Valentina Bettencourt & Jesse Friedman Creating Excellence through the new Collaborative Learning Environment

Since last September, Valentina and Jesse have been hard at work moving iROCKET to the new campus Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE). Based on the open-source Moodle learning management system, the CLE is replacing the WebCT courseware system that has been in use at UCSF since 2000. The new CLE will help support a more flexible and feature-rich iROCKET.

Valentina and Jesse are gearing up to launch the new iROCKET on the CLE starting with the Clinical Core in April 2009!

They have been working daily with the Library’s Center for Instructional Technology and Center for Knowledge management to help development and shape the CLE. They have also been training and orienting faculty and staff to the CLE and assisting in migrating content and building out the new iROCKET courses. All the while, Valentina and Jesse have continued to support and maintain our excellent iROCKET courses on WebCT.

Please join us in thanking Valentina and Jesse for creating excellence in Medical Education.

UCSF Undergoing Reaccreditation

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is the regional organization that is responsible for the accreditation of public and private universities and colleges in California, Hawaii and the Pacific Basin. WASC provides the accreditation for UCSF as a whole and for the Graduate Division in particular. This site displays the process of UCSF's reaffirmation of accreditation by WASC.

http://wasc.ucsf.edu/default.html

Inauguration Day 2009: Students, Staff, and Faculty Gather

Happy Inauguration Day 2009!

Students, staff, and faculty gathered this morning to listen to President Obama being sworn into office. UCSF, Medical Education, along with the rest of the country took a moment to pause and watch history being made.

E-learning as Evidence of Educational Scholarship

In the current issue of Academic Medicine there is an article which reports on the results of a national survey of Chairs of Promotion and Tenure Committees at US medical schools which measured attitudes toward e-learning as a scholarly activity and found that selected e-learning activities and products are valued as evidence of scholarship. More information on the MedEdPORTAL News.

Kevin Souza receives Featured Publication on MedEdPORTAL

Kevin Souza's publication "Peer Review of Educational Scholarship Faculty Development Workshop" is a featured publication on the MedEdPORTAL. This workshop has been offered at UCSF to faculty and several times in modified formats to students and residents. The workshop reviews the history of educational scholarship and helps faculty think about their own scholarship and its value. Learn more http://www.aamc.org/mededportal.

UCSF Instructional Grants, Applications Due March 16, 2009

UCSF Instructional Grants Program 2009-2010: Focus on Interprofessional Education

The Instructional Grant Program has undergone major revisions beginning with the 2009-2010 year. Funds are available to support instructional improvement projects focused on interprofessional education, to be completed during the 2009-2010 academic year. This grant program seeks to address one of the goals of the campus strategic plan: “ensure that students and trainees are immersed in a culture that embraces interdisciplinary, interprofessional and transdisciplinary educational programs.”

Two grants will be awarded at a maximum of $18,000 each. UCSF faculty, students, and staff are invited to apply. Funds can be used to cover faculty release time as well as other project costs. Proposals will be expected to be developed by, or specify, collaborators in two or more schools.

Proposals may support interprofessional education through a wide range of activities. There is no requirement that projects be technology-focused. Successful grant applications will emphasize innovation and education programs that cross traditional boundaries (e.g., cross-School programs that serve a diverse range of health professions students). Supported activities include development of new educational programs, modification of existing instructional programs, introduction of experimental approaches to content or processes, teaching evaluation and student assessment activities.

Application criteria, instructions, and forms are available at the link below. Applications are due March 16, 2009.

http://cit.ucsf.edu/grants/

Thank You and Good Luck to Ann Magdalen

For the past five years Ann Magdalen has worked in UCSF’s clinical skills center at Mt. Zion training standardized patients to role play and evaluate medical students.
Recently Ann has decided to re-locate to the Sacramento area where she will be taking a position at UC Davis working with 2nd year medical students as a program coordinator. In this new position Ann will be using many of the skills she has acquired here at UCSF and her talents and insights will be a great asset to her new career. Ann’s husband Michael and her daughter Sophia of course will be accompanying her and while we will miss Ann’s wonderful presence here we wish her and her family all the best in their new adventures.

Please Welcome Renee Wright-Wiley

Please welcome Renee Wright-Wiley who has joined us as the Program Administrator for the Health Professions Education (HPE) and Health and Society (HS) Pathways. Renee will be working closely with Carrie Chen, MD and Dan Dohan, PhD to coordinate and help implement the HPE and HS pathways programs and coursework. Renee has several years of administrative experience at UCSF. She earned her BA from UC Berkeley in Social Work, and was the captain of the Cal Women’s Basketball team from 2005-2006. Please join us in welcoming Renee to the team.

New and Improved Learning Management System Launched this Week by Campus HR

If you have logged into the learning management system noticed a new look and feel along with a few added features. The system can be accessed the same as before by choosing the Class Catalog and Enrollments option on the Development & Training homepage.

