Training to minimize errors in medical decision making: the challenges, obstacles, and the way forward
Presenter: Itiel Dror (Cognitive Neuroscientist)
Summary: Medical decision making takes place in complex and distributed cognitive environments, and sometimes involves risk and time pressure. These, along with the perception and judgement that precede the actual decision choice, potentially predispose towards error. Training and education must focus on cognitively informed strategies to prevent errors. However, since they cannot be eradicated and only minimized, we must also prepare and train how to recover from inevitable errors. Understanding the decision making processes guides the way to construct training that increases decision capabilities in terms of quality and efficiency, as well as decrease errors and help recover from them.
Biography Itiel Dror is a cognitive neuroscientist who received his PhD from Harvard University in 1994. He has a joint appointment in academia and applied consultancy/research. Dr Dror conducts scientific research into expert human performance in a variety of domains (US Air Force pilots, police, medical, financial, and forensics); specifically exploring how different factors may influence the perception, judgement and decision making of experts in the field. Dr Dror’s goal is to gain scientific understanding into the cognitive processes so he can then use these insights to develop scientifically based procedures and training so as to maximize expert performance. Much of Dr Dror’s work is purely theoretical and academic, however he specializes in using this knowledge to guide applied research within real world environments. For more information on decision making, please see: http://cognitiveconsultantsinternational.com/index.php?siteID=17
Date: Monday 6th September: 0915-1015 hrs
Location: SECC
Building a curriculum for the future: perspectives from a new Australian medical school
Presenter: Elizabeth Farmer (University of Wollongong, Australia)
Summary: Building a new school from scratch provides unique and exciting opportunities to innovate. This presentation will address various aspects of curriculum design and delivery at the new University of Wollongong Graduate School of Medicine including: an outcomes-based design linked to electronic curriculum mapping and clinical e-portfolios; and longitudinal models for community-based education focussing on continuity of care and integration of students into all facets of the local health care system in geographically diverse locations.
Biography: Professor Elizabeth Ann (Liz) Farmer BSc (Hons), MBBS PhD FRACGP is the Dean of Medicine and Roberta Williams Chair in Medicine (general practice) at the University of Wollongong, Graduate School of Medicine. Her special interests are in curriculum innovation and assessment of competence and performance. She completed her doctorate in medical education at Flinders University where she was also awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching.
Date: Tuesday 7 September: 0830-0915 hrs
Location: SECC
Educating Physicians for the Future: Acall for reform from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Presenter: David Irby (University of California, San Francisco, USA)
Summary: Twice over the past one hundred years The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has called for the reform of medical education: in 1910 Abraham Flexner stressed the importance of scientific research and educational excellence, and today a new report (Cooke M, Irby DM, O’Brien B. Educating Physicians: A Call for Reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2010) calls for additional reforms: use competency-based assessments to standardize learning outcomes and allow the pace of learning to be individualized; integrate clinical experience and science learning, including early clinical immersion; promote habits of inquiry and improvement as a means of achieving excellence and continuously advancing the field; and focus on identity formation and professional development of learners.
Biography: Dr David Irby is Vice Dean for Education and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he co-directed a national study on the professional preparation of physicians. For his research on clinical teaching and leadership in medical education, he has received awards from the American Educational Research Association, the National Board of Medical Examiners, Harvard Medical School, Graceland University, and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He earned a doctorate in education from the University of Washington and a postdoctoral fellowship in academic administration from Harvard.
Date: Tuesday 7 September: 0915-1000 hrs
Location: SECC
Trends in medical education – a UK perspective
Presenter: Jim McKillop (University of Glasgow, UK)
Summary: Today’s undergraduates – tomorrow’s doctors – will see huge changes in medical practice. There will be continuing developments in biomedical sciences and clinical practice, new health priorities, rising expectations from patients and the public, and changing attitudes. The third edition, published in September 2009, of the UK General Medical Council’s Tomorrow’s Doctors is a response to these challenges and to concerns about scientific education, clinical skills, quality and diversity in education and the professional development of teaching staff.
Biography: Jim McKillop is Muirhead Professor of Medicine and Deputy Dean of Medicine at the University of Glasgow and Chair of the GMC Undergraduate Board. He has a longstanding interest in medical education as a teacher, curriculum planner and, for 6 years, Head of the Glasgow Undergraduate School. He is a previous Chair of the Scottish Deans’ Medical Education Group and current Chair of NHS Education for Scotland’s Medical Advisory Group.
Date: Wednesday 8 September: 0830-0915 hrs
Location: SECC
Perspectives on Professionalism
Presenter: Fred Hafferty (University of Minnesota Medical School, USA)
Summary: Professionalism is on today’s agenda in medical education. There remains some confusion, however, about what is meant by the term, with a range of interpretations promoted from different perspectives. This presentation highlights the different professionalism movements including an international perspective with comparative studies from different countries. The significance of professionalism for the training of the doctor of the future has important implications for curriculum development, for the learning opportunities provided and for the assessment methods adopted.
Biography: Professor Fred Hafferty has been involved in the teaching and assessing of professionalism in relation to medical students for many years. He has conducted research into what medical students know about professionalism and the impact of the hidden curriculum and role modelling upon students’ professional behaviour development. He argues that professionalism must not be reduced to ‘a static thing’ independent of its context and that thinking of professionalism as a set of observable behaviours during teaching and assessment may miss important elements of this difficult concept, demeaning its value.
Date: Wednesday 8 September: 0915-1000 hrs
Location: SECC