Illinois Medicine

i l l i n O i S M e d i C i n e | 27 in groups, with the philosophy that "every question is a patient," which develops their clinical reason- ing skills; the inclusion of a "gingerbread men" work sheet, which the students use to illustrate similarities and differences between similar conditions and dis- eases and is useful for "comparing different disor- ders within a category rather than just learning each disorder independently"; and an overall push for team work with an emphasis on problem-solving. "I de- mand they talk through problems so they master the technical terms of medicine while learning to actively synthesize, interpret, evaluate, predict and discrimi- nate between relevant and irrelevant information," she says. Best-Popescu has developed that approach to teaching to ensure that the M2 curriculum builds upon the foundational basic science learned in M1, and develops in the context of clinical significance and problem-solving with the understanding that both the content and the skillset learned will contribute to clinical expertise, the focus of the M3 and M4 years. as the M2 year progresses, the focus changes from "memorizing facts," to understanding etiology, pathogenesis clinical significance and critical thinking. M3 – clInIcAl cleRKshIPs begIn errol Baptist, Md, has taught pediatrics to students on their pediatric clerkship in rockford since 1977, when the clerkship happened during the M4 year; it was an eight-week rotation rather than the six weeks in recent years, which challenged him to condense the mate- rial he wanted students to learn without diluting the impact, he says. But Baptist has met those challenges and more, winning 28 golden apple awards, One of his students, Joe Puetz, Md '14, notes that Baptist's lectures begin at 6:30 a.m. from three to six times a week depending on the focus. Baptist is al- ways impeccably prepared, and students benefit from an evolving textbook he wrote early in his tenure in rockford and has updated every year based on new scientific knowledge. Baptist also has a set of 40 lectures and presents as many as he can during an M3 clerkship—normally he'll get to 25 or 30 and chooses them based on the level of students' enthusiasm. He supplements the textbook and lectures with voluminous notes that cover very specific concepts which help clarify what he has previously presented. Baptist says he carries other lecture notes around at all times he is engaged with students, so that he can dive in and find a concept that they need clarified right then and there. He describes the notes as being "five times as thick" as his textbook. every morning, Baptist's students get a quiz based on case reports from his long career as a clini- cian, and they focus on presentation and diagnosis. e r ro l b a p t i s t R o c k f o r d ChiCAGO M2: nancy Freitag, PhD; professor, microbiology & immunology M3: richard Stringham, MD; assistant professor, clinical family medicine M4: Fred Zar, MD; clinical pathophysiology, internal medicine PeORiA M2: Pushpa Joseph, MD; associate professor, clinical pathology M3: Matthew Mischler, MD; clinical assistant professor, internal medicine ROCkFORd M1: Atisak "Jack" Sapying, MD; primary care experience, family & community medicine M2: isaac H. Cha, PharmD, BCPS; clinical assistant professor, pharmacology M4: Krishna Sankaran, MD; clinical associate professor, medicine URbAnA M1: Martha Sweeney, PhD, instructor, anatomy, cell & developmental biology M3: Blair rowitz, MD; clinical instructor, surgery M4: Kathleen Collins, MD; clinical assistant professor, internal medicine "from day one, I emphasize that I am teaching you, but you need to question anything you don't understand. Also, if I say something that's controversial, if you doubt it, challenge me. this happens quite a bit." A bUShel OF APPleS Additional faculty recognized with COM Golden Apple Awards eleven other college of Medicine professors were named Golden apple recipients by students for their teaching excellence. they are: nancy freitag Pushpa Joseph Atisak Sapying Martha Sweeney Richard Stringham Matthew Mischler Isaac H. Cha Blair Rowitz fred Zar Krishna Sankaran Kathleen Collins

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