A statewide medical education.
Nine campuses. 11 days. 364 second-year medical students. This is what Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Dr. W. “Graham” Carlos’ schedule looked like in October. Dr. Carlos accomplished this feat by teaching a different pulmonary grand rounds session on every IU School of Medicine campus in just 11 days. He also live streamed each session’s footage to simultaneously teach medical students across the state.
“The advantage of teaching this way is that students in the Class of 2020 received the same teaching, the same content at the same time,” Carlos said.
Pulmonary grand rounds is an experience embedded in the second-year medical student course, Understanding Disease and Organ Systems. During pulmonary grand rounds, Dr. Carlos posed real clinical cases to a panel of specialists. This panel included a physician, pharmacologist, pathologist and physiologist – even a respiratory therapist and radiologist during some sessions. Dr. Carlos provided students with the best education possible by featuring topic experts from each campus on the panels.
“The pulmonary grand rounds panels demonstrated to me the many gifted educators we have across the state,” said second-year medical student Evan Zehr. “Seeing that instructors from all nine campuses were invested in my education helped me feel more connected to the IU School of Medicine family.”
One school. Nine campuses.
During traditional grand rounds, physicians “round” with students to visit patients and discuss medical cases. To mirror these rounds, Dr. Carlos requested that students at the campus he was visiting wear white coats during class. The live video streaming allowed students at the other campuses to listen, ask questions and engage with the cases from the comfort of a library, coffee shop or at home. Interacting with the cases and watching medical professionals work together helped medical students build their interprofessional and clinical problem-solving skills.
Evansville mayor welcoming Dr. Carlos
Students took the opportunity during each visit to thank Dr. Carlos and share their campus pride. Evansville students celebrated by inviting their city’s mayor, Lloyde Winnecke. Northwest–Gary students had fun with handmade signs and Bloomington students came to class wearing their Halloween best.
“It was an awesome experience to be ‘in-class’ with my peers from across the state,” said medical student Matt Hollowell. “It helped me feel like I was a part of one campus instead of nine.”
A University of Innovators
Dr. Carlos, an IU School of Medicine alum, said his own experiences and student feedback inspired this new way of conducting grand rounds.
“Students want to feel a part of their entire class and they want to hear from outstanding educators no matter what part of the state they reside in,” he said. “They want class time to be engaging, dynamic and entertaining so that when they tune in to learn, their instructors have their full attention.”
This course is one of many effective ways IU School of Medicine educates its students across the sate. Many students and faculty have dubbed this year’s pulmonary grand rounds “Graham Rounds” in honor of Dr. Carlos. Dr. Carlos is excited about the success of this course and will continue to find innovative ways to teach and unite students across the state.
