The purpose of academic retreats is not just to generate new ideas, but to follow them up with action and change. In his introduction to the 2008 School of Medicine Leadership Retreat on January 11, Interim Dean Sam Hawgood described this progression:

• The concept of specialized, longitudinal pathways that integrate training from medical school through full career development emerged as one of several "big ideas" in the school's 2006 retreat.
• Since then, these pathways were solidified to the point that this year's retreat could examine and refine them, and then discuss how to best implement them. The retreat was structured around the school's new Pathways to Discovery and Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine; two umbrella organizations that will guide these interdisciplinary training programs.

Pathways to Discovery and
the Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine

Pathways to Discovery, introduced at the retreat by Vice Dean for Education David Irby, is a program of educational tracks designed to expand opportunities for students, residents, fellows and faculty members to pursue training for careers of inquiry, innovation, and discovery.

As Irby explained, Pathways builds on existing academic programs and capitalizes on the strengths of all UCSF schools. The goal is not just to produce great physician-scientists, but future leaders and innovators.

The Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine (GPMM) was introduced by Executive Vice Dean Keith Yamamoto. It is a component of CTSI that resides within the Institute for Molecular Medicine, itself an interdepartmental entity to facilitate sharing of academic resources.

While the program is mainly designed for basic science PhD students, it aims to elevate medical science "literacy" across all programs and provide in-depth training in clinically-relevant research by creating compelling mini-courses and seminars that will attract students, postdocs, residents, fellows, and faculty across the campus.

As had been announced just before the retreat, Louis Reichardt, PhD, was appointed as director of the GPMM program. Josh Adler, MD, was chosen to head Pathways to Discovery (read both announcements.)

Fresh Perspectives

Because the main theme was interdisciplinary education and breaking down barriers, the retreat included not only school, campus, and medical center leadership, but the deans and leading faculty of each of the other four schools and of the graduate division.

A number of students, residents, and postdocs were equally invited to be vocal participants in the discussions. "We count on our students and trainees to question assumptions and to challenge the status quo", Hawgood remarked. Their perspective was essential, he stressed, for the school to develop programs that will succeed.


Lively discussions with Interim Dean Sam Hawgood (r) at Table Nr.1

A panel representing the trainees included 3rd year medical student Tasce Simon, 2nd year resident Tai Lockspeiser, and Chris Allen, a recent grad student and now UCSF Fellow. They spoke of their passion for education and outlined some of the challenges which they and their peers are facing in the course of their training. Finances was an unsurprising theme, but a less obvious challenge was posed by the sheer volume and diversity of opportunities trainees face within a limited time, including the difficulty of finding and accessing the right mentors among an "amazing" number of role models.

Tai Lockspeiser talked about the particular struggle for residents, whose workloads during 80-hour weeks makes it seemingly impossible to find time for non-clinical interest. From the basic science perspective, Chris Allen stated that many PhD students have almost no interaction with medical students and hardly know any clinicians. He expressed hope that the GPMM will promote interaction between clinical and research trainees with interests in common diseases.

The Academic Calendars: A Key Issue

A panel of the deans of the schools of pharmacy, nursing, dentistry and the graduate division was the first to raise the single issue that would develop as a key target during the retreat: the fundamental need to unify the various academic calendars in order to enable interaction between trainees in all of the schools.

In light of the current challenges in health care which call for interdisciplinary action, this was seen as a must-do by the panel of deans. Many of the attendees strongly agreed, including Associate Dean Dan Lowenstein, who entertained the assembly with a vivid comparison to medieval times, when Pope Gregory initiated what we now know as the Gregorian calendar. Lowenstein called not just for the deans but for the campus leadership ("we may not have a "Pope" – but we do have a "Bishop!") to implement a new, unified, UCSF academic calendar.

Roadblocks and Milestones

The Friday afternoon and Saturday morning of the retreat were devoted to working group discussions that looked closely at each individual Pathway, as well as the objectives of the Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine. The task on Friday was to identify the most valuable elements, possible roadblocks, and suggestions to improve the current concepts for each Pathway.

On Saturday, the discussions focused on connections: the links between the various pathways, between UME and GME, between UME and graduate students, and across the four schools and the graduate division.

Key Recommendations

Among the key recommendations that were presented by the working groups towards the end of the retreat were:

Mentorship:

• Elevating the value of mentoring
• Teaching mentorship across all levels
• Creating opportunities for peer and near-peer mentoring
• Addressing life-work issues for faculty

Navigation:

• Calendar coordination
• Common course publication platform to allow mix-and-match of electives
• Central information repositories

Managing Time:

• Innovating pilots to promote interdisciplinary work
• Establishing pros and cons of new degrees and certificates
• Examining criteria for the PhD degree
• Reviewing credentialing requirements for residents to create research space during GME
• The possibility of a condensed core curriculum

~ ~ ~

In his closing remarks, Interim Dean Sam Hawgood particularly recognized the efforts of the retreat planning committee who had been organizing this gathering during months of ongoing work.

Retreat Planning Committee

• Dina Gould Halme, PhD, Director of Science Policy
• David Irby, PhD, Vice Dean for Education
• Nancy Milliken, MD, Vice Dean
• Keith Yamamoto, PhD, Executive Vice Dean

Text & Photos: Sarah Paris