• The first change you will notice is that no new password or username is required. Simply enter your employee identification number to log on. If you don’t have your EID, use the lookup function on the login page.
• A set of tools and instructions on how to enroll for classes, cancel enrollments, and review transcripts is available on HR’s front page news section.
• You can now access online courses in one place along with classroom training and other learning resources.
• Managers can view training records for their employees. (Note: Each employee must access the system and designate their supervisor/manager for this function to work. See the tools and instructions in the news section for how to do this.)

More features, services, and enhancements will be added as the system is fully rolled out in the coming months. Our goal is to provide an overarching coordinating framework for all staff to access their training needs in one place.

Visit the new site at http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/training

UCSF and Muhimbili University of Health Sciences Launch Initiative to Strengthen Tanzanian Health Workforce

UCSF Global Health Sciences and the Muhimbili University of Health Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania, have received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund a strategic global health collaboration to develop, implement and document strategies that will enable MUHAS and other African institutions to address their countries’ health workforce needs.

The Gates Foundation is providing $7.5 million for the two institutions over two years to develop the partnership, gather supportive information, and preliminary data to inform a long-term, sustainable partnership, for addressing the healthworkforce crisis. UCSF Professor Sarah Macfarlane and MUHAS Professor Ephata Kaaya lead the collaboration.

Solving the sub-Saharan Africa’s healthcare worker shortage has long been a priority for governments, universities and international organizations, according to the collaborators. Tanzania’s leaders recognize the need to educate and train more health care workers, they said. This project harnesses the resources of two major universities to approach the problem and aims to develop an institutional partnership model that can be replicated in other low-resource settings.

Faculty from the UCSF schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and dentistry will work with their MUHAS counterparts, as well as the MUHAS School of Public Health, to share curricula and educational technologies, and develop collaborative research programs.

“Through this collaboration, MUHAS will recruit and train faculty, strengthen the academic environment for education and research, and revise undergraduate and post-graduate curricula in order to increase its output of health professionals to serve the needs of the country,” said MUHAS Vice Chancellor, Professor Kisali Pallangyo.

The educational components of this grant will be stewarded by an interdisciplinary team that includes (pictured here L-R) Kevin H Souza, MS; Helen Loeser, MD (chair of the educational advisory team for the MUHAS project); Patricia O'Sullivan, EdD; and Susan Masters, PhD.

This grant will enable MUHAS, the main university of health sciences in Tanzania, to plan and build capacity to meet Tanzania’s long-term need for healthcare professionals to improve health outcomes, according to Professor Ephata Kaaya, director for Continuing Education and Professional Development at MUHAS.

The collaboration’s activities will be rigorously evaluated for relevance and effectiveness, added Macfarlane, director of Program Planning and Development at UCSF Global Health Sciences. She said the partnership itself will be subject to ongoing critical analysis and review.

“UCSF Global Health Sciences and MUHAS are ideal partners for this proof-of-principle collaboration for two overarching reasons,” said Haile Debas, MD, executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences. “There is remarkable institutional symmetry in that both are public health sciences institutions that train physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and allied health workers. In addition, the two universities have worked together for four years and have achieved a high level of professional trust and respect.”

“Trained healthcare workers are essential to a strong and effective health system,” said Kathy Cahill, Senior Program Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “In addition to saving lives in Tanzania, the project could serve as an effective model for other countries.”

MUHAS is a leading Health Sciences University in Tanzania dedicated to promoting health through quality undergraduate training, postgraduate education in the life sciences and health professions, research and excellence in patient care. For further information, please visit www.muhas.ac.tz

2009 Question of the Year for Academic Medicine

In the January 2009 issue of Academic Medicine, Steven L. Kanter, MD, poses the question

"How should academic medicine contribute to peace-building efforts around the world?"

What does he mean by academic medicine, what does peace-building imply, and how can one submit a response to the 2009 Question of the Year?

Visit http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2009/01000/2009_Question_of_the_Year.1.aspx to learn more.

Construction Postponed on Teaching and Learning Center

The funding for the Teaching and Learning Center and telemedicine projects has been delayed due to the current economic challenges confronting the State. All construction was stopped beginning December 22, 2008. At this time, we do not know when the funds will become available so that these projects can be completed. Further information will be provided as it becomes available.

For continued updates on the project visit http://tlc.library.ucsf.edu/

Welcome Renee Courey as the Pathways to Discovery Coordinator

Please join us in welcoming Renee Courey, PhD as the Coordinator of the Pathways to Discovery Program. Renee will serve as the strategic coordinator to develop, implement, and evaluate the policies, procedures, and processes to oversee the Pathways to Discovery program. Renee comes to us from Stanford University where she has worked as an academic director in areas of undergraduate education, advising, and research for the last five years. Prior to that she taught introductory humanities and science technology and society courses at Stanford. Renee has a PhD from University of California, Berkeley in History with an emphasis in the history of science. Renee's office is located at 513 Parnassus in Room C124, and she can be reached at renee.courey@ucsf.edu.

