Program Highlights
The VR-GEC is a multi-faceted initiative involving many people and entities at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, at the Medical and Nursing Schools and in the wider Vanderbilt and Nashville communities. Strategic institutional alliances enrich the VR-GEC's programming and offer unique educational resources. Examples of programmatic strengths of the VR-GEC follow:
Vanderbilt Department of Biomedical Informatics
Vanderbilt’s 16-year-old Informatics Center currently has 350 full-time employees and consists of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI, an academic unit of the School of Medicine), the Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL), and the hospital-and-clinic-based applied information technology group (supporting commercial software system purchases and installations, de novo software development, information technology integration, and network-related hardware and software). Building upon successful approaches to institutional software development, the Informatics Center uses “matrix-based” multidisciplinary teams form to attack new problems.
KnowledgeMap curriculum management software: KnowledgeMap (KM) is a Web-accessible, comprehensive, curriculum management database that organizes course materials (at the level of full lectures, not just outlines or syllabi) from the medical curriculum. KM uses natural language processing techniques to automatically derive biomedical concepts mapped to the Unified Medical Language System from educational and clinical documents, eliminating the need for manual input of lecture keywords. Lecture handouts and slide shows in many formats (such as Microsoft® Office, PDF, or HTML formats) are automatically indexed and available online for students, faculty and administrators to view and to search for individual or interrelated concepts across the medical school curriculum. We have developed search tools for narrow concepts (“congestive heart failure”) and broad ones (such as “domestic violence” or “genetics”), which automatically construct lists of interrelated concepts to find the content. We have developed tools to track development of geriatric content over time and plan to integrate KM with online resources such as the Portal of Geriatric Online Education (POGOe). KM also provides a calendar, automated links to PubMed, copyright protection, and other course management features. Click here for more information on KM.
Contact: Josh Denny, MD (615) 936-1556. josh.denny@Tvanderbilt.edu
Geriatric Drug-Dosing WizOrder/CPOE: The Vanderbilt “WizOrder” Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) geriatric drug-dosing advisor provides integrated decision support, embodying an approach to patient care that provides clinicians with information they need to know to make informed decisions, at the time they need to know it. Because WizOrder has an interface to a clinical data repository, it provides an electronic record sensitive to patients’ specific information. WizOrder includes medication prescribing with safeguard alerts (described below); flexible tools to present and activate guidelines; representation of individual physicians’ preferences; hooks to web-based ‘just-in-time’ educational resources, such as drug monographs and context-specific educational Web pages; and linkage of patient cases to literature-based evidence through use of the NLM UMLS Knowledge Sources and a link to NLM’s PubMed Bibliographic search engine. WizOrder pharmacy alerts provide warnings about patients’ allergies, about drug interactions, and about potentially inappropriate doses for certain medications. Additional alerts lead to appropriate substitution of one drug for another drug, guided by national and institutional recommendations. Unlike most published geriatric dose resources, this database developed internally represents each element of dose advice (dose and frequency lists, route, minimum and maximum allowable doses) in computable format. The knowledge database underlying the system is available to Reynolds Foundation grantees who may be planning to implement electronic prescribing or computerized order entry and desire to have geriatric drug selection and dosing advice at the point of care. Partnerships that enhance the database by refining existing records and expanding the drug coverage are highly desirable.
Contact: Josh Peterson, MD (615) 936-1645. josh.denny@Tvanderbilt.edu
The Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment at Vanderbilt University
The application of clinical knowledge and the development of skills to successfully diagnose and treat patients effectively require deliberate and meaningful practice. Opportunities to practice in the clinical environment may be limited because of the pace of clinical practice, the vulnerability of patients and that many specific clinical problems occur infrequently and are usually complicated by confounding factors. Simulation curricula can be specified and scheduled in advance when it makes the most sense in the continuum of training, rather leaving it to the chance occurrence of learning during everyday patient care. Current simulation technology is sufficiently realistic to be a surrogate for training by actual patient care.
The Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment assembles a team of educators, clinicians and technicians to provide collaborative opportunities using a state-of-the art simulation facility and resources. Our cores staff offers diverse experience and deep expertise to plan, develop and implement innovative educational experiences in geriatric education. The program in Human Simulation offers the traditional standardized patient resources, but its name also reflects the growing application of simulating to a wide range of other communications challenges in health care. The Simulation Technologies Program offers the most advanced intervention methods from focused skill development to team training using virtual reality and human mannequin simulation. learn more about CELA by visiting us at: http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/medschool/otlm/cela.php
VR-GEC Evaluation Tools
ACGME/IOM Matrix: The Healthcare Matrix links the Institute of Medicine Aims for Improvement and the six ACGME Core Competencies, providing a blueprint for students and residents to learn the core competencies in their daily work of caring for patients. It allows faculty to link mastery of the competencies with improvement in quality of care. The Matrix also provides a framework for documentation of learning and for curriculum/program redesign. It is a qualitative research tool for summative evaluation which also supports a research agenda regarding systems of care, operations, and improvement.
Curriculum Development Matrix--Care of Geriatric Patients: This Vanderbilt-developed tool blends geriatric medicine principles with the ACGME/IOM Matrix, forming a geriatrics curriculum development framework that illustrates the IOM Aims and the ACGME Competencies in a geriatrics context.
Elements of Program Evaluation Diagram: Developed at Vanderbilt to convey the major questions that guide the program evaluation planning process.
