November 1, 2009

New Institute to Support Medical Education and Training

Dear Colleagues,

We are extremely pleased to announce the creation of the Institute for Excellence in Education (IEE) of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and delighted to announce that Associate Professor of Medicine Joseph Cofrancesco Jr., M.D., M.P.H., one of our most respected educators and clinicians at Hopkins, has been named the institute’s inaugural director.

As you know, after years of hard work and much preparation, we’ve just launched our new Genes to Society medical school curriculum and, in parallel, opened the Armstrong Medical Education Building, presenting a unique opportunity to redefine and advance our educational mission. You also are no doubt aware that for some time medical education has been facing a growing crisis forged by financial challenges, restrictions on faculty teaching time and externally imposed regulations. It was with these thoughts in mind that we established the Martin D. Abeloff Committee on Educational Values and Rewards in November 2006 and charged it with pinpointing strengths and weaknesses of our educational mission and developing a comprehensive plan for identifying solutions and opportunities. Joe chaired the Abeloff Committee.

Based on the committee’s hard work and recommendation and the school of medicine’s deep commitment to teaching and education, the IEE has been established to support the many efforts already undertaken by the school and the faculty, and to burnish our deep and very rich heritage as the leader in medical and medical science education and in training the next generation of great leaders.

It’s our intention for the institute to lead the way by developing methods to measure and critically evaluate teaching and educational programs, set standards, inspire and support new educational techniques, methods and technologies, encourage educational scholarship, and give value to and reward the teaching done by all faculty.

We also want to recognize the late Marty Abeloff, director of oncology, for whom the committee was named. Marty set the gold standard for leadership in academic medicine, clinical care, discovery and education, and we hope the work of the institute will honor his memory and legacy.

To see the executive summary of the Martin D. Abeloff Committee on Educational Values and Rewards, please visit http://www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/news/iee/. If you would like to become involved with the IEE, please e-mail Dr. Cofrancesco at JoeCo@jhmi.edu.

Edward D. Miller, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine

David G. Nichols, M.D.
Vice Dean for Education