This week’s news that the newly named director of the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Mark Burkard, will begin his job on October 1 means this academic year promises to start off with a lot of change! Dr. Burkard is a breast oncologist and will join our department. You will recall that our department’s next chair, Dr. Upinder Singh, will also begin officially on October 1. Congratulations to yet another search committee on the conclusion of their work and special thanks to Dr. Michael Henry for his vigorous and steady leadership as the cancer center’s interim director. It is no easy task to steward, sustain, and even grow a large organization on a temporary basis, and I am sure that Dr. Henry would echo my gratitude for the support of all the faculty and staff who lightened the load. But it is also worth noting that serving as an interim brings a heavy but healthy dose of reflection as the work nears its conclusion. As I promised last month, I intend to share some of that reflection in this space today and in the coming weeks.
I believe it is a simple fact that a passion for education played a central role for most of us in our decision to take a position at an academic medical center. If we wanted to just take care of patients, there is no shortage of opportunity in private care, especially given the wave of retirements and departures from health care we have seen in every sector. No, this particular mission—training up the next generation—is what animates us and is why we are here. Education contains many different sparks that make it attractive to faculty who choose academic medicine and Iowa especially, from leading large lectures to one-on-one mentoring, from seeing a learner conquer a challenging procedure in the lab or nailing a differential on the wards. If being a teacher of any kind is anywhere in your bones, you are in the right place.
The reasons that make Iowa’s culture so well-suited for feeling fulfilled as an educator are all around us. Two of the main factors are our size and our collegiality. Scan the last few months of education-related stories emerging from our department. At the end of June, we evaluated not only our own first-year residents, but interns from about a dozen other residency programs in UI Health Care. All told, more than 90 recent medical school graduates had some core clinical skills assessed in a series of assessments called Objective Structured Clinical Evaluations (OSCEs). The OSCEs are at the tipping point of breaking beyond our campus and going nationwide. A recent publication from Education Development Director Jane Rowat and Vice Chair for Education Dr. Manish Suneja in the AAMC’s flagship journal demonstrates with peer-reviewed rigor just how reliable the results from the OSCEs are.
How did they get the OSCEs off the ground at Iowa? This is a complicated series of coordinated activities requiring faculty observers, simulated patients, room proctors, and close to 100 people working behind the scenes. But it began with an idea of helping interns make the transition from medical school to residency more smoothly and effectively, tailoring a portion of their first months here to fit their individualized growth. That is a pitch that everyone has continued to sign on for with excitement.
The OSCEs are just one education-related innovation that grew here because of the room and support we give to good ideas. Similarly, the Transition to Residency program that former Chief Resident and now-faculty Dr. Matt Soltys has launched with the aid of many others is another. But our commitment to education extends beyond the interns. Residents interested in developing their own teaching skills have access to an assortment of opportunities through the Distinction in Medical Education (DIME) pathway, which includes a Teaching Resident Rotation, led by Dr. Lee Sanders. Our fellows and faculty are also given the chance to develop their skills through our FACE program.
That DIME is one of three distinction tracks in our residency program. The other two, Distinction in Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) and Distinction in Health Equity (DIHE), were formalized over the last couple years, though their roots stretch farther back. The POCUS track owes much to Drs. Justin Smock and Charles Rappaport for its initial stages, but it was under the leadership of former Chief Resident and current pulmonary fellow Dr. Sydney Bowmaster that it became codified. Let’s keep an eye on our current Chief Residents for the next great ideas! In fact, two of our current Chiefs were also part of the DIHE, an important new track that addresses an all-too-relevant need. Two other participants in the DIHE recently returned from Uganda and shared their thoughts on the experience. You can watch that video here.
The future of education in this department is extraordinarily sound. A quick scan of our leadership team reveals many graduates of our residency, former Chiefs, and many Assistant Program Directors who have become Associates. Moreover, new communication tools, including the use of AI, are being designed, refined, and deployed to ensure real-time feedback is received and is valuable. And there is more to come with exciting Grand Rounds presentations and other new programs to strengthen clinical reasoning. Our commitment to education runs deep in Internal Medicine. It is why we are here.