The contact for VR-GEC Evaluation Tools is Donna Rosenstiel, LCSW (615) 936-0918. donna.rosenstiel@Tvanderbilt.edu
Vanderbilt Department of Biomedical Informatics
Vanderbilt’s 16-year-old Informatics Center currently has 350 full-time employees and consists of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI, an academic unit of the School of Medicine), the Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL), and the hospital-and-clinic-based applied information technology group (supporting commercial software system purchases and installations, de novo software development, information technology integration, and network-related hardware and software). Building upon successful approaches to institutional software development, the Informatics Center uses “matrix-based” multidisciplinary teams form to attack new problems.
KnowledgeMap curriculum management software: KnowledgeMap (KM) is a Web-accessible, comprehensive, curriculum management database that organizes course materials (at the level of full lectures, not just outlines or syllabi) from the medical curriculum. KM uses natural language processing techniques to automatically derive biomedical concepts mapped to the Unified Medical Language System from educational and clinical documents, eliminating the need for manual input of lecture keywords. Lecture handouts and slide shows in many formats (such as Microsoft® Office, PDF, or HTML formats) are automatically indexed and available online for students, faculty and administrators to view and to search for individual or interrelated concepts across the medical school curriculum. We have developed search tools for narrow concepts (“congestive heart failure”) and broad ones (such as “domestic violence” or “genetics”), which automatically construct lists of interrelated concepts to find the content. We have developed tools to track development of geriatric content over time and plan to integrate KM with online resources such as the Portal of Geriatric Online Education (POGOe). KM also provides a calendar, automated links to PubMed, copyright protection, and other course management features. Click here for more information on KM.
Contact: Josh Denny, MD (615) 936-1556. josh.denny@Tvanderbilt.edu
Geriatric Drug-Dosing WizOrder/CPOE: The Vanderbilt “WizOrder” Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) geriatric drug-dosing advisor provides integrated decision support, embodying an approach to patient care that provides clinicians with information they need to know to make informed decisions, at the time they need to know it. Because WizOrder has an interface to a clinical data repository, it provides an electronic record sensitive to patients’ specific information. WizOrder includes medication prescribing with safeguard alerts (described below); flexible tools to present and activate guidelines; representation of individual physicians’ preferences; hooks to web-based ‘just-in-time’ educational resources, such as drug monographs and context-specific educational Web pages; and linkage of patient cases to literature-based evidence through use of the NLM UMLS Knowledge Sources and a link to NLM’s PubMed Bibliographic search engine. WizOrder pharmacy alerts provide warnings about patients’ allergies, about drug interactions, and about potentially inappropriate doses for certain medications. Additional alerts lead to appropriate substitution of one drug for another drug, guided by national and institutional recommendations. Unlike most published geriatric dose resources, this database developed internally represents each element of dose advice (dose and frequency lists, route, minimum and maximum allowable doses) in computable format. The knowledge database underlying the system is available to Reynolds Foundation grantees who may be planning to implement electronic prescribing or computerized order entry and desire to have geriatric drug selection and dosing advice at the point of care. Partnerships that enhance the database by refining existing records and expanding the drug coverage are highly desirable.
Contact: Josh Peterson, MD (615) 936-1645. josh.denny@Tvanderbilt.edu
The Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment at Vanderbilt University
The application of clinical knowledge and the development of skills to successfully diagnose and treat patients effectively require deliberate and meaningful practice. Opportunities to practice in the clinical environment may be limited because of the pace of clinical practice, the vulnerability of patients and that many specific clinical problems occur infrequently and are usually complicated by confounding factors. Simulation curricula can be specified and scheduled in advance when it makes the most sense in the continuum of training, rather leaving it to the chance occurrence of learning during everyday patient care. Current simulation technology is sufficiently realistic to be a surrogate for training by actual patient care.
The Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment assembles a team of educators, clinicians and technicians to provide collaborative opportunities using a state-of-the art simulation facility and resources. Our cores staff offers diverse experience and deep expertise to plan, develop and implement innovative educational experiences in geriatric education. The program in Human Simulation offers the traditional standardized patient resources, but its name also reflects the growing application of simulating to a wide range of other communications challenges in health care. The Simulation Technologies Program offers the most advanced intervention methods from focused skill development to team training using virtual reality and human mannequin simulation. learn more about CELA by visiting us at: http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/medschool/otlm/cela.php
VR-GEC Evaluation Tools
ACGME/IOM Matrix: The Healthcare Matrix links the Institute of Medicine Aims for Improvement and the six ACGME Core Competencies, providing a blueprint for students and residents to learn the core competencies in their daily work of caring for patients. It allows faculty to link mastery of the competencies with improvement in quality of care. The Matrix also provides a framework for documentation of learning and for curriculum/program redesign. It is a qualitative research tool for summative evaluation which also supports a research agenda regarding systems of care, operations, and improvement.
Curriculum Development Matrix--Care of Geriatric Patients: This Vanderbilt-developed tool blends geriatric medicine principles with the ACGME/IOM Matrix, forming a geriatrics curriculum development framework that illustrates the IOM Aims and the ACGME Competencies in a geriatrics context.
Elements of Program Evaluation Diagram: Developed at Vanderbilt to convey the major questions that guide the program evaluation planning process.
The contact for VR-GEC Evaluation Tools is Donna Rosenstiel, LCSW (615) 936-0918. donna.rosenstiel@Tvanderbilt.edu
