• Surveying medical students nationwide about how their life experiences contribute to humanistic behavior.
  
• Identifying international faculty activities at the University of Michigan and helping link faculty and students interested in similar regions or activities.
  
• Assessing core competencies among medical students in China
  
• Conducting a needs assessment of leaders in medical education in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
  
• Developing Memorandums of Understanding with international partner institutions
  
• Conducting qualitative studies of the impact of international rotations during medical training

Surveying medical students nationwide

This study seeks to ascertain what develops, supports, and sustains humanism among fledgling physicians. A survey to determine the influences and strategies that are most significant in developing the habit of humanism will be constructed based on a series of focus groups composed of medical students and residents at three medical schools. The survey will be sent to a random sampling of medical students. Additionally, an ancillary survey will be designed and implemented to assess the extent to which humanism is currently part of medical education and the types of strategies, including those of the Gold Foundation, that are utilized by the medical education community to teach humanistic skills. Research outcomes will be disseminated among the medical education community in order to increase understanding of successful educational interventions.

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International Faculty Activities

Global REACH has initiated the development of a comprehensive database of the international activities and contacts of UMMS faculty. This database allows faculty and medical students to search for UMMS colleagues with contacts in a country of interest. This clickable map will provide listing of UMMS faculty by continent, by region, or by country. Note that only those faculty who have consented to have their name listed on the website will be included. The text-based database is now available to logged-in UMMS community members.

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Assessing Core Competencies

Global REACH Director David Stern is involved in a project to assess core medical education competencies around the world. With funding from the China Medical Board, the “IIME Project” began with the establishment of the Institute for International Medical Education. Its task was to develop a set of global minimum essential requirements, developed by an international team of experts in medical education. These standards include basic science, clinical experiences, knowledge, skills, professional values, behavior and ethical values. These "essentials" represent a core global medical curriculum, since each country, region and medical school have additional unique requirements for granting the MD degree. Thus each school's educational program will be different, but all will possess the same core competencies.

In the second phase of the project, Dr. Stern directed the evaluation of the graduates of the eight leading medical schools in China, which happened simultaneously in October of 2003. The results of this assessment are being used to guide improvement in these schools. If a school meets all of the essentials, they will be certified as meeting IIME Global Essential Requirements.

In the third, or "Dissemination Phase", the lessons learned and the process used will be modified and offered to the global medical education community for its use. The goal is that the "essentials" will serve as a tool for improving the quality of medical education and a foundation for an international assessment of medical education programs.

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Conducting a Needs Assessment of Medical Educators in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

Leading medical educators from allopathic medical schools in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have been surveyed to determine their needs for faculty development and continuing education. Funded by the Association of Chinese University Medical Colleges and conducted in partnership with Peking University, this project is – in part – an attempt to balance the core competency assessment project described above with a subjective assessment by medical educators about where the gaps in their training lie. It also provides valuable information to be used in planning international faculty development programs. Publication of the results is now pending.

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Developing Memorandums of Understanding with International Partners

The University of Michigan Medical School has formal, signed agreements in the form of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with three global partners: two in China (Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and one in Sweden (Göteborg University). UMMS has additional MOUs under development with seven institutions: Peking University, Sichuan University, and Tianjin University in China, Tokyo University in Japan, Siriraj Hospital at Mahidol University in Thailand, Marseilles University in France, and the University of Vienna in Austria.

MOUs are designed to formalize the relationship between UMMS and our global partners. They specify the nature of anticipated collaborations, such as allowing for the exchange of medical students, residents, and faculty. MOUs also specify the parameters under which such exchanges occur. For example, foreign medical students visiting UMMS must have passed core clinical clerkships, demonstrate English proficiency, and operate as “observer-only” status. MOUs also clarify issues such as:

• Degrees are not granted as part of international exchanges
  
• All exchanges are approved on a space-available basis
  
• Inter-institution arrangements meet all other requirements set forth in the University of Michigan’s “Guide to the Establishment of International Agreements”

MOUs address more than just educational exchanges, however. MOUs to date have also focused on: medical education; higher education administration and quality improvement systems within the faculty and staff; educational and clinical care information technology infrastructure; and research programs.

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Conducting Qualitative Studies of the Impact of International Rotations during Medical Training

A sample of UMMS medical students and residents who have rotated internationally during their training have been interviewed at length about their experiences, their perception of the role of international rotations in medical education, and how the experience affected them. Interviews are being analyzed using qualitative software, and preliminary results have been presented at the 2003 annual meetings for the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) in Bern, Switzerland, and the Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in Washington DC.

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