University Medical Student Council 2003-2004

Meeting # 3 - January 24, 2004

UICOM Chicago at 10:00 am

I. Welcome and Introduction started by Oveys Mansuri at 10:35 am, please see attached attendance for specific members.

II. Approval of Minutes (11/22/03) with no changes made - C. Miles (first) and C. Nelsen (second)

III. President's Report - Oveys Mansuri

A. Negotiations have begun to link Cook County Hospital with the Cancer Center at UIC.

B. Admissions policy- College feels that there may possibly be a need for a greater diversity among interviewers for incoming applicants.

C. Dean Sandlow's office has been sending out surveys to former graduates of the UICOM Chicago asking their feelings regarding the value of their education five years after graduation. There have been three survey attempts made with a response rate below 50%.

D. Student concerns regarding Dean Moss and the current administration. UMSC will arrange to meet with Dean Moss and presented a structured review of concerns that the students have. UMSC will also consider enacting a constitutional change that would require UMSC to deliver a yearly assessment of the College of Medicine.

IV. Vice President's Report - Christine Nelsen

A. CCIA - Bijal Jain – report pending

B. CCSP - Joanna Kuppy - Nothing to report because information is confidential

C. CCA - Albert Tseng - report pending

D. CCR - Oveys Mansuri

CCR has not met this year, the committee is currently involved with strategic planning and allocation of space with the new research building.

E. CCSAS - Justin Albanese - Nothing to report.

F. FEC - Aditi Joshi - The list of programs is continuing to be compiled.

V. Secretary's Report - Shrujal Baxi was not present at this meeting but sent the following report:

VI. Treasurer's Report - Albert Chan – report pending

VII. Historian's Report - Jennifer Gore - Nothing to report at this time.

VIII. Organization of Student Representative's Report - Chris Miles - Chris drafted a letter to the CCAS committee regarding the Humanism in Medicine Award. The CCSAS representative or student government from each site is to propose this award to their student body and encourage them to nominate physicians they have worked with for this award. Chris handed out brochures about the award which were to be placed in the mail room or student room at each site so students had the opportunity to read more information about the award itself. Chris asked that each campus has one nominee chosen by March 1, 2004 in order to prepare the four possible candidates biographies and other information needed in order for the winner to be chosen at the upcoming UMSC meeting in March.

IX. Site Reports

A. Joanna Kuppy - Chicago – report pending.

B. Peoria - Eric Jakubowski – report pending.

C. Rockford - Bernadette Ray - not present, Christine Nelsen read the report which stated:

Rockford Report:

Not much has happened in Rockford since our last UMSC meeting.

We have officially submitted our "short list" of candidates for the new Rockford regional Dean to Dean Moss . . . we are awaiting his final decision. Our current Dean (Dean Salafsky) has graciously agreed to staying through the end of March as we anxiously await our new Dean's arrival.

Yoon Kim has written a grant proposal for, and organized, an evening session on "Culturally Proficient Medicine" to be offered to students and faculty of Rockford. This will be held Feb. 12th.

The Rockford student body is looking forward to our Winter Dance the weekend of February 13th.

Also kicking off this month in Rockford is the "Physicians Against Flab" program. PAF involves surveys, cholesterol screenings, and a point system centered around healthy eating and exercise for all students wanting to improve their health. (side note -- I'd like to point out that Bernadette's stellar team beat Christine's team last year . . . and I have the winning coat to prove it! :)

The only major concern for Rockford students right now is money. (surprise, surprise!) We actually received our financial aid on time this semester . . . but a lot of students simply didn't get enough of it. So, we are investigating if there are more disbursements on the way. If not, the emergency loans will become a big factor for Rockford students until we get our summer financial aid awards.

D. Urbana - Tamika Alexander –

Currently Histology Final Exams are taken online. The Basic Science Committee is proposing to possibly put all M1 exams online. Scores would return rapidly. Although students would not know specifically which questions were missed on the exam, after each exam each student would know in what area there are deficiencies. This is still in the proposal stage because it is unknown the feasibility of 125 students taking online exams at the same time. (i.e. availability of computer labs)

M1 class performed better this year on first semester exams. Thus far only four students are required to take summer make-up exams. (Obviously this only applies to semester length courses…Behavioral Science, Genetics, and Microbiology)

All M2’s that took Step I passed

SNMA and USMG Co-Sponsoring A Clothing and Toiletry Drive for the AIDS Community Project.

E. Medical Scholars Program Advisory Council – report pending.

X. Old Business

A. UICOM Financial Aid Update - Oveys Mansuri

OSFA experienced a lot less technical problems in comparison to the fall. The most common reasons for delays were incomplete debt counseling, no spring enrollment, technical problems with M2 and M3 federal unsubsidized loans not paying (this was fixed immediately). There has only been a minimal increase in emails, phone calls, or traffic and complaints since the beginning of the Spring semester. Students are reminded to document all of their emails and conversations with OSFA. If students are unable to resolve their matter on their own, they are welcome to contact UMSC and we will intervene on your behalf.

