Overview

Department of Medicine faculty members contribute robustly to the educational mission of the School. Contributions include direct teaching of fellows, residents, medical students, and graduate students, other physicians as part of continuing medical education activities, and the public. They also include service in educational administrative roles and on committees charged to advance the School's educational mission.

School

The Dean is ultimately responsible for the educational activities of the School but delegates much of this responsibility to units within the Dean's Office and to the basic science and clinical departments.

• Dean's Office: Educational Units
  The Executive Associate Dean for Educational Affairs (EAD-EA) directs the educational administrative functions of the Dean's Office. The EAD-EA oversees the Admissions Office, the Office of Graduate Medical Education (residents and fellows), the School's Graduate Division (graduate students), special biotechnology training programs, student research programs, and the School's Health Professions Programs (clinical laboratory science, radiography, etc.), as well as the Office of Medical Education and Curricular Affairs (see below), the Office of Medical Student Affairs, and the Office of Continuing Medical Education. Department of Medicine faculty members have led, over the years, and continue to lead, many of these units.
  
  
• The Office of Medical Education and Curricular Affairs (MECA)
  MECA, in partnership with the basic science and clinical departments, oversees the School’s curriculum. Nine global competencies define the primary educational goals of the curriculum. The Indiana University School of Medicine is one of a relatively small number of medical schools that have explicitly defined their overall curricular goals, with the expectation that all educational units make tangible contributions to their achievement. Thus, all basic science and clinical clerkships address some, or all, of these competencies in a mix of traditional and innovative ways.
  
  Responsibility for overseeing the integration of competency content and evaluation is given to nine Competency Directors. To accomplish this work, Competency Directors receive financial support from their department, which in turn receives an allocation from the Dean to cover all or part of this time. Department of Medicine faculty have been active leaders in this curriculum since its inception in 1999. MECA provides administrative support to the Competency Directors. A team of other faculty experts and medical students supports each Competency Director. Department of Medicine faculty can apply to lead competencies and to be part of competency teams when openings arise. To learn more about MECA (its staff, programs, resources, and related faculty committees) and the competency curriculum visit the MECA website.
  
  
• School Education Committees
  Department of Medicine faculty can be appointed or elected to serve on committees that focus on helping the School achieve its educational mission.
  
  
• Curriculum Council Collaborative Planning Team
  This is one of two teams of twelve to fourteen faculty, administrators, and students charged to ensure that the curriculum reflects the broader school mission, to develop curricular priorities and strategic plans to place and keep the School as a leader in medical education, to anticipate and strategize to address national trends in medicine and medical education, to envision and identify curricular transformations to fulfill existing strategic plans, and to collaborate with the Creative Implementation Team to enable implementation of priority initiatives. This team meets jointly on a quarterly basis with the Creative Implementation Team.
  
  
• Creative Implementation Team
  This is the other of the two curricular leadership teams, also of twelve to fourteen faculty members, administrators, and students, charged to actively manage the curriculum, working with all nine centers to ensure implementation of priority curricular initiatives identified in collaboration with the Collaborative Planning Team, to ensure equivalency of the curriculum across the nine centers, and to address curricular issues that arise from the LCME accreditation process. The team is also charged with ensuring that communication regarding proposed changes to the curriculum occur with appropriate leaders, including center directors, department chairs, and the faculty in general. This team accomplishes these charges by developing continuous quality improvement teams, composed of faculty from appropriate administrative units, to implement specific initiatives. It holds the authority to find curricular time for new initiatives by identifying duplication or excessive emphasis in particular areas. This team meets jointly on a quarterly basis with the Collaborative Planning Team.
  
  
• Academic Standards Committee
  This committee is responsible for monitoring the School's academic performance using multiple measures compared to national standards. Use the link provided to learn more details on this committee's charges, structure, and membership.
  
  
• Admissions Committee
  This key committee interviews applicants and ranks them for acceptance into medical school. The substantial time commitment required for those who serve on this committee is recognized formally as administrative time.
  
  
• Student Promotions Committee
  This committee reviews the academic progress of individual students. It ultimately decides which students are promoted and graduate. Primary input to the committee comes from course and competency directors.
  
  
• Competency Teams
  Nine competency teams assist the Competency Directors to achieve their goals. These teams consist of faculty members, students, and MECA support staff. Competency Directors, with assistance from the Executive Associate Dean for Educational Affairs and the MECA staff, solicit members for these teams.
  
  

Department

• Educational Leadership Positions
  The educational leadership positions with protected administrative time include the Vice Chair for Education (Richard Kohler), the directors of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine I and II courses (Margaret M. Gaffney, Klaus Hilgarth), the junior clerkship/senior subinternship director (Robert Vu), the director of the fourth-year Scientific Basis of Clinical Therapeutics elective (Klaus Hilgarth), the medicine and medicine-pediatrics residency program directors and associate program directors (Lia S. Logio, Alex Djuricich, John Black, David Miller, Noelle Sinex, Mary Ciccarelli), and the fellowship program directors (Eric Williams, Jeffery Breall, John Miller, Paris Roach, Naga Chalasani, Glenda R. Westmoreland, Michael J. Robertson, Mitchell Goldman, Mark Farber, Pierre C. Dagher, Steven T. Hugenberg). In addition, unit directors for the ICM II course, division senior elective directors and residency rotation directors receive time credit for their work as educational RVUs, which reduce their clinical productivity targets.
  
  

Introduction to Clinical Medicine I

Department of Medicine faculty may serve as small group preceptors for this multi-departmental course for first-year students. The course helps students explore various aspects of the patient-physician relationship and develop initial skills in interviewing and communicating with patients.

