On June 9th at the Botanical Gardens, 105 members of WUSM Faculty, Staff and students gathered together to discuss an official “kick-off” to WUSM’s Curriculum Renewal process. The day was a mix of small and large group activities designed to address some of the most pressing questions facing the Medical Education community today: What does the future of medicine look like? Who are the patients? What will our needs, standards of care, technology, policy and structures look like in the future? How can WUSM evolve with these changes while still maintaining the excellent standard it has always held and even surpass prior achievements to establish itself further as a leader in quality Medical Education?
If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community of educated and devoted physicians, teachers, staff and students to renew a curriculum. WUSM’s own collective “village” wrapped up the day of insight, exploration and learning by voting on what each believed to stand out as the most crucial areas ripe for renewal. Two task forces are now charged with developing recommendations for improvement through incremental change (the “Greener Pastures” group) and envisioning a radically new and innovative curriculum (the “Blue Skies” group). The two task forces will spend the next 6 months evaluating the current curriculum, studying the renewed curriculums of peer institutions to establish key takeaways and defining where WUSM is going from the “kick off” point.
An advisory board will provide feedback to both groups as they go through their process. The findings of both groups will be vetted at the next Curriculum Retreat, which will take place in January 2019. The date, time, and location of the January retreat has not yet been set but preliminary canvassing will be occurring soon and all are encouraged to respond to the date canvass. Meanwhile, if you are interested in sharing insights or ideas with either of the working groups, please get in touch with their leaders. The members of the two working groups are listed below. The advisory board is currently being constituted.
Greener Pastures
Dr. Amanda Emke (Co-leader)
Dr. Simon Haroutounian (Co-leader)
Dr. Erika Crouch
Dr. Kari Allen
Dr. Tim Yau
Dr. Susan Culican
Dr. Steve Lawrence
Dr. Tammy Sonn
Blue Skies
Dr. Amy Bauernfeind (Co-leader)
Dr. Doug Larsen (Co-leader)
Dr. Sabrina Nunez
Dr. Steven Cheng
Dr. Joan Noelker
Dr. Brendan O’Connor
Dr. LJ Punch