International Medical Science Educators Meeting Shines Light on Larner’s Active Learning

June 16, 2017 by Jennifer Nachbur

A record 600+ health science educators from around the world attended the 21st Annual International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Meeting, hosted by the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and showcasing the College's active learning initiatives.
A record 600+ health science educators from around the world attended the 21st Annual International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Meeting, hosted by the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont June 10-13. Teaching Academy Director and Larner Professor of Medical Education Kathryn Huggett, Ph.D., was the program chair for the meeting, which provided an opportunity to showcase not only the College’s active learning facilities, but teachers as well.

The meeting opened with a flag ceremony and awards presentation on Saturday, June 10, in the Grand Maple Ballroom in UVM’s Davis Center. Larner College of Medicine Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education William Jeffries, Ph.D., was honored with the Master Scholar award in recognition of his distinguished record of educational scholarship, including educational research and/or dissemination of excellent and scholarly approaches to teaching and education. 

Focus session topics at the meeting – many of which took place in the College’s Larner and Reardon Classrooms – included how to involve real patients in case- and team-based learning to increase learner engagement and developing self-directed learning strategies for the classroom and beyond. In addition to breakout sessions, some attendees took time for medical student-led lunchtime tours of the Larner College of Medicine campus, including our active learning classrooms and the Clinical Simulation Laboratory.

High-profile plenary speakers included Eric Mazur, Ph.D., professor of physics and dean of applied physics at Harvard University, who discussed “Confessions of a Converted Lecturer;” Jimmie Leppink, Ph.D., of Maastricht University’s School of Health Professions Education, discussed “Managing the load on a learner’s mind: a cognitive load theory perspective;” Jeffrey Karpicke, Ph.D., Bradley associate professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University, who discussed “Retrieval-Based Learning: Active Retrieval Promotes Meaningful Learning;” and Pat Croskerry, Ph.D., professor in emergency medicine and in the Division of Medical Education at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, whose presentation was titled “Towards rational decision making in Healthcare: What needs to be done.”

A number of Larner College of Medicine faculty and staff delivered presentations at the meeting, including:

  • Judith Lewis, M.D., Nathalie Feldman, M.D., Charmaine Patel, M.D., David Adams, M.D., David Harari, M.D., and Katherine Evans, M.D. presented “The Use of Film and Inter-professional Dialogue to Address Learner Mistreatment”
  • Laurie LeClair, M.D., gave a curriculum presentation on “Coping with a code: Providing an academic framework to help third year medical students prepare for the practical and emotional reactions to attempted resuscitation”
  • Anne Dougherty, M.D., presented a curriculum session on “Pre-Departure Training for Global Health Electives in US Medical Schools”
  • Elise Everett, M.D., delivered an instructional methods talk on “Using interview simulation to improve medical student performance in residency interviews”
  • Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., led a focus session on “Building and Sustaining Community-Academic Partnerships: Teaching Students and Improving Health”
  • Molly Rideout, M.D., delivered a focus session on “Crossing Boundaries: Flipping the Classroom in the Clerkship Year”
  • Jill Jemison participated in a panel discussion on “Easy and Effective E-Learning on a Budget”
In addition, Sarah McCarthy, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurological sciences at the UVM Larner College of Medicine, received the Outstanding Poster Presentation Award at the meeting’s closing for her poster on “Empowering Medical Students through Curriculum Design of their Own Clinical Anatomy Course.”

“The 2017 IAMSE Meeting . . . truly is one for the record books,” said the meeting’s program committee in a thank you communication following the event. “This year marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of IAMSE and we celebrated the occasion by honoring IAMSE Founder, Dr. Roger Koment. Second, meeting registration numbers were the highest in the organization’s history! The response to this year’s theme, ‘Delivering Evidence-Based Health Sciences Education’ was impressive.”

Learn more about IAMSE and Larner College of Medicine Teaching Academy and Active Learning.