September
saw key members of the senior faculty team from Imperial College including our
Director, Dr Sonia Kumar and Deputy Head of Undergraduate Medicine, Dr Jo
Harris visit Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a fact finding
mission.
Harvard’s
new medical curriculum “Pathways” has the integration of clinically relevant science
and early patient exposure at its core, and this is woven into the fabric of
all their teaching sessions. This ethos is plain to see in their small group
teaching as well as their new “Practice of Medicine” course. Faculty members
were able to participate in some of these highly engaging student roleplays and
take part in a tutorial on the topic of empathy in medical students.
Healthcare
is obviously managed in a different way in the United States however Cambridge
is possibly more similar to the UK model since this hosts one of the few
publicly funded hospitals in the country. Primary Care also has a different
meaning and comprises not just General Practice but also “primary care”
physicians, paediatricians and even gynaecologists.
Although
taking time to become fully established in the US, this Primary Care programme
in many ways encompasses vision of the “expert generalist” that has been
mentioned in UK healthcare.
Faculty
members also had the privilege of meeting Associate Professor David Hirsh, who is
giving the keynote speech at our SAPC Madingley Hall conference in January. The
team learned all about the innovative “Cambridge Integrated Clerkships” (CICs)
which David Hirsh co- founded. This
longitudinal attachment was the inspiration behind our own “Integrated Clinical
Apprenticeship” pilot in Year 5 which launched this year. The students on the
CIC in Harvard follow a cohort of
patients over a year, through any investigations they need, so when their patient is having an X-ray they
learn about radiology and if their patients have a biopsy they “follow the
specimen” to Pathology. The fundamental
recurring principle is the learning occurs through the patient with the
students having a meaningful role in their patient’s lives.
The Imperial
College team also visited the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the
simulation center in Massachusetts General Hospital, and a public community
health clinic distinguished by its work in the provision of free healthcare for
marginalised communities.
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