This is the Clinic that Will and Charlie Built...

I have officially become a groupie of the quality improvement in health care movement. Books sitting on my nightstand include: Pauline Chen's Final Exam, Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres, and How to Change the World by David Bornstein. I squealed like I had just sighted Brad Pitt when Atul Gawande's latest book, The Checklist Manifesto arrived at my door. Instead of simply saying that I need to clean my apartment, I specifically think that I need to "5S" my kitchen and desk. In order to stay fit and get rid of the belly fat I've grown since starting medical school, I am now in PDSA cycle 3 for a 30 minute exercise routine that I can reliably perform every day. The latest sign that I am a quality improvement junkie is my weekend pilgrimage to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.



This past weekend the AMSA Chapter at Mayo Clinic hosted a Patient Safety and Quality Care Conference at Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic has not only been one of President Obama's shining examples of high quality care at low costs since he began his health reform push early last year, but has also consistently popped up during my experience at IHI as a health system that has truly embraced the IOM aim of patient-centeredness. Even though I'm buried underneath the dorsal columns of my central nervous system sequence, this was an opportunity I could not miss...

Click here to read the full blog post on the IHI Open School Blog.

"What Do I Need to Know for My Clerkships?": A Look at the Lucian Leape Institute Report on Medical Education

In the world of medical school, spring is a time of transitions. First year medical students are returning from spring break and gearing up for the last stretch of class before summer. Second year medical students are getting ready to buckle down and study for the USMLE Step 1 board exam (good luck to all!). Third year students are on their last clerkship rotations before becoming fourth year medical students. And fourth year medical students are holding their breath as Match Day approaches (this Thursday!). Like any time of transition there are a lot of questions about the future floating around. One of the most honest and interesting questions I have heard recently was from a second year student to a resident, "What do I need to know for my third year clerkships?"

This may sound like a strange question to those outside of the world of medicine. The third year of medical school should be a logical progression from the second year, right? Not exactly. Most medical schools in the United States are structured so that the first two years are spent predominantly in lecture. The first year covers the normal physiology, anatomy, and biochemistry of the body systems and the second year delves into pathology and pathophysiology. These years are marked by long hours in class and little, if any, patient interaction. With at most a two week gap after the USMLE Step 1 exam, third year medical students are then thrown into the hospital wards to learn how to apply the basic sciences into the practice of patient care. Are these new third year medical students ready to care for patients?

The Lucian Leape Institute of the National Patient Safety Foundation says, "no." Just last week, the Lucian Leape Institute released its first of a series of reports on patient safety. The first report, titled: “Unmet Needs: Teaching Physicians to Provide Safe Patient Care,” finds that U.S. medical schools are not adequately teaching students how to provide safe patient care. Click here to read the report....

Read the full post on the IHI Open School Blog