Welcome Jessica Angeles-Sample to Curricular Affairs

We are very happy to announce that Jessica Angeles-Sample started this week in Curricular Affairs as our Curriculum Assistant. This is a brand new position in our office and we’re thrilled that Jessica will be greeting visitors to our office, managing Helen’s calendar, and providing clerical and administrative support to the whole OCA staff. Until ISU assigns Jessica her own email account, you can reach her at OCAtemp@medsch.ucsf.edu.

Advancing Health Worldwide:: A Strategic Plan

"Representing a milestone in its 143-year history, UCSF completed its first-ever campuswide strategic plan, which charts the University’s course as a global leader in health sciences over the next two decades.

The University engaged in a highly inclusive, two-year process of institutional introspection to develop a comprehensive strategic plan that will serve as a guide to advance its fourfold mission of education, health sciences research, patient care and community service." Introduction, UCSF Strategic Plan

Mission: advancing health worldwide

Vision: In advancing health worldwide, UCSF will:

• Develop innovative, collaborative approaches for education, health care and research that span disciplines within and across the health sciences
• Be a world leader in scientific discovery and its translation into improved health
• Develop the world’s future leaders in health care delivery, research and education
• Deliver the highest-quality, patient-centered care
• Build upon its commitment to diversity
• Provide a supportive work environment to recruit and retain the best people and position UCSF for the future
• Serve the local, regional and global communities and eliminate health disparities

Each of these vision elements are related to medical education. Some, like "Develop innovative, collaborative approaches for education, health care and research that span disciplines within and across the health sciences" have obvious implications, while others, like "Deliver the highest-quality, patient-centered care," might be less obvious. However, a clinical training model like PISCES (Parnassus Integrated Student Clinical ExperienceS) is an innovative collaborative approach to education that facilitates high-quality patient-centered care by linking a medical student to a patient for a yearlong longitudinal care experience.

The 7 Strategic Directions

1. Fostering Innovation and Collaboration
2. Translating Discoveries into Improved Health
3. Educating Future Leaders
4. Providing Highest-Quality Care
5. Nurturing Diversity
6. Promoting a Supportive Work Environment
7. Serving Our Community

In the coming weeks we will review each of the seven "strategic directions" outlined in UCSF's Strategic Plan and discuss what they mean for medical education. You are invited and encouraged to comment on these through the comment feature of this blog. This week we begin by laying out the University's mission and vision.

Part 1 of a 8 part series on the UCSF Strategic Plan. Visit the UCSF Strategic Plan website at http://strategy.ucsf.edu/contents/ucsf-strategic-plan/

New State Medical Privacy Laws Incurring Personal Liability Now Effective

In response to recent privacy violations in California involving medical records, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed two new laws to protect patient privacy, AB 211 and SB 541. Both are effective this year.

These two laws work together to make health care providers — hospitals and individual health care professionals, as well as University employees — accountable for maintaining the confidentiality of patient medical information.

Importantly, individuals now face fines and penalties, for which they will be personally responsible, of up to $250,000.

Responsibilities Defined

Under the new laws, those who access or use PHI or PII are expected to:

• Access, use and disclose only the minimum necessary amount of information
• Use safeguards, including encryption software, to protect oral, written and electronic health information
• Use the “Secure” email system if PHI is in an email message
• Dispose of health information appropriately
• De-identify information whenever possible
• Protect their password(s), not share passwords, log off promptly and use computing device security
  

Report Incidents Immediately

In addition, it is critical that UCSF employees report incidents immediately, due to the new five-day reporting requirement. Report suspected privacy violations to the UCSF Privacy Office. Report lost or stolen computers promptly to the UCSF Police (415/476-1414), and if PHI is involved, call the UCSF Privacy Office (415/353-2750), as well.

Going forward, UCSF will enhance encryption activities on campus, enhance controls on clinical systems, and implement more robust monitoring and surveillance of electronic records to detect unauthorized access.

If you have questions concerning privacy or data security, call any of the following:

• UCSF Chief Privacy Officer: 415/353-2750
• UCSF Medical Center Information Security Officer: 415/353-3539
• UCSF Information Security Officer: 415/502-1593

Learn more at:

• http://pub.ucsf.edu/today/cache/news/200901071.html
  
• http://security.ucsf.edu/EIS/BestPractices.html
  

Please Welcome Jason Wang, Educational Research Analyst

Please welcome Jason C. Wang to the Educational Research Program. Jason recently received his B.A. in psychology from California State University, Los Angeles where he gained experience in quantitative psychology research from working on creating a mentorship program for at risk Latino/a youth. He was part of the team that designed the measures and methods of data collection in the program. In November, at the conclusion of the project, he attended the National Latino Psychological Association with his team to present the findings. Jason has experience using SPSS, is familiar with educational research, and has interest and expertise in statistics analysis and interpretation. Jason will be working at the China Basin office with Victoria, the Educational Evaluations group, and Drs. Boscardin, O’Brien, Teherani and O’Sullivan to coordinate research projects and train clients of the China Basin Professions Education Resource Center on the software and equipment associated with data collection and analysis.