January 2025 - Dean’s Blog

Developing the Curriculum for the Physician of the Future

A frequent question that I get asked (and one of my favorites) is about how we developed the curriculum for OCOM. 

Starting a new medical school is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create the foundation of a medical school curriculum that will drive the academic direction of the school for many years to come. The last medical school that I started, I took a very traditional approach and used a curricular model that had been around for a long time out of a hope and desire to show the accrediting body something they were very familiar with as a means for a smoother accreditation process. 

With OCOM, we wanted to take an evidenced-based approach to the curriculum by incorporating all of the various components that have excellent evidence for medical students and/or adult learners. While this may not sound like a very unconventional approach, the average person would be surprised with how much higher education does that is based upon tradition or a status quo bias, including with the design of a curriculum for a new program or school. 

Starting with the assumption that we wanted to develop a curriculum based upon the best and proven elements in higher education, we embarked upon a white board/blue sky journey to develop a curriculum that is unique as a whole, but at the same time has nothing new in it as every component of the curriculum has been proven to have excellent outcomes - the unique aspect is that no one had ever put together each of these elements in a medical school curriculum. 

A primer that our team read in the development of the curriculum was Make It Stick. Make It Stick is a compendium of the best evidence-based approaches to better learning for adult learners. For anyone with an interest in adult learning theory, it is my first and best reading recommendation. I also was able to tap into the extensive experience of existing and new medical schools as well as an incredible amount of scholarly publications about incredible innovations in medical education and higher education that have been studied in recent years. 

In general, we decided that we would adhere to the following principles:

• Active Retrieval/Frequent Assessment - it has been proven that frequent assessment improves learner outcomes (and even alters neurochemistry) in adult learners;
• Spaced Practice and Spiral-Based Education - evidence shows that if there is time between learning something and effortful retrieval, there is better long-term learning outcomes;
• Interleaved Learning and Practice - learning that puts together the elements typically used in practice is better than doing drills on specific topics (e.g., playing basketball had better outcomes than only practicing specific tasks employed in playing basketball);
• Variation of Learning Strategies - while learners may have preferences in how they learn (e.g., visual), evidence shows that a variation of learning strategies produces the best learning outcomes;
• Effortful/Active Learning - active learning (e.g., questions/small group learning, self-directed learning) overall has superior learning outcomes than passive learning (watching a lecture);
• Integration of Elaboration, Generation, Reflection, and Learning Devices - when learners have to apply what they learn, they have better learning outcomes (i.e., Bloom’s Taxonomy). Our digital anatomy curriculum that is clinically-based is a great example; and
• Use of Multiple, Objective Measures to Provide Timely Feedback on Learning - the more timely feedback that learners receive on their knowledge has been shown to improve long-term learning. 

To accomplish these principles, we implemented the following strategies: 

• A systems-based approach integrating clinically applicable biomedical science concepts into the clinical application of medical knowledge;

• Use of a combination of: Case-based learning; Flipped classroom education; Team-based learning; Formative assessments; Active assessment practices (question banks); Simulation-based learning; Weekly quizzes/assessments; Ongoing summative assessment/learning consolidation and Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) throughout the curriculum.

One of the core values of OCOM is innovation and continuous improvement and our curriculum is an example of both. By its design, it is innovative, but we will continuously improve upon it. I am a strong believer that excellence is not a state of being, but is a state of becoming. With the expertise of our dedicated faculty, we are committed to refining and improving our program to meet the ever-changing demands of healthcare.

Robert T. Hasty, DO, FACOI, FACP
Dean & Chief Academic Officer