Introduction to Clinical Medicine II

This multi-departmental course for second-year students recruits faculty from multiple clinical departments, including the Department of Medicine, to lecture in their areas of expertise. A subspecialty-division-based unit director organizes course subunits and recruits faculty to present lectures or to conduct team-based learning sessions. In addition, for the physical diagnosis section of the course, faculty lead small groups of students to develop their physical diagnosis and patient interviewing skills.

Clinical Teaching

Nearly every clinical activity in which a faculty member engages is accompanied by learners. Depending on the activity, the learners include third- and fourth-year medical students, housestaff in the medicine and medicine-pediatrics training programs, and subspecialty fellows. In addition, other learners, such as pharmacy and nursing students, may participate in team activities.

Inpatient team-based patient care takes several forms:

• General internal medicine staffing, primarily at Wishard Memorial and VA Hospitals
  
  
• Subspecialty team staffing, as the primary care team, consultants, or both roles, at all four teaching hospitals (Methodist Hospital, University Hospital, VA Hospital, and Wishard Memorial Hospital)
  
  

Divisions differ in the duration of staffing assignments, with two-week assignments being most common and four-week assignments also being used. Most general internal medicine staffing is handled by hospitalists or other general internists, although about 10% of the general medicine ward attendings come from the subspecialty divisions.

Fellows are present in most procedural venues of the procedure-orientated subspecialties. Fellow teaching is recognized in the educational RVU system used by the Department.

Learners are also present in most outpatient clinical settings. This ranges from one faculty with one learner in many of the University Hospital clinics to one faculty with multiple learners in the VA and Wishard Memorial Hospital clinics.

Total time committed to teaching in these clinical settings varies considerably among faculty and depends upon the individual faculty member's primary mission focus. For new faculty members, the amount of clinical time is described in the initial letter of understanding between the Department and the new faculty member. In general, most clinical teaching time with student and resident learners is regarded as 25% devoted to teaching, but other formulas are used in some settings.

Other Teaching/Mentoring Opportunities

• Student Mentoring
  The School sponsors a mentoring program for first- and second-year students. Two to three faculty members meet quarterly over lunch with groups of students ranging from first- to fourth-year. Discussions are informal and often far-ranging but often involve advice-seeking from the faculty and more advanced students by the first- and second-year students.
  
  
• Student Advising
  Third-year students select faculty advisors to guide them through the senior elective scheduling and residency application process. Meetings between students and advisors occur as often as needed and can range from office-based meetings to informal gatherings over food and drink. At IUSM, in contrast to most schools, students' advisors prepare the students' Medical Student Performance Evaluation letters (formerly called Dean's Letters) that accompany students' applications to residency training programs.
  
  
• Graduate Teaching
  Department of Medicine faculty members, on a limited basis, teach in graduate courses. This teaching ranges from running the courses to providing a lecture or two.
  
  
• Research Mentoring
  Faculty members, when personally involved in research, typically provide research mentoring to younger faculty, fellows, residents, and students. Mentoring relationships may be formal, such as in the context of a younger individual faculty member's mentor committee, or working with a resident as part of a scheduled special elective, or informal.
  
  

Educational Feedback

The department's Medical Education Unit provides each faculty member with annual feedback from learners in the form of an Annual Educational Performance Report. This report contains quantitative data, based on schedules and other sources, that allow the recipients to compare their activities with their peer group. They also contain feedback from learners, both quantitative (ratings) and qualitative (comments). Group norms are included with teaching ratings. The faculty member's division chief, with input from the education vice chair, writes an annual review of effectiveness in the teaching mission that is discussed in a face-to-face review.

Faculty Development Opportunities

• The Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development
  The Indiana University School of Medicine Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development provides numerous resources to help faculty reach their full potential. For more information, visit http://faculty.medicine.iu.edu.
  
  
• Departmental Annual Teaching Retreat
  Faculty trained in the Stanford faculty development course lead early second year residents and invited faculty members through learning-how-to-teach activities in a popular annual off-campus retreat. The learning format for these sessions includes mini-lectures, small group discussions, and videotaped small group role plays. Sessions to teach how to teach in clinical settings are interspersed with leisure activities.
  
  
• Faculty Enrichment and Educational Development
  Faculty Enrichment and Education Development (FEED) sessions, held quarterly, offer opportunities for faculty to work on their teaching skills, led by experts. Department of Medicine faculty initiated this course, which is now administered at the School level.
  
  
• LAMP
  The Leadership in Academic Medicine Program is a year-long faculty development and orientation program for new faculty at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Each month new faculty members who enroll in the program participate in seminars on career planning, self-management, and leadership skills. Covered topics include promotion and tenure, academic career planning, self management, core leadership skills, negotiation skills, the competency curriculum, and group mentoring. Participation requires nomination by the department's chair.
  
  

The department explicitly recognizes faculty teaching that involves medical students, residents, and fellows. Faculty teaching is largely recognized through conference and lecture schedules, rounding schedules, faculty development activity sign-in sheets, so faculty need not spend their time tracking these activities. For example, a faculty member receives one ERVU for hosting a student or resident learner in a four-hour clinic session or 1.7 ERVU per day for working with learners on an inpatient ward setting. Each ERVU is regarded as equivalent to one hour. The most active teachers in our department receive between 300 and 650 ERVUs per year, with 60 to 100 being more typical. These ERVUs are subtracted from the total work hours per year (set at 2530 per faculty member). Research time (calculated from the % of salary covered by research funding) and administrative time (for faculty with formal administrative assignments) are likewise subtracted from this total. The remaining hours are regarded as clinical time and are used to set clinical productivity targets.