Curriculum Committee Meeting April 8, 2025

7:30am – 9am / ZOOM
Attendance
Voting Members: Heather Harrell (Chair), Anita Rajasekhar, Daniel Lewis, Jason Fromm, Jennifer Fieber, Melanie Hagen, Olivier Barolette, Reetu Grewal, Robert Seifert, Velyn Wu.
Ex-Officio: Ashleigh Wright, Carrie Adams, Chris Giordano, Diane Howell, Elisa Sottile, Elizabeth DeVos, Hannah Norton, Jennifer Hamilton, Kathy Green, Lynne Meyer, Marquia Walker, Maureen Novak, Melissa Turley, Meredith Thompson, Phuong Huynh, Shelley Collins. Guests: Maryam Sattari, MD, Brad Bruggeman, MD, Paulette Hahn, MD.

Recording: Sandi Reveille

Dr. Harrell called the meeting to order at 7:34am.

1.       A motion was made to approve the consent agenda, seconded, and approved.

2. Vote required
   • USMLE Policy
     Provide clarity on the remediation process for the CSE Exams. The change was based on the wording which was a little confusing. The process is that the students are able to take Step 1 as long as they had remediated all of their coursework which is applicable to Step 1 and that the CSE exam did not have any bearing on this.

Motion to approve this change.  Motion was seconded and approved.

• • Discovery Pathway Requirements
     Approve the proposed criteria for Discovery Pathways:

Proposed Criteria for DPs

• Relevant: Content must align with current and future healthcare needs
• General: Areas must cross a variety of specialties (students are undifferentiated at this stage)
• Feasible: Faculty and infrastructure are available, and resources require minimal funds
• Realistic: Activities use assigned time and requirements don’t overload students
• Outcome-Oriented: Clear learning objectives and assessment methods with clear standards for distinction within the pathway that align in terms of rigor across all DPs
• Available: Must be open to any student in medical school, irrespective of background (e.g. regardless of research experience, MD or MD-PhD, career interest)

Proposed Limit to DPs
No more than 10 DPs will be offered at any one time.
DPs should have at least 5 students enrolled each year to be supported

Motion to approve limiting to 10 pathways with a minimum of 5 students per each year and approve criteria for discovery pathways to be considered a pathway.

Motion was seconded and approved.

• • Research and Discovery Course
    Presented proposed new learning objectives for the Research and Discovery course.

Proposed New Learning Objectives for Research and Discovery

1. Explain the key components of the research process from hypothesis generation to publication
2. Distinguish among the broad types of research and scholarship
3. Discuss the role of intellectual curiosity in advancing medical knowledge
4. Describe types of research communication
5. Identify best practices for creating effective presentations of research findings

Motion to approve the addition of these objectives.

Motion was seconded and approved. 

• • Genetics and Health Learning Objectives
    Updates to the Genetics and Health Learning Objectives. Discussed whether some LO’s should be their own LO or should be a sub-objective within the LO.

Motion to approve the new learning objectives.

Motion was seconded and approved. 

• • Clerkship Grade Distribution
    Voted at last meeting to remove minus grades, discussed effect on distribution. Clerkship directors were split between the following two proposals.

Proposal 1: A’s 30 – 35%; B+’s 45 – 50%; B’s 15 – 25%

Proposal 2: A’s 25 – 30%; B+’s 40 – 45%; B’s 25 – 30%

Committee members decided that there did not need to be a suggested distribution coming from the committee. Rather, asked clerkship directors to develop more consistency around the definition of what excellence is. Specifically, asked them to define what an A performance looks like.

• • Curriculum Committee minutes – 04.09.2024
    Change the verbiage of the Administrative Structure policies to reflect correct titles.

Motion to approve change.

             Motion was seconded and approved. 

• • Professionalism Assessment in Clinical Years
    Provided an update of the programmatic assessment of professionalism and about how to operationalize this in the upcoming academic year (which will be a shadow year). Presented information on existing clinical evaluation tool and P-Mex.

Motion to approve moving from the 3 and 4 point scale to the 9 point.

             Motion was seconded and approved. 

• • Graduation Requirements
    For students who do not match in a residency program, this allows the student to drop one required educational experience to participate in research or away rotations which will allow them to defer their graduation.

Motion to approve this change.

             Motion was seconded and approved. 

• • Approve removal of minus grades from all affected policies and other information
    Due to removal of minus grades, all affected policies and other information needs to be updated.

Motion to remove the words “minus grades” from all affected policies and official documents.

             Motion was seconded and approved.

• •  Travel funding
    Motion to change funding availability and notification from academic year to fiscal year.

Motion to approve academic to fiscal.

Motion was seconded and approved.

• •  CPESA Report
    Provided the update of the Class of 2027 Performance report.
  • SADEA/LCME Update
    Survey sent out regarding Strategic Planning. Would appreciate everyone taking the time to complete.
  • Good News (will present at next meeting)
    Provide good news events for College of Medicine faculty, residents, students