College of Medicine Committees

Charge: The Dean of the College of Medicine established a Dean’s Advisory Council (DAC) comprised of faculty and members of the Dean’s Office staff. The DAC is responsible for ensuring the coordination of initiatives that support the education, research and patient care of the College’s tripartite mission. Review and approval of College of Medicine non-curricular policies and procedures by the DAC is then communicated by the Dean to the College community.

The Dean’s Advisory Council (DAC) is the principal advisory body for the Dean and oversees and authorizes the work of the other standing committees of the College: Admissions; Academic Promotions; Student Appeals; and the Dean’s Council for Education (DCE). The membership of the DAC is confirmed by the Dean and includes ex officio members, members selected by the faculty governance, and at-large members of the faculty who have been peer- or self-nominated and approved by the Dean.

The DAC also assists the Dean in identifying other matters of concern (e.g. Health Equity and Social Justice) and establishing broadly representative work groups to study and develop recommendations in these areas. In some cases, these workgroups may be chartered as new standing committees of the College if their task is expected to be ongoing and not addressed by one of the existing standing committees.

 

Recommended by the Dean’s Advisory Council September 1, 2020
Approved by F. Charles Brunicardi, Dean, September 1, 2020

Charge: The charge of the Admissions Committee for the College of Medicine is to evaluate and select the members of the incoming first year medical school class and any applicants entering as transfer students into the third year based on academic and personal attributes previously approved by the Admissions Committee to create balance in a class and to support one or more of the missions of the school. These attributes may include, but are not necessarily limited to, being a New York State resident, being from a group under-represented in medicine, being a first-generation college graduate, having a low socioeconomic/disadvantaged status, having served in the US armed forces, and having experience in serving urban communities. The Admissions Committee reviews and creates any policy regarding admissions.

The Admissions Committee is also charged with the responsibility to ensure the high standards and diversity that we value and to admit students whose interests, abilities, skills, and character are consistent with the institutional mission. The final responsibility for accepting students into the program rests with the Admissions Committee.

The source of the committee’s authority is the Dean of the College of Medicine who gives the final authority for making all admissions decisions to the voting members of the Admissions Committee. The Admissions Committee also delegates authority to the Admissions Oversight Subcommittee (AOS), consisting of a subset of current members of the Admissions Committee (including the Chair, Co-Chair, and at least one faculty member). The Admissions Oversight Subcommittee is authorized to make final admissions decisions for applicants placed on the wait list by the Admissions Committee when and if space becomes available.

 

Recommended by the Dean’s Advisory Council November 6, 2020
Approved by F. Charles Brunicardi, Dean, November 6, 2020

Dean’s Council for Education (DCE)

• Through its management and oversight of the undergraduate program leading to the Medical Doctor (M.D.) degree, the Dean’s Council for Education is an integrated institutional body that oversees the educational program as a whole (curriculum design, delivery, coordination and management, curriculum evaluation, assessment, program and course request approvals, policy development, promotion of educational innovations and scholarship, etc.). 

• Brings faculty, students and administrative representatives together to allow for high quality decision making regarding issues pertaining to the curriculum.
• The Dean’s Council for Education fulfills the LCME Standard 8.1 mandate for “an institutional body (e.g., a faculty committee) that oversees the medical education program as a whole and has responsibility for the overall design, management, integration, evaluation, and enhancement of a coherent and coordinated medical curriculum.”

Dean’s Council for Education 

• Mandated by and communicates with the Dean of the College of Medicine who is an ex officio member and who has final approval of the curriculum and any proposed significant changes to courses or policies.
• The DCE communicates with the Dean through the Dean’s Advisory Council on curricular policies.
• Meets monthly.
• Chaired by the Vice Dean for Education.
• Membership: 
• Faculty 
• Presiding Officer, Executive Committee, Faculty Governance
• Faculty Governance, Chair-Student Admissions and Academic Standards
• Faculty Governance, Chair- Committee on Educational Policy and Curriculum
• Unit Director representative
• Clerkship director representative
• Ten at large faculty members
• With representation from both the Basic Science and Clinical Departments 
• Students
• For each class, the representative shall be chosen from among the six (6) Student Liaison Committee members elected by their respective classes. The chosen representative to the Dean’s Council shall be reevaluated on a yearly basis, upon which, the same representative can continue to serve or a new representative can be named. For a new incoming class, representation will remain vacant until a Foundations 1 Student Liaison Committee is elected. After the students have been elected, they will immediately choose among themselves a representative to the Dean’s Council. 
• Administration
• Vice Dean for Education
• Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education 
• Senior Associate Dean for Assessment and Quality Improvement
• Associate Dean for Foundations of Medicine 
• Associate Dean for Clinical Medicine (Core Clinical and Advanced Years)
• Associate Dean for Medical Education
• Associate Dean for Educational Development 
• Associate Dean for Clinical Competencies 
• Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs
• Associate Dean of Diversity Education and Research
• Student Affairs representative-ex officio
• Term of Membership
  At-large faculty members are appointed by the Dean of the College of Medicine based on a faculty-driven self-nomination or peer-nomination process. At large faculty members shall serve a term of two years. Unit Director representative and Clerkship director representative each serve a term of two years.

