AMSA Quality Institute

In the past three days, nearly two dozen medical students and premeds descended on the Jefferson School of Population Health for the Second Annual AMSA Quality and Safety Institute. AMSA is the American Medical Student Association, an important national membership organization that seeks to create a group of future physician leaders for our country. Recognizing the growing importance of quality and safety in the curriculum, these students spent a weekend learning about the cultural barriers to quality, the tools to measure quality and the ins and outs of moving ahead with key campus projects at their home institutions. The faculty came from JSPH, Christiana Care, Drexel U College of Medicine, The NBME, New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, and RWJ Medical School. The students participated in lectures, workshops, two dinner programs as they built their leadership portfolios. Quality and Safety are NOT ELECTIVES and these students will go forth to put this critical information into the standard med school curriculum. They are armed and dangerous!!---most current faculty know little about this entire field. It is time to recognize how important these issues are to training the doctor of tomorrow. WHAT is your school doing to tackle this challenge?? Should every medical school participate is such an Institute?? What more can AMSA do to institutionalize this approach to learning?? DAVID NASH DEAN JSPH