NEWS

Baystate Educators Campfield and Fernandez Receive 2 of 5 TUSM Innovation in Education Awards

Principal Investigator Thomas Campfield MD, Department of Pediatrics, is joined by Michael Picchioni MD, Department of Medicine, and Elisabeth Bennett PhD, Academic Affairs Education Department, for his proposal, "The Long and Winding Road: Exploring the Feasibility of a Longitudinal Integrated Clinical Curriculum." After performing an assesment of existing longitudinal curricula for medical students, the team will analyze factors that might impact the success of such a program at BMC. Finally, they will pilot and evaluate a 6-month longitudinal clinical experience for third-year TUSM students at Baystate.

Gladys Fernandez MD, Department of Surgery, Principal Investigator for the proposal, "Simulation and Critical Care Medicine—Helping Students 'Get It'" is joined by Thomas Higgins MD, William McGee MD, and Patrick Mailloux DO, Division of Critical Care Medicine, and David Page MD, Department of Surgery. Based on national and regional concerns that student exposure to critical care medicine (CCM) is often limited and overwhelming, this team will develop, implement and evaluate the impact of a preparatory CCM simulation-based curriculum for third-year Tufts medical students. The curriculum will provide exposure to a variety of fundamental critical care patient states with the goal of improving comprehension and performance during their Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) rotation, as measured by pre- and post-SICU rotation tests.

Patrick Mailloux, DO Winner of Northeast Group on Educational Affairs (NEGEA) Preclinical Innovation Award

Dr. Mailloux, Department of Medicine, and his co-investigators, William McGee MD, Department of Medicine, Gladys Fernandez MD, Department of Surgery, and Gerry Langlois PA-C, Simulation Center, received the award for their proposal, "Simulation as an Educational Modality for Multidisciplinary Training Experience in Critical Care Medicine."

Mailloux's team will use human patient simulation to teach the fundamentals of critical care to house staff from various disciplines (medicine, pediatrics, medicine-pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, anesthesia and emergency medicine) as well as medical students.  They have created scenarios with problems typically encountered in the ICU with the goal of improving the knowledge base as well as the confidence level of the learner. 

This award will be presented at the NEGEA Annual Educational Retreat in Burlington, Vermont on April 13, 2008.

Baystate Hosts First Annual Elective Fair for Third-Year Tufts Medical Students

The Elective Fair, held on March 12, featured representatives from the departments of Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pathology, Pediatrics, and Surgery, as well as the Medicine-Pediatrics Program, who talked to the students about the many fourth-year elective opportunities at Baystate.  Twenty-eight Tufts students currently rotating at Baystate were in attendance.

The informal event was well received by students and faculty alike.  Plans are underway for the Second Annual Elective Fair to be held in February 2009.  The entire third-year class from Tufts University School of Medicine will be invited to attend, as well as other area medical schools.  An official date will be provided later this summer.