General Internal Medicine Fellowship Program
Masters of Science in Medical Education
Course Descriptions
Clinical Research Methods
A review of the core epidemiologic and research principles that provide students the basic building blocks for developing their knowledge and skills in conducting clinical research. In this core fellowship course, fellows: turn their ideas into researchable, answerable questions; learn practical building blocks for doing clinical research; design, write, and present a workable research protocol; and develop a plan for implementation of the protocol.
Introduction to Biostatistical Analysis
This course provides students with an opportunity to learn biostatistics from a practical perspective. The course is taught by clinical researchers, who teach biostatistics using actual data from their own research. The approach is intuitive rather than theoretical, with highly detailed examples used to justify and explain use of various statistical tests. Students learn basic statistics (including t-tests, simple ANOVA, correlation and chi-square); in addition, an introduction is provided to more complex tests including linear and logistic regression. SPSS (spell out in first usage) use is directly integrated into the course, and students learn to use SPSS syntax and interpret SPSS output. By the end of the course, it is anticipated that students will have acquired the knowledge and skill needed to perform basic statistical analysis on their own research projects.
Teaching Psychosocial Medicine and Medical Interview
This course aims to improve basic knowledge and skills regarding important and common psychosocial problems in PC and to improve specific competencies in interviewing and doctor patient interactions.
Teaching Theory and Skills
An introduction to the “basic science” of medical education. Principles will be made relevant and generalizable to common medical education settings such as ambulatory precepting, small group seminars and workshops, bedside, and lecture.
Medical Education and Health Policy
This course prepares participants to be effective citizens in changing health care and educational environments through skills building in policy and economics.
Teaching Cultural Competence
The emphasis of this course will be on gaining skills needed to teach across a variety of cultures by reinforcing positive attitudes about working with patients across a potential cultural gap and to make faculty competent lifelong learners and teachers about their cross cultural patients and populations.
Health Services Research
Building on the Clinical Research Methods Course, this course will elaborate on methods particularly germane to public health research. Topics include survey methodology, questionnaire design, psychometrics, qualitative methods, health status and outcomes measures, utilization research, and program evaluation research.
Curriculum Design and Implementation
This course provides the background and practical building blocks needed to develop a curriculum that is based on competencies and measurable objectives.
Leadership and Creating Curricular Change
An introduction to the knowledge and skills needed to survive and thrive as effective leaders during an academic career.
Evidence-based Medicine and Teaching
This course is designed to introduce the skills of researching and critically appraising literature, and to develop skills and habit of applying research evidence to teaching.
Integrative Seminar
This weekly conference during year 2 will be a forum for review of important issues in Educational Research and for presentation of research projects by the students.
Science and Human Values
An introduction to different values and ethical perspectives and their association with the conduct of scientific research and the values of scientific rigor and experimentation that are embedded in scientific research.
Analyzing Science Teaching
Using videotape and clinical observation, participants of this course will work with a mentor to analyze teaching practice, develop critical analysis skills to be able to identify areas of practice in which changes need to be made, and implement alternatives to current practice.
Capstone Project
Participants will work independently, with mentoring from faculty at Schools of Education and Medicine toward completion of a master’s thesis project. Projects will be rigorous, scholarly, and original studies of important problems in medical education.
Contemporary Issues in Science Education: Gender and Ethnicity
This course prepares participants to become aware of and better understand gender and ethnicity issues that confront students.