I recently saw an article about a highly innovative approach to medical education launching with this year’s entering class at the University of Connecticut called M Delta. When I reached out to UConn the head of the curriculum reform asked me for a call and provided more information about the new curriculum. It was just fascinating. Fortunately, she and her colleagues agreed to join me for this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, and you can judge for yourself.

Today’s guests are: Dr. Suzanne Rose, UConn’s Sr. Associate Dean for Education and Professor of Medicine; Dr. Christine Thatcher Associate Dean for Medical Education and Assessment; and Dr. Thomas Regan, Asst Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs. Welcome!

Dr. Rose, can you provide an overview of the three phases of M Delta? [1:45]

M Delta is making a difference in education, learning, and teaching across the curriculum. It’s an innovative curriculum reform effort that started about four years ago – really thinking about cutting edge education for the doctors of the future.

Our curriculum reform effort has been implemented in August with the class of 2020.

Stage I is 18 months long – a time of study when the class is together. Students co-learn with dental students. We’ve eliminated lectures in favor of active learning modalities. Stage II will begin in March of the second year – a 12-week introduction to clinical medicine, flexible time for electives, board study, and rotations. We’re also coupling some of our rotations so we can have longitudinal didactics where our rotations can work together and students can think together across disciplines. Stage II goes through June of the third year.

Stage III includes some required advanced clinical rotations, but students will also be involved in the scholarly process – working on a project, or a community initiative (such as public health and education).

All our students will be receiving a public health certificate, so they’ll be immersed in public health across the curriculum.

Can you dive into Stage I? [4:40]

Stage I is the Exploration stage. The centerpiece is a team-based curriculum. It’s patient centered and case based.

At the beginning of each unit, students take both individual and team readiness assessments. That’s followed by an application exercise.

The PBL (problem-based learning) curriculum spans 50 units – 50 cases, in ten week blocks.

There are other courses, too: integrated human anatomy (with virtual anatomy lab, including radiology); Intro to Doctoring; CLIC – students spend half a day in a physician’s office, generally a primary care provider; Medical Home – another innovative course, where students and teams go to an affiliated hospital to learn about the clinical environment; and the VITALS course (Vertically Integrated Teams Aligned in Learning and Scholarship), where they learn about population health, biostatistics, etc. The VITALS course is in teams across the med school continuum and with our interprofessional partners (such as dental), and it’s a flexible curriculum, covering emerging topics and trends while exploring public health objectives.

Dr. Thatcher, can you talk about assessment? [11:10]

In each ten-week block, students will take an IRAT (individual readiness assessment test) and TRAT (team readiness assessment test). Then each ten week block is followed by a two week intersession that starts with an integrated assessment – like a final exam for the ten week module.