Cadaver Rounds: A Comprehensive Exercise That Integrates Clinical Context Into Medical Gross Anatomy.

Problem: The purpose of medical schools is to train students to care for patients; however, the temporal and conceptual gap between course work and patient care may induce students to undervalue preclinical course work, thereby decreasing learning and retention. Bringing clinical context into preclinical courses reduces this problem, and many preclinical programs incorporate "cameo" appearances of clinical material. In contrast, the authors describe a comprehensive program at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine that uses the cadaver as the students' first patient to embed clinical context within preclinical anatomy.

Developing Comprehensive Strategies to Evaluate Medical School Curricula.

Evaluation of medical school curriculum is important to document outcomes, effectiveness of learning, engagement in quality improvement, and to meet accreditation compliance. This monograph provides a roadmap and resource for medical schools to meaningfully evaluate their curriculum based on specific metrics. The method of evaluation includes an examination of Kirkpatrick's levels of outcomes including reactions, learning, behavior, and impact.

Development, implementation, and results of the ASN in-training examination for fellows.

The American Society of Nephrology and the fellowship training program directors in conjunction with the National Board of Medical Examiners developed a comprehensive assessment of medical knowledge for nephrology fellows in-training. This in-training examination (ITE) consisted of 150 multiple-choice items covering 11 broad content areas in a blueprint similar to the American Board of Internal Medicine certifying examination for nephrology. Questions consisted of case vignettes to simulate real-life clinical experience.