HJNO May/Jun 2019

dialogue 14 MAY / JUN 2019 I  Healthcare Journal of new orleans   Chief Editor Smith W. Hartley How has the role of medical education changed over the years? Is it more of a team-model approach? Lee Hamm, MD Medicine is delivered much more in a team based approach now versus a decade ago, and particularly compared to two decades ago. Medical education doesn’t necessarily follow quite as rapidly as the practice of medicine does, so you have to adjust education as you go. Medical educa- tion has adjusted accordingly with a lot of medical education now being delivered in a team based approach. One of the ways that you do this, even in the first year of medi- cal school, is to have the students work in teams, which most of the students do very well in, and I think they enjoy it. The ben- efit is that it gets them to recognize early on that they are not going to do everything alone; they are going to be working as part of a team. Now again, it’s not quite so easy to replicate the team they might work with in their future practices. That comes with time as they get closer to the type of medi- cine they will practice. Editor How does a medical education from Tulane differ from other medical schools? Hamm Medical schools in general have more features in common than they have differences. We have some unique things— we do more community based education and clinics than many medical schools, so I think we are really well known for that. We are used to giving more attention to the individual students than some schools do. I think those would be some of the unique things where Tulane differs from some other schools. Our curriculum is a pretty traditional curriculum, though it’s more and more integrated around organ systems. For example, when you’re studying the heart, you’re studying the pharmacology or drugs, the pathology, and the physiology. You study all of that together rather than in separate courses. Editor How would you characterize the relationship between the medical school and Tulane Hospital? Hamm It’s very tight. Tulane Hospital is partly owned by Tulane University and it’s one of three main sites of education along with the VA and UMC, which are close behind in the amount of education we deliver. We also have significant collabo- ration with Children’s Hospital and Och- sner for education. We collaborate with Children's Hospital on pediatrics, and with Ochsner we collaborate on pediatrics, ENT, and neurosurgery, in particular. There are other smaller collaborations, but those are the big ones. Editor Are most of your graduates staying in Louisiana? Is that a goal? Hamm That is not an explicit goal. Many of our students come from around the country and go to other places throughout the coun- try for their residency, but we also have a lot of graduates of other medical schools that come to Tulane for residencies and fellow- ships. Most tend to practice close to where they do their residency, more so than where they go to medical school. There is a lot of coming and going, so we do end up supply- ing a lot of physicians to the New Orleans region and Louisiana. Editor Is there an advantage to having a strong public health program, which Tulane is also known for? Hamm The school of public health is a sepa- rate part of the university but it is in close physical proximity, and we do a lot of col- laborative things. We have a really extraor- dinary school of public health. About 20-25 percent of our students get a Master of Pub- lic Health while getting their medical degree, and that is a real attraction to many stu- dents. They are able to get both degrees and learn a variety of aspects of public health. We collaborate a lot with the school of pub- lic health in research as well. Editor Which specialties are increasing/ decreasing in market place demand? Hamm More heart surgery cases are being done non-surgically with cardiologists, as an example of something that is changing relatively rapidly. Oncology cancer treat- ment is changing very rapidly, and we take very much a team based approach with oncologists, surgeons, radiation therapy, and pathologists, all working together daily. Academic medical centers like Tulane are often on the cutting edge of how practices change, but also, some of the physicians in private practice frequently lead to changes. Editor Is there much of a relation- ship between the LSU and Tulane pro- grams? Are there any shared resources or programs? “Tulane Hospital is partly owned by Tulane University and it’s one of three main sites of education along with the VA and UMC, which are close behind in the amount of education we deliver.”