Illinois Medicine

sors can see it simultaneously. It makes it easier for the professors to focus on what's important," says the Glencoe native. The approach also pushed Huvard to study harder. "I definitely prepared much more for the sessions that I knew I'd be quizzed on, which helped me keep up with the material," he says with a chuckle. "As I prepare for boards, I'm glad I put that much more effort in up front." In addition to the team-based learning sessions, class lectures have gained an interactive component with the implementation of the i>clicker, a student response system. All students are required to purchase the device, which enables them to answer multiple choice questions raised during lectures. The answers are transmitted instantly to the instructor's computer, allowing the teacher to see how well students understand the material. "Questions can be prepared in advance, or written on the fly. If students look confused you can poll the class," Hyderi says. Peer Instruction: Students Today, Teachers Tomorrow COM's MD/PhD programs are among the largest to offer an integrated medical-scientific curriculum T he complex nature of biomedicine and healthcare demands that students be trained in a broad range of disciplines. With complimentary programs on the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago campuses, the College of Medicine hosts one of the largest populations of MD/PhD students in the U.S., who are trained to enter academic and research settings ready to develop innovative solutions to important biomedical problems. As the senior associate dean for research at the College of Medicine and the director of the NIH-supported Medical Scientist Training Program, Larry Tobacman, MD, witnesses the challenges and successes of these dedicated students. "The University of Illinois College of Medicine is a major biomedical research center, replete with innovative laboratories that offer rigorous opportunities for graduate training," he says. "In addition to scientific training, we offer superb medical education." With an integrated curriculum focused on careful sequencing of traditional medical student study and graduate studies in the basic medical sciences, the college's MD/PhD graduates can bring scientific insight to bedside problems and an ability to educate future students.The dual degree requires approximately eight years of advanced study. The first two years are used to complete the M1 and M2 medical curriculum and explore research opportunities under faculty guidance. Students begin without affiliation to a department to be exposed to the widest possible opportunities in developing their individual courses of study. They explore research opportunities in any PhD program, including anatomy and cell biology, biochemistry and molecular genetics, bioengineering, microbiology and immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, physiology and biophysics, or in various non-medicine fields. The 2013-2014 academic year has brought a record enrollment of dual degree students, placing the College of Medicine among the national leaders graduating MD/PhD students. More than 130 students in over 30 disciplines have been enrolled at the Urbana-Champaign campus and 13 new students have begun in Chicago, for a total of 58 at that campus. "Hands down the best attribute of our particular program would be the spirit of collaboration at the school – both between students, and between students and faculty," says current MD/PhD student James Frencher. "We are exposed to a broad range of tools used to better characterize the nature of these problems and their causes through basic science research." He adds "working together in a range of disciplines allows us to better understand the problems of medicine, the tools we have to fix them, and the connections we need to bring together creative ideas." — Michael Wesbecher Photo: Lloyd De gr a n e While in other Year 1 courses students learn from each other during the group discussions in team-based learning sessions, the implementation of peer instruction in the gross anatomy lab allocates major teaching responsibilities to students on a rotating basis. The approach, begun in the 2009-2010 academic year, has involved restructuring pedagogy in the lab, where historically groups of six students gathered at a dissecting table during each lab session, an arrangement that resulted in only one or two dissecting a cadaver while the others observed and assisted. That method left students distracted and faculty members stretched thin. Now, only one rotating student from each of 32 six-member teams attends a lab dissection session. Matched with a student from another team, the team members take turns dissecting regions of the cadaver over the course of the year, guided by a faculty member. This means each faculty member works with only four students during each dissection session. The following day, the students who perform the dissection separately present the dissected region and teach its anatomy to the seven peers on each of their respective teams. The students take a quiz prior to performing each dissection to make sure they're prepared, and the peer groups provide formative feed- MD/PhD: Dual Degree, Singular Purpose The NIH-supported Medical Scientist Training Program at the College of Medicine has attained premier status thanks to faculty like (from left) Larry Tobacman and Bellur Prabhakar and students like James Frencher. illinois medicine | 13

• Cover