November 25, 1997

Introduction to Clinical Medicine
Special Interest Group
AAMC Group on Educational Affairs

Annual Report

The activities of the ICM SIG currently revolve around the yearly meeting in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the AAMC. This SIG represents the only national and/or regional forum for course directors and others interested in teaching/learning of early clinical skills and decision making in medical school curricula. It represents an opportunity for networking that continues through the year, outside of official ICM SIG functions.

The Steering Committee for the ICM SIG is made of up of the following individuals:
Leesa DiBartola EdD, george Washington University, convenor; Mary Ann Antonelli MD, West Virginia University, past convenor; Donald Brown MD, University of Iowa; Jim Davis, University of Wisconsin (Madison); Jane Turner MD, University of Michigan; and Steve Ytterberg, University of Minnesota.

The committee communicated electronically before the meeting. Due to prior commitments, only three of the steering committee members were able to meet briefly at noon prior to the SIG meeting.

Annual Meeting

The Introduction to Clinical Medicine Special Interest Group (ICM SIG) met at the 1997 Annual GEA Meeting in Washington DC on November 5, 1997 at 6:30 pm. There were approximately 50-60 attendees at the general session; the breakout format for this program was self-directed and approximately 15 participants are estimated to have attended each of the three events. Thirty five attendees submitted e-mail addresses. A few "wish I could have come" intents were personally delivered to the convenor.

The new SIG membership list compiled by the GEA after the new sign-up for the GEA Sections was unavailable at the time of the meeting; since new sign-ups were taken at the GEA desk, an updated list is expected to be available to the convenor in the near future.

Newly Elected SIG Convenor:

Announcement was made that Leesa DiBartola EdD, George Washington University School of Medicine, is the newly elected ICM SIG Convenor. Ballots were distributed with the SIG Program announcement sent out by the Convenor prior to the meeting, and mailed/faxed back prior to the AAMC meeting.

General Discussion and Update:

Currently, the Central and Southern Regions have an ICM SIG. There was interest expressed in a Northeast GEA SIG meeting with the 1998 meeting in Boston. Regional ICM SIG representation and activities were encouraged.

Mary Ann Antonelli, outgoing Convenor, reviewed the emphasis on educationally-related projects by the GEA, and urged members to assist where they saw themselves of benefit to the GEA and medical education.

The ICM SIG Web Page URL (http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/ICMSIG), as well as electronic addresses for "DR-ED" (LISTSERV@MSU.EDU) and "MED-ED", the AAMC's Technology in Medical Education listserve were distributed.

Members expressed their displeasure of the evening SIG hours after a very busy meeting day.

Program Highlights

Three presentations given at the meeting and were followed by breakout sessions.

Presentations:

Jane Turner MD Pitfalls of Performance Assessment

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Leesa DiBartola EdD Doing More with Less
George Washington University School of Medicine

Donald Brown MD Teaching Aids
University of Iowa


Breakout sessions:

A. "Doing more with less" Discussion group moderated by Leesa DiBartola. Dr DiBartola reports: Low attendance (there seemed to be interest in the topic but given the time of day I think many people opted for dinner!) Those who did attend had creative ideas and were expressive in their opinion that this is a central issue. Ideas for resolution included: administrative time for teaching
teaching portfolios that are considered for promotion and tenure review
support of the decision makers for making teaching a priority and of equal value with clinical and research.

B. "Performance assessment" Discussion group moderated by Jane Turner
The discussion centered around various methods of evaluation of skills used by attendees, and sharing of strategies for accurate, reliable and practical strategies including pitfalls.

C. Teaching aid demonstrations moderated by Donald Brown
-U-medic cardiac simulation CAI (University of Miami)
-Cardio-sim cardiac simulation (Cardionics)
-Examination of the mouth, oral simulations, Mortimer Lorber DMD, MD and Edward Mopsik, DMD, MS , Georgetown University
-Ophthalmoscopic simulator-trainer, Mary Ann Antonelli MD, West Virginia University

Don Brown distributed an evaluation instrument for the Teaching Aids Breakout, of which 11 were returned.

Question 1:"I found the value of the demonstrations this year to be: 1 (none) to 5 (great)
For # 1, the results (simple average) were 4.45

Question 2: For future demonstrations coupled to ICM-SIG,
I recommend (discontinuing) or (continuing) such efforts.
For # 2, the results were unanimous for "Continue".
with comments such as "Been searching years for teaching aids. Expand this!"

The meeting was adjourned following the breakout sessions at 8:30 pm.

Other SIG Activities

1. Regional GEA ICM SIGs

Drs. DiBartola and Antonelli have undertaken contacting ICM SIG members of the regions that do not currently have an ICM SIG to encourage the development of regional discussion groups and/or meetings with the regional GEA activities. Currently there are active ICM SIGs in the Southern and Central Regions.

2. ICM SIG Web Page

There was interest in developing interactive communication for ICM SIG members. A SIG member offered to host such a listserve, and the opportunity will be explored further.

There have been 315 "hits" on the ICM SIG Web Page since Feb, 1997.

Respectfully submitted

Mary Ann Antonelli MD
Immediate Past Convenor
West Virginia University School of Medicine