 

The Dean’s Council for Education Charge:

The Dean’s Council for Education guides and evaluates the curriculum and all of its components on a regular basis to ensure continuous improvement through the incorporation of the most up-to-date educational strategies for fostering student success. In addition, the Dean’s Council for Education serves as a forum to review courses and approve new course proposals, to study special issues and problems, and to communicate with Dean’s Advisory Council and the faculty on curricular issues.

Responsibility for management of the undergraduate medical education program as noted below:

1. The Dean’s Council for Education is responsible for assuring that:
   1. The curriculum is logically sequenced, coherent, coordinated, and aligned with the curricular goals
   2. Methods of pedagogy and medical student assessment are appropriate to achieve the objectives of the curriculum.
2. The Dean’s Council for Education reviews and revises the curriculum, selection of educational content, and establishes the basis for evaluating programmatic effectiveness. It will monitor program effectiveness by outcomes analysis using national standards as well as locally determined metrics of quality and outcomes. 
3. The Dean’s Council for Education monitors the content and workload as well as identifies gaps, unmet needs and unplanned redundancies in the curriculum. 
4. The Dean’s Council for Education reviews class cohort performance in each competency as well as performance on national standardized exams. 
5. The Dean’s Council for Education conducts formal systematic reviews of graduation outcomes, phases of the curriculum ensuring the horizontal and vertical integration within and between all phases of the educational program and curriculum.
6. The Dean’s Council for Education recommends, promotes and evaluates new approaches to medical education and create significant and relevant learning experiences that are based on educational principles supported by the best available research evidence about pedagogy.
7. The Dean’s Council for Education reviews, approves and implements new educational policies.
8. The Dean’s Council for Education reviews any reports of outcomes analysis performed by the Committee on Education Policy and Curriculum, a subcommittee of the College of Medicine Faculty Governance.
9. The Dean’s Council for Education may establish other subcommittees and ad hoc groups as needed. The subcommittees and the accountable offices provide annual status reports and occasional updates. The Dean’s Council for Education will review reports and recommendations prepared by these subcommittees and ad hoc groups.

 

Education Leadership Team

• The Education Leadership Team (ELT) is the action arm of the Deans Council for Education and as such is responsible for overseeing the overall design of the curriculum and all of its components. These components are evaluated on a regular basis by the DCE to ensure continuous quality improvement and achievement of the College of Medicine goals and objectives. The Education Leadership Team is Chaired by the Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and includes designated Deans and faculty who are responsible for creation, delivery and evaluation of the medical school curriculum, as well as representatives from Student Affairs as well as appropriate Administrative Staff. The Office of Education Leadership Team communicates with the Deans Council for Education in the oversight of the design of the curriculum and all of its components.

 

 

The following subcommittees serve under the umbrella of the Dean’s Council for Education and report directly to the Dean’s Council for Education. A description of their Charge is listed under the title of the committee.

 

Unit Directors and Foundation Leadership Committee

• The Unit Director and Foundation Leadership Subcommittee is responsible for designing, implementing, overseeing, and developing the Foundations of Medicine segment of the curriculum. The subcommittee develops learning objectives that support the education program objectives, instructional methods, and methods of assessment for the individual courses and exams (Units, and Gateways 1 and 2). The subcommittee ensures that curricular content builds progressively and reinforces earlier content so that foundational material is introduced before more complex material. The subcommittee coordinates both horizontal and vertical integration of medical knowledge and clinical competencies to advance clinical reasoning, patient care skills, communication and professionalism in the pre-clerkship phase. The subcommittee chair is the Associate Dean for Foundations of Medicine, and members are the Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education (ex officio) and the Associate Deans of the OEdLT, the Unit Directors and the Unit management team faculty.

 

Clerkship Directors Committee

• This committee is responsible for the design, development, coordination and implementation as well as the oversight of clerkships in the Core Clinical and Advanced Clinical Years. 
• It continuously reviews the clinical experiences of medical students at the main campus as well as all affiliates with regard to the environment necessary to support the curriculum, addresses implementation issues, and recommends changes for improvement and evaluation as necessary. 
• The committee is Chaired by the Associate Dean for Clinical Medicine and includes the Clerkship Directors of the Major Clerkships as well as the required Clerkships and Selectives in the Advanced Clinical Medicine year.

 

Curriculum Evaluation Committee

• This committee is responsible for reviewing, evaluating and monitoring the quality of the educational program utilizing data derived from multiple sources, including student and faculty feedback, student outcomes assessments and national norms.
• It reviews and assures that the curriculum has clearly defined and integrated goals and objectives, that are consistent with the competencies and learning objectives. 
• It recommends strategies for continuous quality improvement.

 

Student Assessment Committee

• This committee is responsible for reviewing, recommending and monitoring student assessment to assure that it is balanced among measures of factual knowledge, higher levels of thinking, performance-related skill development, and professional behavior, linked directly to the stated objectives for courses and clerkships. It assures that students are assessed both formatively and summatively consistently across all sites using methods that emphasize deep versus superficial learning with measures that are valid and reliable.

 

State of the Art Curriculum Committee

• This committee is responsible for reviewing, evaluating and recommending education trends and standards to ensure the curriculum is designed to be learning and learner-centered and to create significant and relevant learning experiences that are based on educational principles supported by the best available research evidence about how people learn. The committee recommends ways to incorporate best practices supported by educational research findings, and takes into consideration the impact of such changes on other components of the curriculum.

 

Electives Committee

• This committee is responsible for reviewing, evaluating and recommending quality improvement of all aspects of electives in the College of Medicine including the approval of proposed new electives and evaluation of ongoing ones.
• It ensures that the medical curriculum includes elective opportunities that supplement required learning experiences and that permit medical students to gain exposure to and deepen their understanding of medical specialties reflecting their career interests and to pursue their individual academic interests.

 

 

Reviewed and Recommended by the Dean’s Advisory Council: October 23, 2020
Approved by: F. Charles Brunicardi, M.D., Dean, October 23, 2020

The Academic Promotions Committee is a faculty committee that makes recommendations to the Dean of the College of Medicine regarding students’ academic status and standing, progression, advancement, graduation, and dismissal based on established standards. Taken together, the committee’s function and the function of the Student Appeals Committee satisfy Element 9.9 of the LCME accreditation standards, “Student Advancement and Appeals Process.”

Charge:

1. The committee will recommend actions involving students with academic deficiencies based on their academic records and established standards.
2. The committee will recommend advancement of qualified students to the next academic period.
3. Representing the college faculty, the committee will recommend conferral of the degree of Doctor of Medicine on students who have completed all degree requirements.

 

Recommended by the Dean’s Advisory Council November 20, 2020
Approved by F. Charles Brunicardi, Dean, November 20, 2020

Charge: The Student Appeals Committee serves as the appeal board for students who wish to request a reconsideration of the Academic Promotions Committee (APC) decisions. The Committee does so upon request of a student who is the subject of an Academic Promotions Committee decision including those requiring a leave of absence, repeat coursework or a repeat year, or an academic suspension or dismissal. The Committee reviews APC’s decisions and may consider additional information presented by the student, prior to making a final determination. Meetings of the Student Appeals Committee are confidential and closed to all but the voting members of the Committee, ex-officio members, and the student making the appeal.

The Student Appeals Committee is authorized to make the following decisions:

1. Affirms decisions of the Academic Promotions Committee (either that the student repeat segments of the curriculum or that the student be dismissed)
2. Overturn the decision of the Academic Promotions Committee that the student repeat coursework and the Appeals Committee may permit a student to take re-exams and to remediate deficiencies
3. Overturn the decision of the Academic Promotions Committee that the student be dismissed and may require that the student repeat coursework to remediate deficiencies
4. Overturn the decision of the Academic Promotions Committee and require that the student take a leave of absence to address personal issues

Student Appeals Committee membership will not include voting faculty from the Academic Promotions Committee. The Chair of the Academic Promotions Committee (or designee) will be a non-voting member on the Student Appeals Committee to provide information on student performance.

At least 7 voting members of the Student Appeals Committee must be present to render a decision. Decision by the committee for upholding the dismissal of a student shall require approval by two thirds (2/3) of the voting members of the Committee present during voting. Decisions by the Committee for repeating the academic year shall be passed by a simple majority of the members of the Committee present in voting. The secretary to the Committee (Student Affairs Dean) or designee, notifies students of the decisions made by the Student Appeals Committee.

Authority: The Student Appeals Committee derives its authority from the Dean of the College of Medicine who gives the authority for making all appeals decisions to the voting members of the Student Appeals Committee.

 

Reviewed and Recommended by the Dean’s Advisory Council: October 23, 2020
Approved by: F. Charles Brunicardi, M.D., Dean, October 23, 2020

Charge: All individuals in the College of Medicine at Downstate Health Sciences University are responsible for maintaining a safe and effective learning environment in which students, residents, fellows, faculty, and healthcare and administrative staff work together to both educate and learn in a manner that promotes the highest level of patient care. The Learning Environment Committee provides oversight of the learning environment for students at the College of Medicine.

The committee monitors student reports of model professional behavior (Kudos) as well as incidents of misconduct (Concerns). The committee monitors all reports to identify any trends or patterns within a particular department, at a certain clinical clerkship site, or involving a specific person. Feedback will be provided to the affected department/site for purposes of improving the student learning environment.

The committee will:

• Inform, review and make recommendations to leadership on the policies and procedures governing or impacting medical students, residents, fellows, and other learners.
• Identify and support existing efforts aimed at enhancing medical professionalism and creating positive learning environments.
• Identify and recommend corrective actions when non-compliance with educational standards are identified.
• Identify of areas for improvement and working with internal and external stakeholders to ensure systems improvements are made.
• Collaborate with partner hospitals to provide expertise, as needed, across the system of care to ensure that educational experiences are delivered in an effective, equitable and respectful manner.
• Serve as an independent resource to students, faculty, practitioners, administrators to review policies, practices, non-conforming events, etc.
• Investigate and apply best practices in medical student, resident and fellow education.

 

Recommended by the Dean’s Advisory Council November 6, 2020

Approved by F. Charles Brunicardi, Dean, November 6, 2020

Charge: The Committee ensures that the values of inclusive excellence, equity, and social justice are integrated across all aspects of our academic mission (education, clinical care, research, and community service). The Workgroup is comprised of students, faculty, staff, community partners and administrative leaders. The composition will expand to include representatives from all Colleges and Schools at Downstate. 

Objectives:

• To serve as a platform where students, faculty, staff and administrative leaders can voice their concerns and collaboratively develop sustainable solutions that promote equity and social justice across the academic mission.
• To review existing programs and policies pertaining to equity and social justice in our academic mission. This includes cataloging existing resources, assets, and best practices, conducting needs assessments to identify gaps and opportunities, and prioritizing problematic areas for intervention.
• To implement a strategic plan for developing new initiatives and policies that will advance equity and social justice across the academic mission. This includes defining key metrics for program evaluation and establishing realistic timelines for the completion of goals. 
• To establish a mechanism for disseminating key findings and outcomes of the Workgroup to the Downstate community. This includes organizing town hall meetings, establishing a website, posting events and initiatives on social media platforms, and disseminating newsletters. 

Subcommittees: Each sub-committee represents a specific area of our academic mission. The charge for each sub-committee is to review, implement, evaluate, and disseminate programs and policies that will advance health equity and social justice across our academic mission. Students and faculty teams will develop plans for program and policy implementation.

 

Reviewed and Recommended by the Dean’s Advisory Council:October 23, 2020
Approved by:F. Charles Brunicardi, M.D., Dean, October 23, 2020

Charge: The charge to the Continuous Quality Improvement Executive Committee (CQI) is to facilitate the ongoing review and improvement of the College of Medicine’s programs and initiatives by developing the framework, systems and strategies necessary to conduct the quality improvement activities. This process supports monitoring of compliance with accreditation standards and aligns our practices with our strategic plan and mission. 

Responsibilities and Scope: 

• Conduct a CQI process that supports the COM in its pursuit of excellence and innovation.
• The scope of CQI activity may address any areas of the COM, and must specifically address the Medical Education Program and strategic initiatives.
• Develop processes and implement procedures that support monitoring of compliance with accreditation standards for the medical education program.
• Develop processes and implement procedures that support monitoring of the COM’s progress and outcomes toward strategic initiatives
• Convene members of the College of Medicine community to participate in CQI efforts 
• Provide data and analyses to the COM leadership in support of College’s planning processes.

Authority: The CQI Committee derives its authority from the Dean of the College of Medicine who gives authority for monitoring compliance with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) accreditation standards and elements and implementing a systematic process to collect and review data, monitor quality improvement efforts and disseminate outcomes to appropriate leadership.