University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Medical Education Program Highlights The MD program of the University of Alberta is a 4-year postbaccalaureate program that provides medical training for 162 trainees each year to serve the needs of Albertans. Our program’s mission is to prepare physicians to provide the highest quality health care to the people of Alberta and beyond, and to advance medical knowledge and its application through research. Program highlights include: The program has renewed its commitment to Indigenous peoples through various endeavors including its social accountability mandate, advances in admissions practices, and a major overhaul of its curriculum in Indigenous health. The Physicianship course delivers relevant and topical content such as global health initiatives, refugee health, and an innovative LGBTQ+ curriculum. The Patient Immersion Experience connects first- and second-year students with volunteers living with chronic illness. This experience gives students the opportunity to learn from the experiences of their patient mentors. Heavy emphasis in training in the rural setting: Students in the GI block (year 2) can spend 4 weeks in a rural community through the Preclinical Networked Medical Education Program. The family medicine clerkship in the third year includes 4-week learning experiences in both rural and urban care settings. The integrated community clerkship places 20 third-year students into rural communities for a 38-week longitudinal integrated clerkship. The fourth-year program places students in Grande Prairie for their clerkship experience in a rural center setting. The graduation questionnaire results show excellent outcomes in areas that are challenging for many medical education programs. The Office of Advocacy and Wellbeing is arm’s length from the program and is highly supportive of students and student groups. There is a robust support system for faculty development that works effectively with faculty members to improve their teaching, academic, and scholarship skills. There are pioneering technological advancements to support the curriculum and delivery of the program. Curriculum Our curriculum and 4-year program-level objectives follow the CanMEDS framework. The MD Curriculum and Program Committee (MDCPC) is responsible for the overall design, management, and evaluation of a coherent and coordinated curriculum. A team of faculty members contributes to program operations based on their respective spheres of responsibilities. The program is divided into two 2-year phases—preclerkship and clerkship—that all students are required to complete to meet programmatic degree requirements. Students begin their education in the preclerkship phase, consisting of 11 systems-based courses along with complementary longitudinal courses, designed to provide contextual and clinical content. Each course presents material in a reasoned progression from basic scientific information to clinical application, building on foundational knowledge and skills, providing progressively increasing clinical exposure. During the clerkship years, each student must maintain a record of the number and variety of their clinical experiences to ensure that the learning objectives of the clerkship have been met. Year 3 includes clinical rotations or an integrated community-based clerkship, a longitudinal Physicianship III/Transitions course, and opportunities for elective courses. Year 4 is a senior clinical year, which includes clinical rotations, electives, and a longitudinal Physicianship IV/Transitions course. In addition, an intersession week was created between years 3 and 4 to enable the curriculum to adapt to and address important current social topics. Curriculum changes since 2010 2012: MedSIS was introduced as a comprehensive education management system. 2012: A curriculum for Indigenous health was launched, with yearly additions and improvements. 2013: A comprehensive review of all aspects and curricular content was undertaken. 2013: Introduction of Physicianship, a comprehensive and longitudinal training program on clinically relevant content, was added. This course includes the start of the Patient Immersion Experience Program, academic service learning, physicianship discussion groups, and longitudinal clinical experience. 2013: The Neurosciences course was thoroughly revised by a dedicated curriculum working group. Subsequently, substantial changes were made, and a new Neurosciences and Organs of Special Senses course was developed and implemented. 2013: A new 4-week psychiatry systems block course was developed and implemented to address a critical curricular deficiency in the area of mental health. 2015: Year 4 clinical rotation changes were made, as reformatting of year 4 clerkships was needed to target required skills for students to succeed in residency. 2016: Admissions review, a comprehensive review of the admissions process, was conducted to align our admissions process with program goals to improve equity and diversity. 2016: The Foundations block was introduced to provide a comprehensive training of skills and knowledge needed for the MD curriculum in year 1. 2017: MedMAP, a mentorship program designed to provide structured, personalized feedback about a students’ academic progress; identify academically struggling students at the earliest possible opportunity; and help students with access to support services as required, was introduced. 2018: A student wellness review group was established and reviewed current practice to recommend strategies to improve learning across the curriculum. 2019: Curriculum review is underway after strategic planning occurring in 2018. In the medium term, the goal of the MD program is to improve student learning through adapting instruction methods and learning experiences to train independent learners with 21st-century skills. Increasing focus is being paid on novel modalities of instructions, student wellness, and team learning approaches. In the long term, the MD program aims to serve Albertans by producing excellent physicians able to adapt to changes in the profession, and contribute to the health of Albertans through scholarly work. Assessment In 2014, a custom assessment system was developed as a consolidated electronic resource. Since its deployment, the system has delivered quizzes, simulated patient cases, objective structured clinical examinations, peer assessments, team-based learning modules, problem-based learning, examinations, reflective essays, and clinical assessments. The customized system also allowed for the development of novel innovations that fit with our curriculum. The clinical assessment processes were reviewed and revised in 2017. A single clinical assessment form is now administered across clerkships, and comments are solicited adaptively based on the need of the student by area. Since 2013, all clerkships use the system to track required patient encounters and procedural skills using an electronic logging system. A new version of logging was introduced in 2019. Pedagogy Our MD program uses a variety of pedagogical approaches throughout the