Medical College to Train Medical Educators and Enhance Clinical Teaching

The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) received a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration to train primary care physicians as educators, using a service-learning faculty development model pioneered at MCW. Primary care physicians will advance their skills as educators while in the clinic.

Deborah Simpson, Ph.D., Professor in Family and Community Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Medical College of Wisconsin Elsa B. & Roger D. Cohen, M.D.’s Professor of Medical Education is the project director for the grant. The other project co-leaders are Geoffrey Lamb, M.D., professor of medicine (general internal medicine) and Karen Marcdante, M.D., senior associate dean of education. Jeffrey Morzinski, Ph.D., associate professor of family and community medicine, and Linda Meurer, M.D., M.P.H., professor of family and community medicine serve as instructors on the project, with Tess Chandler serving as project coordinator.

Chronic care disease management is an important aspect of primary care medicine. More than half of the American population currently suffers from at least one chronic disease, and four of the five most expensive health conditions are chronic diseases; these include heart disease and cancer. Improving the way physicians and patients manage these diseases is a key goal in the Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 report and nationally in the Healthy People 2020 report. This project will incorporate the principles of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH), as a proven strategy for improving chronic disease care as part of the design of the preceptor education tools.

Over the project period, the program seeks to graduate 20 primary care Master Educators (MCW Primary Care Faculty) who can design preceptor training which includes point of care teaching regarding chronic disease management. Sixty five primary care physician preceptors will be trained through Master Educators’ efforts to more effectively teach first and second year medical students as they see patients in the clinical setting.