MEDICAL BULLETIN

Office of Curricular Affairs completes first year

Efforts enhance student education, faculty development

Therese M. “Terry” Wolpaw, M.D., associate dean for clinical affairs and a 1988 alumna of the medical school.

The completion of the 2003-2004 academic year also marked the completion of the first year of the Office of Curricular Affairs at the School of Medicine, steered by Therese M. “Terry” Wolpaw, M.D., in the new position of associate dean for curricular affairs.

By building collaboration among faculty, staff and students, the office facilitates the planning and delivery of ongoing basic science and clinical educational activities and supports new efforts to enhance the curriculum and to try innovative teaching methods. The office also focuses on the assessment of student performance and the evaluation of courses and teaching faculty. It is expanding faculty development opportunities and engaging in research related to education. Dr. Wolpaw, a 1988 alumna of the medical school, likened the office to a mosaic, bringing together people whose related functions previously were located in several different offices.

“It’s not my office,” stressed Dr. Wolpaw, also an associate professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and a rheumatologist at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “This is a team of people that we hope can make a difference in carrying the curriculum forward at the School of Medicine.”

The adminstrative team includes Minoo Golestaneh, who directs the office and supports the basic science curriculum; Carol Chalkley, who supports the clinical curriculum; Donna Sockel, who provides instructional and administrative support; Kim Brown, who supports programs for the Foundations of Clinical Medicine program; and Lois Kaye, who supports the Committee on Medical Education and the Core Physician Development Program. Associates of the office include Marcia Wile, Ph.D., and Klara Papp, Ph.D., who provide expertise in student assessment and curriculum evaluation; and Lynda Montgomery, M.D., of the Department of Family Medicine.

Among the numerous programs managed by the office are the annual education retreat; the Scholars Collaboration in Teaching and Learning, through which faculty members and students develop skills in curriculum innovation; and a study of methods to help students master clinical skills in the third and fourth years of their medical education, funded by a grant from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the New York Academy of Medicine and directed by Dr. Montgomery. Such mastery is part of the vision of School of Medicine Dean Ralph I. Horwitz, M.D., and has gained additional importance because, starting with the 2004-2005 academic year, the licensing exam for fourth-year medical students will include a clinical skills exam with standardized patients.

The work of the office is both challenging and exciting, Dr. Wolpaw said. “The challenge for an office like this is to balance the day-to-day running of the curriculum with helping people think about new ideas and then bringing those new ideas into action,” Dr. Wolpaw said. “I think the curricular affairs office is very exciting, because ideas for the curriculum come from a broad base of individuals at the School of Medicine. We are not here to decide what’s going to happen—that is a process that engages many people and certainly begins with the dean and his vision—but we get to take those ideas and try to turn them into reality to make a difference for the students. We get to be a part of the dialog of curriculum and curriculum change.”