51社区

It鈥檚 Monday morning, and the entire first-year class at 51社区 Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is meeting a new patient.

Spread out over three campuses in Ohio and connected by videoconference, more than 260 medical students鈥攖he first to be trained in the College鈥檚 innovative new Pathways to Health and Wellness Curriculum鈥攁re starting their week as they do routinely on Mondays: diving into the simulated patient case on which their learning activities for the week will build.

They鈥檝e just finished a quiz to assess how well they鈥檝e mastered assigned material鈥攔eadings, PowerPoints, recorded lectures鈥攁ssigned in preparation for this week鈥檚 topic. After taking the exam individually, they take it again in a standing eight-student cohort who collaborate on lab and learning activities, mirroring the way modern health professionals increasingly work in teams.

This week鈥檚 patient is visiting the doctor for a wellness check-up. A Heritage College faculty member assigns each group a question for the fictitious patient to answer. Another faculty member takes the role of the patient, answering students鈥� questions about diet, exercise, and more. The class is alive with interaction, as students chime in from their microphone-equipped stations. As the patient answers questions, students suggest further follow-up questions.

In the coming week, all the specialized material the students learn, from biochemistry to gross anatomy to social factors affecting health, will be woven into their understanding of this patient鈥檚 case.

Welcome to 鈥淥steopathic Approach to Patient Care 1 鈥� Wellness,鈥� the only fall semester class on the first-year academic schedule. A course on acute illness follows in the second semester; the second-year curriculum will feature courses on chronic illness, then return to wellness.

The new curriculum, launched in fall 2018, represents one seamless arc, following patients through stages of sickness and healing.

The Pathways to Health and Wellness Curriculum (PHWC) demonstrates what medical training of the future looks like: training organized around detailed patient cases, delivered to and absorbed in teams, and designed to present information in a way the physician will use it. It abandons auditorium lectures for a 鈥渇lipped classroom,鈥� in which students prepare outside class for interactive, team-based exercises in the learning space. Information coming from formerly discrete disciplines has been merged into a holistic, practice-centric way, offered by faculty from disciplines relevant to the case.

鈥淲e are given cases with patients鈥� names, their whole history, their whole medical background,鈥� says first-year student William Naber. 鈥淭ogether, we take the material we learned that week and apply it to the case. And we help each other understand things that we didn鈥檛 understand about the case. That鈥檚 why the teamwork keeps coming back in over and over.鈥�

Jody Gerome, DO 鈥�05, associate dean for curriculum, says the PHWC continues the long-standing Heritage College practice of putting students into health care spaces like clinics and hospitals from their early days, yet now it replicates such practice venues in the classroom.

This ensures that 鈥渢he way that students are introduced to major concepts is through the lens of a patient experience,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he faculty build the content that they鈥檙e teaching together, as a team, and then deliver it as a team. Students are then working in teams to synthesize the information.鈥�

Dr. Ken Johnson, the College鈥檚 executive dean and OHIO鈥檚 chief medical affairs officer, says the PHWC is integral to the school鈥檚 mission.

鈥淚t teaches students in a way that research has shown they learn best, and that prepares them for the new realities of health care in the 21st century,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he doctors we train in it are going to come out of medical school already proficient at working on a modern health care team鈥攚ith the patient at its center.鈥