning and Teaching, equipped with professionals prepared to reform and expand upon how students learn and how teachers teach.

“What we were missing is, has anybody ever helped experts to teach better?” said Baker. “We have a commitment to be different now, transformative.”

In addition to curriculum changes, expectations for incoming students have expanded as well.

Baker said prospective medical students must have the ability to grow and keep up with developments in their field.

“If an average student comes in, by the time they leave us, they’re going to be a good student,” said Baker. “If a good student leaves us, they’re going to be excellent. If an excellent student leaves us, well, they’re going to be Nobel Laureate material.”

Baker has three specific goals: achieve a reputation for excellence in teaching and learning, operational excellence and a continuous process of improvement driven by a culture of assessment and data-driven decision making.

“Because we have a larger student body, we should be leading the way,” said Baker. “We need to do things better.”

Following initial LCME review and the accreditation hearings, Baker said the decisions that were made were very unusual.

The LCME board took the medical school into extra consideration and moved the institution from probationary status to accreditation with warning - a rarity among medical institutions.

“They said, ‘you guys have got work to do,' but by doing what they did, the statement they made was: we have faith in you,” said Baker. “They did something very special for us.”

A specific change currently taking effect are the increasing rates of minority acceptances within the SOM.

Diversity was a concern the LCME noted in their evaluation when in 2015, only five African-Americans and two Hispanics made up the total minority acceptances into the SOM.

The WSU School of Medicine Diversity and Inclusion Task Force led by Assistant Dean of Community and Urban Health, Dr. Herbert Smitherman Jr., and Dr. Jane Thomas of the SOM's Board of Visitors, was charged with addressing this issue.

“Dr. Smitherman and employees in the Office of Admissions and Office of Diversity and Inclusion hit the ground running, investigating the best practices of sister medical schools, community outreach, developing recruitment materials and presentations and implementing a new holistic admissions interview process that considers more than GPAs and MCAT scores,” said Philip Van Hulle of SOM’s Office of Public Affairs in an official statement.

Van Hulle said that as of Dec. 18, 2016-17 acceptances include 31 African Americans, 18 Hispanics, and three Native Americans.

Mohamed Salim, a third-year medical student and SOM's Student Senator said the upcoming changes will be especially big for incoming classes, new first-years, and for the second-years preparing for their third year hospital stints.

“They’re also doing a lot of things that other schools aren’t doing, or interpreting and incorporating a lot of the best things about other schools so that it might turn out better,” he said.

When the LCME report came out, Salim was finishing up his second year at the SOM.

“I mean, I was disappointed,” said Salim. “I think everybody kind of always knew there was problems. There was a lot of minor things, and there was stuff with the curriculum which we always knew was a problem.”

However, Salim said he is still confident in the education he has received.

“Most of the problems with the curriculum really came down to too much volume. It really just needed to be cut down to what was the most relevant,” said Salim.

“So it wasn’t that I ever felt deficient. I did fine on boards and I think for the most part, other people have the same experience. It just felt like too much at once. Most of the revamping is taking out a lot of excess and maximizing time.”

In terms of the diversity within the SOM, Salim said seeing the statistics was unsurprising because, as a student, it was noticeable.

“I think it just came down to a couple years of maybe suboptimal recruiting. It’s really hard to say, but yeah, it’s just another disappointment,” he said.

Salim said having doctors of different backgrounds is a necessity, and the SOM mitigated concerns pretty quickly.

“Patient populations are diverse. There’s not really selection in terms of who gets sick,” said Salim. “Having cultural diversity in your school allows you to see different cultures and create doctors that are able to understand those cultures.”

For more information, contact reporter Aleanna Siacon at aleanna.siacon@wayne.edu. Follow her on Twitter: @AleannaSiacon.