NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE REGIONS

For the second consecutive year the AAMC Southern Group on Educational Affairs (SGEA~) organized their annual spring meeting according to the suggestions and interests of their component regional Special Interest Groups (SIGs). For the first time, communications about the meeting with the approximately 150 members of the Southern Regional Chapter of the SIG on Basic Science Education (BSE-SIG) was conducted exclusively by E-mail using the recently constructed Southern Regional Chapter E-mail Database. (Those of you in the region who were not contacted should complete and return the form below.) Hosted by the University of Florida College of Medicine, the theme for the meeting was “Education: Can it Shape the Future of Health Care”. A reflective, sobering and entertaining keynote lecture was delivered by University of Florida President Dr. John Lombardi on “Medical Education in the University Setting” , followed over the course of two days by a number of very interesting discussion groups, panel sessions, workshops and poster sessions.

One recurring topic of this meeting was the integration of basic sciences into the clinical years of the medical school curriculum, a stated but generally unrealized goal of most medical educators. In this regard, the Southern Regional Chapter of the BSE-SIG hosted a session titled Basic Science Education in the Clinical Years: Much Ado About Nothing?, in which Dr. Joanne Moore (University of Oklahoma), Dr. Steve Nadeau (University of Florida), and l shared our ideas, experiences and frustrations. Members of the audience engaged in a lively debate, some arguing that the basic sciences are already an integral component of the medical student third and fourth year experiences, others arguing that they are not. As could have been anticipated, a consensus was not reached, but rather agreement that the dialogue should continue.

I would appreciate any suggestions concerning basic science issues to consider for next year’s SGEA meeting at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Thursday, March 20- Saturday, March 22, 1997. Please send these on the form below, as well as additions to our Southern Region E-mail database.

PLEASE RETURN TO:Gary C. Rosenfeld, Ph.D.FAX: 1-713-792-5911
E-MAIL: grosen@farmrl .med.uth.tmc.edu