John Curry and Jim Swierkosz, being asked to serve as a BSEF Central Region Nominating Committee, now present for your consideration their choice of two candidates (from those nominated at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the BSEF in New Orleans, November 11, 1992) for the position of BSEF Central Regional Director. Both these candidates have a demonstrated interest in the BSEF and a willingness to provide leadership in the regional chapter. A BSEF Regional Director:
*Organizes and directs all regional BSEF programs
*Chairs the annual regional BSEF chapter meeting
*Generates the Annual Report to the AAMC:GEA Executive Committee
*Represents the BSEF at regional GEA functions
*Advises the National Director in all matters
*Substitutes for the National Director if requested
*Encourages recruitment of additional regional BSEF members
*Designs and conducts regional projects in basic science education as well as those in conjunction with the BSEF National Director
All BSEF members (individuals on our mailing list, or those who wish to be on our mailing list) within the Central Region of North America are invited to vote for the candidate of their choice by returning the enclosed choice. The Central Region encompasses all medical schools in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin; and the Canadian Provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. A statement from each candidate may be found on the following page.
CHANDRA BANERJEE, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology
Southern Illinois University
I have been teaching physiology in the basic medical sciences at different medical schools in this country for over 30 years. During the first half of my teaching career I also taught clinical sciences. I have also spent significant part of my academic career in research and service. I have received the “Best Teacher Award” from medical students on several occasions and in 1989 I received the highest teaching award from my present institution (SIU) the “Master Teaching Award”.
If I am elected by the Central Region BSEF as their Regional Director, I shall try to implement continuation of the activities started by my predecessor. I shall discuss with my predecessor and the governing body about the strengths and weaknesses of the previous programs and will modify my activities. I shall try to strengthen the liaison between our group and the Dean’s group for implementation of our program. I will maintain and try to emphasize our various SIG activities. I shall explore the possibility of enhancing more “Think Tank Sessions” dedicated to the resolution of specific topics, e.g. curriculum modifications, vertical teaching methods during the entire medical school, interrelationship of the basic science-clinical science faculty, teaching and learning evaluation methods, faculty reward system, etc.
MURRAY SAFFRAN, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Assistant Dean for Medical Education
Medical College of Ohio
Twenty-six of the 142 titles in my bibliography deal with medical education are based on 30 years’ teaching biochemistry in medical schools and on my experience as the first Senior Fellow in Evaluation at the NBME.
The AAMC ACME-TRI Report lists the many attempts to reform undergraduate medical education and blames their failure on the low status of education in medical schools. How can the Central Region BSEF improve the status?
* We must lobby for changes in the reward system in our schools for incentives to improve education.
* We must strengthen our voice by recruiting our colleagues as activists in medical education and as
participants in BSEF activities.
* We can attract the attention and support of our administrations by making education more cost-effective
and goal oriented. We can cut out extraneous curricular material and emphasize that the end product of
medical education is a physician. We must change student evaluation systems to replace short-term
recall of facts by testing the ability to obtain and use knowledge.
* We must forge closer educational partnerships among the traditional pre-clinical and clinical disciplines
to understand their educational goals to create the best learning environments for our students.