As Dartmouth Medical School officials prepare to present the institution's new strategic plan to the College's Board of Trustees this weekend, a new report by a health education foundation may affect how DMS implements its strategy.
The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Jan. 27 report, "Revisiting the Medical School Educational Mission at a Time of Expansion," calls for medical schools focus more on attracting students from more diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, to train in a wider range of settings and to decrease the combined time it takes to attend medical school and complete a residency.
"It is a very good and timely report done by some deep thinkers about medical education and a foundation that has medical education as one of its priorities," Joe O'Donnell, chair of the DMS Strategic Planning Committee, said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
DMS is trying to be proactive in response to the report's call for increased diversity when it comes to patients and communities, he said.
"This is something we are actively trying to do through new liaisons with urban programs like California Pacific [Medical Center] in San Francisco and our urban scholars program working with under-served sites in Boston, Manchester and Lawrence, Massachusetts," O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell added that he has also seen the pre-print version of "The New Flexner Report," a study set to be released by the Carnegie Foundation. The report examines several types of professional education, including medicine, business and law, and suggests what the various fields can learn from one another.
O'Donnell said he is enthusiastic about the potential of both reports to help reform and modernize medical education.
"We have long agreed with the attraction of students with diverse backgrounds to medicine and how it can enrich the educational environment," he said.
The Macy and Carnegie Reports will be "important guideposts" for DMS as it shapes its future policies, he said.
While DMS is currently considering the recommendations -- including a review of the size of each class admitted to the medical school -- Dartmouth does not yet have a definitive strategy to respond to the reports, DMS Dean William Green said in an interview.
DMS is working on its financial aid program to allow students to graduate with less debt, Green said. The Macy report recommends that medical schools explore ways to make all fields of medicine accessible to students following graduation.
"We don't want students to have to think about being a primary doctor versus going to a high-paying specialty based on the debt they have when they leave," Green said.
DMS' new strategic plan emphasizes internal communication, improved teaching and research, and adjustments to budget changes, O'Donnell said at an event last year.
After DMS presents a progress report to the Board and solicits input from the extended Dartmouth community, the plan will be submitted to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits medical schools, on May 1, O'Donnell said in his e-mail to The Dartmouth.
The new strategy also takes into account the College's planned budget cuts and strives for greater efficiency, Green said.
While larger tasks, including the creation of new infrastructure to catalyze research endeavors, will require additional resources and analysis, O'Donnell said the current economic crisis has in some ways positively impacted DMS' strategic outlook.
"It has made us focus on what is core and what we should be doing so that the engine can be revved up when resources become more available, which they will," he said.
Green declined to comment more specifically about the strategic plan because it has not yet been presented to the Board.
The creation of the new strategic plan comes as DMS prepares to search for a new permanent dean to replace Green, who was appointed to the position last year for a non-renewable term after the departure of former Dean Stephen Spielberg, O'Donnell said.
The search will start once the Bard Group, a private consulting company, completes its evaluation of DMS' operational and organizational foundation, as previously reported in The Dartmouth.
"We want someone who is a good leader, a transparent communicator, collaborative, visionary, ambitious for us and a good partner for our partners at the other Dartmouth programs," O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell added that he hopes the new strategic plan will be a good road map for whoever takes the helm.
"I'm sure that person will put his or her own stamp on it too, but that's what we want," he said. "We want planning that emerges from the strengths of those in the playing field, evolves as opportunities arise and takes advantage of the strengths of this great place."
O'Donnell said the DMS faculty and staff are excited about the future of the medical school and medicine in general, particularly advances in the fields of nanotechnology, genomics and personalized medicine.
"We feel we can really 'do it right' in producing the kinds of doctors and scientists the world needs because of all the assets we have here, such as the undergraduate College, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic, the [Veterans Affairs] Hospital, Tuck School of Business, Thayer School of Engineering and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice," he said in the e-mail.
