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Brigham Young said, “Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life.” That so aptly describes our main mission here at the medical school: We teach our medical students to think clearly; so that they can then apply their knowledge to serve those who are suffering, while nourishing their own souls.
In the 44 years since I graduated from medical school, many, many changes have taken place in medical education, most of them during the last decade or so. The student experiences of today are vastly different from the didactic preceptorships of the past.
The makeup of our student body is perhaps the most dramatic change. Whereas medical school faculty and student body were once exclusively white men, they are now much more reflective of society. Medical school is now a study in diversity, and I am very proud of the strides that we have made at the University of Maryland to welcome more minorities and women into our programs and faculty. One can walk into any classroom and see the wonderful diversity of our student body. We can talk about cultural diversity until we are blue in the face, but it is not until students of all colors and backgrounds work together in small groups with diverse faculty to discuss cases and personal experiences that they can begin to achieve empathy and compassion for experiences other than their own.
Students today are also much more service-oriented than they were in my day. Many have taught in inner city schools, worked overseas on public health missions, and participated in such organizations as Americorps, prior to entering medical school. With the advent of managed care and skyrocketing malpractice insurance, most students have a very realistic attitude toward their financial future: They understand that medicine is a calling, not a get-rich-quick scheme. And as tuition has continued to rise over the years, students enter medical school with the understanding that most of them will graduate deep in debt. In the past, physicians were paid well enough that they could handle that debt. But as we reach a crisis point in medical student debt, we all realize that this is a lot for even the most altruistic person to handle.
As the student body transformed, so too did the curriculum. The change in the School of Medicine’s curriculum in 1994 brought many positive results. Years I and II now consist of interdisciplinary blocks rather than parallel courses, which allow students to focus on one subject at a time. With lecture and small group teaching limited to the morning, the students have their afternoons free to use as they see fit. The small group settings have helped students form a community during school hours rather than outside of school. This community is vital to our students’ success and well-being, both in medical school and beyond.
Electronic laboratories and computer simulations are growing additions to our evolving curriculum. I am sure you know that since 1996 all of our medical students have been required to purchase a laptop computer in place of the microscopes that we all lugged around in the past. Medscope, the primary online source of curriculum support for medical stu-dents, was launched in 1996 as a complement to the lap-top requirement and has proved to be a major resource for our students. On this website they can find course information and the teaching materials used in the classroom. Students can pull up a lecture delivered by the professor, in his voice, complete with slides, and they can do this in the library, from home, in the lab, on the road, virtually anywhere!
Student teaching areas have also been upgraded. In 1996 we completed a major renovation of the main medical student teaching laboratory. The new facility, termed the multidisciplinary lab, was divided into clusters of smaller rooms, each room holding approximately 12 students, to allow interactive small group teaching. While microscopes were provided, the new lab was connected with computer outlets at each seat and sufficient computing power to allow 180 students to use laptop computers simultaneously in anticipation of digital laboratory exercises replacing traditional ones. This facility has allowed our students to remain at the forefront of the shift in education to digital resources and the internet’s information explosion.
The latest upgrade is the 350-seat Freshman Lecture Hall on the first floor of Bressler. It was gutted and restored with a new ceiling, upgraded lighting and seating for 175 at tables with dataports and electrical outlets at each place. High-tech acoustic panels were installed in the side and back walls, and an audio visual and sound system improvement is underway and will include wireless internet connectivity. Not only is this now a much nicer place for students to learn, but the technology allows for even more student productivity. This project was partially funded by a generous gift from the Taylor family: Irving J. Taylor, ’43M; Ronald J. Taylor, ’73; Richard L. Taylor, ’75; Ellen L. Taylor, ’78 and her husband Bruce T. Taylor, MD. This year’s freshmen take this upgraded space for granted, but all of you who had classes in the old lecture hall know how lucky the new freshmen are!
The campus itself has also undergone drastic change. Since I arrived here in 1991, no less than a dozen new buildings have been added to the landscape. In addition to the many new medical school buildings, we also have a new library, nursing school, law school, and dental school. Prior to the mid-90s there was limited on-campus housing, which impacted students’ collegiality and social life in countless ways. But UMB is now less a commuter campus and at the end of the day more students are staying on campus, because now they are able to both live and work here.
I have seen so much change in my fifteen years as dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. I cannot even imagine what the student experience will be like in another 15 years—I hope I’m still around to find out!
| Last October, UMB president David J. Ramsay appointed a search committee to help identify a successor to Dean Wilson. Christian Stohler, DMD, dean of Maryland’s dental school, is chairing the 20-member committee which includes representatives from the university and University of Maryland Medical System. MAA president Charles F. Hobelmann Jr., ’71, is representing the alumni association on the committee. The group is being assisted by the executive search firm of Korn/Ferry International. |