There is a “clear Iowa link” between the UI and Jordan University of Science and Technology’s Faculty of Medicine, said Thomas Schmidt, Ph.D., assistant dean of student affairs and curriculum. That link prompted Schmidt, a professor of molecular physiology and biophysics and Harold A. Myers Professor in Medical Education, to visit Jordan in early February to give two presentations on the UI’s medical curriculum.

Schmidt’s visit to Jordan, in turn, led him to begin a collaboration with AbdelFattah Al-Hader, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the medical school at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), and Yousef Khader, M.D., assistant dean, on an abstract to be submitted to the upcoming 12th annual meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators in Salt Lake City in July. It is even possible, Schmidt said, that his visit might lead to a formal agreement between the UI Carver College of Medicine and JUST’s Faculty of Medicine. (more…)

After calling Match Day “a strange mix of free will and predestination,” Christopher Cooper, M.D., associate dean for student affairs and curriculum, opened the festivities revealing the results of this year’s National Residency Matching Program assignments. Within a short time, members of the UI Carver College of Medicine’s class of 2008 knew where they would be going for specialty training beginning in July.

From a graduating class of 137, about a quarter—36—will stay in Iowa to begin specialty training. A majority of these, numbering 23, will train at UI Hospitals and Clinics; the rest will move to Des Moines for residency programs at Broadlawns Medical Center, the Central Iowa Health System and Mercy/Mayo Family Medicine. After Iowa, the states garnering the most UI graduates are California, with nine; Illinois and Michigan, with seven each; and New York, with six. (more…)

The UI Carver College of Medicine’s Writing Program continues to spark new collaborations linking the literary and medical communities. Its conference, The Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine, is set to take place April 23-25 on The University of Iowa campus and will feature readings and presentations by poet Marvin Bell, dramatist and composer Rinde Eckert, physician-author Daniel Mason and UI Writers Workshop graduate S.L. Wisenberg.

A full conference schedule, descriptions of the workshops and biographies of workshop and featured presenters can be found at the conference’s Web site. Margaret LeMay-Lewis, coordinator of the Writing Program, encouraged interested individuals to register for the event, noting that UI faculty and staff receive a reduced rate and UI students may register for free. The featured presentations will be open to the public at no cost. (more…)

Even as they entered medical school last August, members of the UI Carver College of Medicine’s class of 2011 had begun to anticipate their future careers as physicians. A significant plurality expect to take up one of the surgical specialties and practice in a medium-sized metropolitan area. Most are undecided concerning whether they will practice in a medically underserved area, but of those who think they will do so, half expect to serve patients in rural America.

Those are some of the themes covered in the 2007 Matriculating Student Questionnaire conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The national survey is a wide-ranging look into the demographics, educational preparation, professional aspirations and social outlook of beginning medical students. The College received its copy of the report in late January detailing the responses of Iowa students and comparing them with those of students nationwide. Of the entering class of 148 students, 119 filled out the questionnaire; nationwide, 12,325 students completed the survey. (more…)