B. Professionalism / HumanismTask Force – Monica Zaucha

The main purpose of the meeting was to develop working definitions of Professionalism and Humanism by identifying the attributes of each. Each school’s representatives worked to brainstorm ideas on the concept of Professionalism. Urbana: Humanism could be characterized as the attributes one brings to professional behavior. They listed self-regulation, altruism, and attention to patient care as critical features, or behaviors that could be monitored. Rockford/Peoria: The group initially discussed the relationship between professionalism and humanism, noting they were interrelated, yet different. Professionalism is a holistic term relating to the caregivers/health professionals and their interactions with patients and other professionals with regard to upholding expectations about their character, mind/attitude, practice, and group culture. These include qualities of character such as leadership, altruism, scholarship, dependability, accountability, responsibility, humility, honesty, compassion/empathy, and integrity. Humanism describes the caregivers/health professionals' consideration of the patients with regard to the patients' background, personal issues, emotions/psychological state, health status, education, and family relationships. Chicago: One member thought the group should consider professionalism separately depending on whether the context were with colleagues or with patients. A list of attributes was listed.

The group came together and shared their ideas. * Dr. Poirier suggested adding expressiveness following the meeting, by which she means the ability to express one's emotions, either verbally or through creative outlets. Dean Sandlow plans on yearly face to face meetings like this one.

Current Course Clerkship Offerings at the various sites:

Rockford: Dr. Winegarden reported that Rockford did not yet have a comprehensive plan, but there were offerings in the Essentials of Primary Care (EPC) course.

Urbana: Dr. Goldberg reports M1 Introduction to Human Disease course in which faculty from Peoria and Rockford participate is one place where humanism is in place. Aspects are also covered in the genetics course, the White Coat Ceremony, and a memorial service for the cadavers used in Gross Anatomy. Death and Dying is addressed during the M2 year and a "difficult patient" day is included as well. During the M4 year, the Medicine in Society course deals with several aspects of professionalism.

Peoria: Dr. Mauer reported there is not a formal program, but many references during M2 orientation, and their own White Coat Ceremony. There is a session in which a "corporate ethicist" who is an attorney addresses the students. Representatives of the Peoria Medical Society, the community, and the Alumni Council are also involved. In a series of five lectures, topics covering issues with peers, professionalism in medicine, societal obligations/expectations, and transplantation are discussed. There is no formal M3/M4 curriculum in this area other than tangentially in Family Medicine.

Chicago: Dean Sandlow mentioned the student initiated and driven Honor Code Committee, in which a process has been established to review violations of the student honor code, and evaluate professionalism among students. The topic is introduced often during M1 orientation. The Essentials of Clinical Medicine (ECM) course has several pieces on professionalism. Leslie Smith added that there are several M4 elective courses in the area as well.

GPPA: Pre med students at UIC undergrad: Medicine as a Profession. He mentioned the Graduation Competencies and the web-based module for GME dealing with Professionalism

C. UMSC Budget - Oveys Mansuri

The UMSC budget is being evaluated at various levels of the University. We have been underfunded for many years now, and our concerns as well as a budget proposal has been submitted to the College of Medicine and Vice-Chancellor’s office. UMSC will continue to work on this matter throughout the year and regularly update the council members. Our goal is to secure adequate funding on a long-term basis with a commitment from the College and University to recognize the unique role UMSC plays in the business and education of the College as a whole.

D. Decompressed Tuition - Oveys Mansuri

UMSC is in the early stages of preparing a report to submit to the College administration. They are supportive of the issue, but all parties agreed more research needs to be done. The results of the report and the administrations follow-up will be presented to the council when it becomes available.

E. Truth in Tuition - Tess Washington

The Illinois General Assembly and Governor recently enacted the “Truth in Tuition” bill. This promises that incoming undergraduate students are guaranteed to pay the tuition they came in with for a period of four years in most cases. The College of Medicine and other Health Professions schools had expressed interest in having this bill also apply to us. The administration is willing to discuss the matter formally. There is a myriad of issues that would play a role in guaranteed tuition at the College of Medicine, including front loading tuition, possibly guaranteed tuition increases that are capped as opposed to a simple tuition guarantee. All of these issues are uncertain and unclear at the moment, but HPSC and UMSC will work together in pursuing more details on this matter and present them to the council at the March UMSC meeting, at which time UMSC can determine if this is an option we would like to pursue formally.

F. UMSC Meeting Schedule - Oveys Mansuri

Oveys asked the students present if they felt meetings could be held on other days of the week due to a request he received from a UICOM student. All students at the meeting felt that Saturdays are truly the ideal day for the meetings to be held due to travel times and call schedules for third and fourth year students. The council voted unanimously to continue with the present schedule until a time that a formal request in writing is made to the entire council to revisit the issue.

XI. New Business

A. Presenting concerns to Dean Moss and College Executive Committee

The UMSC Executive Board will discuss ways in which to formally assess the College of Medicine as part of its constitution and present its findings to the general council at the March meeting. The priority here is to be constructive in our suggestions, and improve our relationship with the CEC, and help them understand the general sentiment among current students as well as alumni.

B. Article on Attitudes on Diversity at UICOM - Oveys Mansuri

In Spring 2002 a research study was conducted at UICOM of M1s related to their attitudes toward diversity and how it is taught. The results of this research have recently been published. UMSC will post this article in its entirety on the UMSC website.

C. UMSC Executive Board elections will be held at our next meeting in March. Nominating instructions will be sent by email before the final meeting. All students are welcome to run for Executive Board positions.

XII. Meeting was closed at 2:35 pm C. Miles (first), C. Nelsen (second).