curriculum depending on the appropriateness of content, student knowledge, and availability. The preclerkship curriculum is delivered in a sequential, organ system–based approach using a hybrid of modalities including lectures, clerkships, discovery learning, small groups, team-based learning, virtual patients, anatomy labs, and other patient-involved experiences. Lectures are used to deliver prerequisite knowledge necessary to master the theoretical understanding in the field. Discovery learning exposes students to an independent, problem-solving learning environment. Clinical skill sessions and virtual patient cases prepare learners to develop and apply skills necessary for the profession, and professional development sessions enhance identity formation as a physician. Clerkships are administered for year 3 and year 4 students to gain experiential knowledge and expose learners to a variety of work environments. Through a combination of experiencing the clinical setting and academic activities that include team-based learning, clinical decision-making activities, and case presentations, students are challenged to apply their knowledge and skills across a multitude of settings. An increasing diversification of pedagogical approaches has been adopted and evaluated since 2010. Team-based learning has been adopted throughout the curriculum since 2011. Virtual patient cases have been adopted since 2014. Case-based learning activities have been in place since 2015. Clinical experiences To facilitate the clinical rotations during one academic year, approximately 1,100 practicing physicians along with 500 residents provide instruction from 100 unique locations (e.g., hospitals, sites, departments) to accommodate student learning. Clinical sites include hospitals, family medicine clinics, and health centers across Edmonton and Northern Alberta. Longitudinal clerkships offer an additional opportunity. Observership experience exists as part of Physicianship in year 1. The family medicine clerkship requires students to participate in a 4-week rural rotation in addition to a 4-week rotation in an urban clinic environment. Curricular Governance The MDCPC is duly constituted by the Faculty Council and has authority and responsibility for the MD program. All course and clerkship coordinators and chairs of committees who implement and deliver the curriculum operate under the authority of the MDCPC. Subcommittees coordinate specific aspects of the curriculum. The Preclerkship Subcommittee operates as a standing committee of the MDCPC with delegated responsibility for the preclerkship phase. The Clerkship Subcommittee operates as a standing committee of the MDCPC with delegated responsibility for the clerkship phase of the MD program. The Assessment Subcommittee operates as a standing committee of the MDCPC with delegated responsibility for monitoring and reviewing assessment processes across the MD curriculum. The Program Evaluation Subcommittee operates as a standing committee of the MDCPC with delegated responsibility for monitoring and reviewing teaching evaluations of the MD program. The Physicianship Thread Lead Subcommittee operates as a standing subcommittee of the MDCPC with delegated responsibility for the 4 Physicianship courses in the MD program. All curricular governance related to the MD program is centralized and accountable at the Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) Office. Budget for faculty and delegation of teaching allocations are managed at the department level. Education Staff With a cadre of over 1,000 instructors and residents who teach students in various learning environments, there is also a team of assistant deans, directors, course coordinators, and thread leads who have responsibility for delivering and providing oversight of the program. The associate dean oversees all aspects of the MD program, including strategic planning, curriculum development, accreditation, collaboration with other team leaders within the MD program and across the faculty, and the day-to-day operations of the UME Office. Assistant dean, academic affairs is responsible for identifying students in academic difficulty and for arranging individualized assistance. Assistant dean, assessment oversees all aspects of student assessment for the MD program, including student assessments, assessment practices, standard setting, and the systems in place to run these aspects of the program. Assistant dean, program evaluation oversees all aspects of evaluation for the MD program, including teaching, course, and program evaluations, as well the systems in place to run these aspects of the program. Assistant dean, admissions leads all aspects of the admissions process, promotes diversity, chairs the admissions committee, and ensures that all admission policies and procedures are followed. Assistant dean, education quality and accreditation oversees the commitment of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry (FoMD) to educational quality improvement, and the accreditation process for programs in the faculty, with emphasis on the MD program. There are other offices of accountability that support MD program students. The associate dean, faculty development provides support to faculty development efforts. The associate dean, advocacy and well-being is responsible for developing resources (psychology, peer support), providing advocacy, and influencing an optimal health-promoting learning environment. The associate dean, academic technology supports the use of student technology and in teaching practices. The assistant dean, equity, diversity, and inclusion champions various related strategic initiatives. Other offices of accountability also support the efforts in rural, Indigenous, and global health initiatives. Faculty Development and Support in Education To facilitate and improve teaching practices of the program, various units within the FoMD provide consultation, collaboration, and support to help faculty members succeed in their academic roles. A comprehensive strategy has been carefully designed to meet the ongoing needs of faculty members. The FoMD offers peer-review opportunities and a mentoring program connecting senior academics with junior colleagues to support their scholarly and clinical work. The Teaching and Supervision Skills Program assists faculty with teaching and assessment. Faculty deliver workshops throughout the year and share skills, interests, and experience in teaching and supervision. The IDEAS Office offers membership for educators and provides formal opportunities to support faculty members on improving their teaching and learning. The Teaching Scholars Program of the IDEAS Office offers courses in teaching and education. Teaching and education is an integral part of promotion and tenure decisions. The faculty evaluation committee guidelines outline specific expectations for teaching commitments according to the proportion of time allocated for teaching efforts. Creation of education content and products of education (including lectures and resources) are considered in annual reviews.

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