Dear Colleagues:
While many students across the university returned to in-person learning this week, I want to acknowledge our School of Medicine students - and the team of faculty and staff supporting, educating and mentoring them - for working so hard to ensure we could safely continue in-person teaching and learning during the most recent surge.
While we must continue working together to address pandemic-related challenges, exciting and important work toward our long-term goals is also underway. As many of you know, we recently completed a medical education strategic planning process focused on developing innovative and transformative educational models for all SOM learners.
Our educational programs are highly ranked and widely known for producing superior clinical providers and outstanding scientists. When our MD program curriculum was last revised in 2007, we were among the first in the country to shorten the pre-clinical period, introduce early clinical exposure, implement a research block, develop a comprehensive service-learning curriculum, and to prioritize our students’ health and wellness. These accomplishments have laid the foundation for the next phase of medical education at Emory. Now, we must ensure our curriculum is keeping up with the demands on clinicians and scientists to solve the health challenges we face today and in the future.
With that in mind, the top priority of our education strategic plan is to reimagine and transform the curricula for all School of Medicine programs. The process will be highly interdisciplinary and include a diverse group of representatives from all our education programs—including our health professions programs and graduate medical education — and representatives from Emory Healthcare and our affiliated clinical institutions. We will leverage internal subject matter experts in education, technology, and diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as partners such as Georgia Tech and broader community stakeholders.
The guiding principles and practices that have been instrumental in moving our institution toward eminence in research and clinical care must also extend to the student experience--including compassion, creativity, innovation, community engagement, data-driven problem-solving, a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and a focus on building connections across disciplines. Our graduates will continue to be excellent clinicians and scientists, but in today’s environment they must also be able to lead change across health systems and communities.
In the videos below, hear from Executive Associate Dean of Education Dr. J. William Eley about why we are so committed to transforming education in the School of Medicine—and why now.
Get Involved
Our leadership team has set forth lofty goals. To accomplish them, we need your input and involvement. Share your thoughts here. We want to hear from you about challenges and opportunities as they relate to School of Medicine education practices, processes, and outcomes. Your input is critically important and will guide the work ahead in the Education Transformation process. To learn more or get more involved, email TransformMedEd@emory.edu.
Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our students, our trainees, our patients and each other.
Vikas
Vikas P. Sukhatme MD, ScD
Dean and Woodruff Professor,
Emory University School of Medicine
Chief Academic Officer, Emory Healthcare
Director, Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine