FAQ's

The Lead Serve Inspire (LSI) curriculum will help students apply and retain foundational science knowledge by linking it with early clinical exposure.  In addition assessments will be competency-based allowing students to demonstrate their achievements across multiple domains.  We believe that it is these aspects of the curriculum that will ensure that our graduates are measurably excellent and that they will be poised to provide care for the future  generation of patients.

Throughout the implementation of the LSI curriculum, it is our faculty’s commitment and promise to continually improve the existing curriculum. There will be a four-year transition into the LSI curriculum, thus our continuous quality improvement paradigm that is already in place for the existing curriculum will continue, and there will be continuous quality improvement throughout the transition.

It is anticipated that the size of the class will range from 195 to 220 students depending on the total number of students enrolled in the College of Medicine. It is not our anticipation that the class size will be increased or decreased, but that we will maintain the current number of students.

The anatomy curriculum will be delivered in association within the systems based approach of Part 1.  Students will learn anatomy through a combination of pro-section, dissection, virtual imagining, and radiologic correlation in association with the physiology and pathophysioloy of the organ system.  This will be done in a coordinated fashion with foundational science concepts as well as case-based sessions in association with small-group learning.  It will be different but we firmly believe that these changes will make the anatomy experience more meaningful.

Students will experience all of the parts of the LSI curriculum: the first part being clinical foundations, the second part clinical applications, and the third being advanced clinical management. All students will experience all components of the curriculum in order to be able to successfully meet competency-based assessments.

Through the use of a competency based curriculum, students will need to meet core competencies prior to moving to the next point in the curriculum. There are periods of time for remediation for students who have difficulty with certain aspects of the curriculum.  This will provide students with an opportunity to  remediate any deficiencies that exist before beginning the next component. However, if students have substantial deficiencies repeating the curriculum could involve restarting at interval points to enable them to most successfully master the competencies.

The new curriculum will start in August 2012, and every entering class thereafter will experience the LSI curriculum.

The development and implementation of the LSI curriculum has a transition period that spans years. This has been a coordinated, well thought-out effort that has involved many pilot programs to ensure that the LSI curriculum at its complete rollout in 2012 will be a successful endeavor. We fully anticipate that there will be aspects that are fine-tuned along the way, and this is not unlike our current curriculum where we have a process of continuous quality improvement.

The LSI curriculum will be a competency-based curriculum and students will experience one integrated course in three parts. Students will not have multiple courses they need to pass but rather a competency-based curriculum where they need to meet all of the competencies as set forth by the faculty in order to progress through certain points within the curriculum. At the time of graduation all students will have been required to meet the core educational objectives of the medical curriculum. These are not compensable competencies; therefore, each student needs to meet each competency individually.

Without a doubt the LSI curriculum allows for significantly more flexibility for individualized learning. All three parts of the curriculum will have components by which students can preference certain experiences or learning methods that will allow for greater flexibility. In addition, the design of the second and third parts of the curriculum will give students natural break points. These break points permit students time to pursue a dual degree or alternate learning experience such as a research fellowship.

Research opportunities can occur in a traditional fashion after the first year, during the first summer between Med 1 & 2. However, part one of the curriculum allows for students to take competencies early so they can do advanced research work within the content area of the module. Students have a natural break between part one and part two to go out for an extended research experience. However, for those students who want less than a year of time to be dedicated to research, there is an advanced competency track in the third year that will allow them to participate in more in-depth research with less time commitment.

The LSI curriculum is designed to allow students early patient experience. Students at the beginning of the LSI curriculum will have skills based training in which the will learn to perform common office based procedures as well as medical history taking and focused physical examination. This will allow students to be integrated into the clinical environment in a way that they can contribute to the care of patients while learning how to associate the foundational science knowledge they are learning in the curriculum.

The LSI curriculum was conceptualized by a broad range of constituents including students, faculty, administrators, nursing, allied health professionals and patients. This large group of individuals, as well as the large number of faculty and students who are involved in the implementation of the LSI curriculum, has really established a foundation for making the implementation successful.

The LSI curriculum is unique to the Ohio State University College of Medicine. There may be pieces and concepts throughout this curriculum that are being used by other institutions throughout the country. However, the combination of a competency-based curriculum with early clinical experiences and individualized learning is not being implemented on this scale at any other institution.

Without a doubt the LSI curriculum is a curriculum that is unique and innovative.  This curriculum will ensure that each graduate from the College of Medicine will be measurably excellent when compared with graduates from other schools  We believe that our graduates will be sought after by residency programs, as our graduates will be specifically ready to enter residency.

Within the LSI curriculum career exploration starts early in the first year.  The career exploration curriculum is continued throughout all subsequent years with the goal to  help students decide on a career choice.  The career curriculum is deliberate and aims to help students develop their interests by exposing them to various fields of medicine early on in part one.

The LSI curriculum has at its core a collegial relationship between a student and a faculty coach. This relationship will exist over the four years of the curriculum and will create an ability for the student to interact with a faculty member and obtain advice on meeting the core competencies over the course of their four years at Ohio State.

Residency program counseling will occur in part two of the curriculum, specifically when the career curriculum gradually morphs into residency preparation.  Students will receive instruction regarding the application and interview process for residency.

Students who graduate from the LSI curriculum will be measurably excellent, making them sought after by even the most competitive residency programs. Students will continue to take national measures such as USMLE Step 1 and Step 2. These, in conjunction with the LSI curriculum core competencies, will make our students competitive for even the difficult-to-get residencies.

The LSI curriculum is a competency-based curriculum by which students need to meet competencies in order to move to the next curricular component. The College of Medicine will remain non-grading to the extent that competencies are graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Students are assessed in multiple fashions in the LSI curriculum. They will be assessed using faculty developed multiple choice examinations in association with National Board of Medical Examiner standardized question exams.  Objective Structured Clinical Examinations will be used to assess skills based competencies.  In addition reflection will be used as a means to assess a students ability to self-assess.

Unlike many other curricula, the LSI curriculum will have a core longitudinal board prep whose specific intent will be to help students be successful in performing on the USMLE Step 1 and 2 exams. This board prep will occur in a longitudinal fashion across parts one, two, and three of the curriculum.

It is fully anticipated that the learning communities will continue throughout the LSI curriculum. The learning communities provide a means by which students in a small group fashion can interact with faculty in the College of Medicine in an extracurricular fashion. We believe this experience improves both student and faculty relationships and also helps students identify with faculty within the College of Medicine.

The small group learning experiences that occur every week will insure that students have much more individualized faculty attention. In addition, the longitudinal coach will help mentor students on an individual fashion throughout the four years of their curriculum. Learning communities will provide students with an opportunity to have more individual attention.

Anatomy content will be covered in an integrated fashion within each systems based block.  Students will spend time in the anatomy lab dissecting but will also learn content through pro-section and e-learning.  We believe that the association and distribution of anatomy content directly with the foundational science concepts that the students are learning for that body system will greatly improve student understanding of the material and help them to maintain the knowledge of anatomy throughout their four years.

In the LSI curriculum there will be week-long periods of assessment that create a multi-modal means by which students are assessed on the competencies. This will be a combination of subject examinations in addition to clinical examinations as well as practical examinations associated with the anatomy content.

At its core, the LSI curriculum enables students to develop individualized learning plans after they self assess their current status. This skill set in the field of medicine is an expectation of the future physician. Students who participate in this curriculum will acquire the ability to assess their own level of confidence and to develop the means by which to improve upon any areas of deficiency. Without a doubt early clinical exposure and linking clinical experiences with the learning of foundation science concepts will help students maintain foundational science knowledge over the long term.

Learning in the LSI curriculum is directed toward meeting the core educational objectives of the medical curriculum. Within these core educational objectives are all of the elements students need to successfully perform on both Step 1 and Step 2. Thus the LSI curriculum will enable students to be well prepared for the USMLE assessments.

It is fully anticipated that the current distribution of Satisfactory, Letters of Commendation, and Honors designations will continue under the LSI curriculum.

Feedback regarding the portions of the LSI curriculum that have been piloted in various aspects of the current curriculum by students within the College of Medicine has been very positive. It is through the interactions with students who have participated in these pilots that we have continually improved on areas to ensure that when the LSI curriculum roles out in 2012, students will find it an extremely innovative and rewarding experience.

Program evaluation has been specifically designed to give us early feedback on performance measure within the LSI curriculum. This will ensure that students progressing through the curriculum are achieving the necessary competencies and that the learning methods are appropriate and conducive to learning the required material.

It is fully anticipated that graduates of the LSI curriculum will be measurably excellent, thereby improving the reputation of The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

The LSI curriculum has a block format in part one, a rotating block format in part two, and a rotating block format in part three.

The LSI curriculum is a hybrid of both, including lectures, podcasting, and self-directed learning modules in addition to e-learning opportunities for students to achieve the competencies for each component of the curriculum.

In part one of the curriculum those students in the MD/PhD program can continue to meet the competencies through study that only requires a minimum of class time, allowing them to progress in the MD/PhD program similar to the fashion they had done previously. The natural breaks between part one and part two will allow students to rotate out of the curriculum to pursue their PhD degree and have a natural break by which they can return.

The Independent Study Program will be integrated into the LSI curriculum in association with the Integrated Pathway so that all students will have the ability to choose their learning methods through each part of the curriculum. This will allow for the most flexibility for students going through the curriculum.