Committee for Excellence in Health Science Education (CEHSE)
Minutes for Meeting #2, June 6th, 2003

Prepared by Sarah Karmin and Hilary Schmidt

Present: Ron Drusin, Andy Davidson, Sarah Cook, Pat Molholt, Rita Charon, Michael Gershon, Letty Moss-Salentijn, Ian Lapp, Richard Kessin, Harvey Colten, Hilary Schmidt
Absent: Laura Forese, Ken Forde

Committee Name: The steering committee will be renamed the Committee on Excellence in Health Science Education (CEHSE).

The Charge: The committee chair reviewed the charge as clarified by the Dean after the first meeting. The charge is to develop and implement a plan for integrated educational support and resources to enable and cultivate innovation, excellence and scholarship in health science education. The tasks related to this charge include the following:

• Develop a mission/philosophy for education
• Create a system to consolidate delivery of existing educational resources
• Identify unmet needs and recommend additional educational resources
• Develop a mission and plan for expanding our capabilities for using simulations in the service of education needs and priorities with high priority on finalizing a concept for a Clinical Performance Assessment Facility.

The charge was reviewed in the context of the four educational recommendations that were determined during Education Strategic Planning Phase I (Education Space, Rewards and Recognition for Teaching, Support and Resources for Teaching, and Education Collaboration). The Dean selected this initial focus on integrating and augmenting existing resources for education because this an urgent need, a high priority across all schools, and it can be addressed relatively quickly serving to improve education and faculty morale.

The Committee raised questions about the Dean's reference to creating a new Academy for Excellence in Teaching (The Glenda Garvey Teaching Academy) at the P&S graduation. Committee members believe that this concept is in a seminal form, and that the academy would be modeled on the teaching academy at Harvard. The Committee for Excellence in Health Science Education will recommend to the Dean that it be involved and advise on the development of such an Academy.

The Committee was concerned about the lack of communication and coordination between various groups involved in projects related to the education and facilities planning. The committee recommended therefore, that the CEHSE take on a central leadership role in setting priorities and ensuring coordination of efforts. All education related projects or planning efforts that cut across schools should consult with, include, or be subsumed by this group. Since educational facilities were identified as a high priority in phase 1, and a 5-year plan of space needs is currently in draft form, the committee plans to immediately add education facilities planning to its charge. Bob Lemieux will immediately be invited to become a member of this committee. He will be asked to present his plans to CEHSE at the next meeting.

The Process: CEHSE will oversee two subcommittees: the one-stop-shopping committee, and the Simulation Sub-committee. The Steering Committee will advise on the process and charge of both committees, will contribute ideas, review and critique plans, and be responsible for submitting detailed reports and plans to the Dean for each part of this project including budgets and business plans.

The One-stop Shopping subcommittee will run in two phases:

1. The subcommittee will initially consists of 3-5 of the best, most innovative teachers from each school (to be determined by school deans). These faculty will participate in meetings and a retreat to develop a vision for educational support and resources for both classroom and clinical teaching venues.
2. 2. Once the vision is fully detailed and priorities, the committee membership will be broadened to include key representatives from all groups and units that provide support to faculty (AV, Scheduling, Facilities, CERE, CAIT, Library, CCNMTL, Curriculum Design, CourseWorks etc.). Meetings and a retreat are planned to finalize an implementation plan.

The simulation subcommittee, chaired by Pat Molholt and Ken Forde, has already been convened, building on a grass roots effort that has been in place for some months. This group has already begun to define a mission and vision for simulation at Columbia University Medical Center. Several meetings have taken place, including two with diverse participants from throughout the entire university (computer science, bio-engineering etc.) to be sure that potential opportunities for collaboration were identified in the earliest stages. It is anticipated that a Simulation Center will be in partnership with the hospital. Teachers College, Psychology and other departments will be asked to join in planning. The simulation subcommittee is proposing a mission for simulation that will focus on quality assurance in delivery of health care, and error reduction. This broad vision must be translated into a set of specific problems for initial focus that can distinguish Columbia. The Simulation subcommittee must expand to include all health science schools and each Academic Dean has agreed to identify one faculty member to serve on the simulation subcommittee.

Harvey Colten mentioned that Columbia is working with Harvard to generate a large scale simulation program. They are looking to collaborate with industry, government and schools and to lobby the federal government for funding. The size of this project is enormous and the simulation subcommittee will also be involved in and support this larger joint effort.

The Simulation Sub-committee will also finalize plans for the Clinical Performance Assessment Facility. It was brought to the Committee's attention that there has been progress on identifying space for a establishing a temporary facility for performance assessment by next year.

Budget: At the Dean's request a planning budget was drafted, and the proposed budget was reviewed and approved with the addition of a retreat for the simulation subcommittee and an overnight stay at Arden House. The budget supports meetings for all three committees, 3 off-campus retreats, travel to state-of the art facilities, expert consultants, supplies, and a replacement for at least 50% of Dr. Hilary Schmidt's efforts. The budget will be given to the Dean for review by June 13^th.

Philosophy for Health Science Education: A Philosophy for Education statement, drafted by Hilary Schmidt, was discussed and generally approved (with minor wording changes) as a core value statement for the Columbia University Medical Center Schools. Individual Schools may choose to add to this for core values that are unique to the schools. The document will be revised based on the suggestions at the meeting, and circulated for approval. When finalized this Educational Philosophy will be presented to the Faculty for approval, posted on the Columbia University Medical Center web page, and can be included in each schools faculty and student handbooks. When finalized, the education philosophy statement should be widely distributed to faculty and students, and have high visibility.

Next Steps:

• Finalize and invite membership in subcommittees
• Plan One-stop shopping meeting and retreat
• Invite Bob Lemieux to become a member of CEHSE and present at the next meeting
• Ask Dean to recognize CEHSE to include education facilities planning in its charge
• Ask Dean to utilize CEHSE in creating an Academy for Teaching Excellence
• Notify other working-groups that CEHSE has convened
• Post all minutes and key planning documents on the Webpage