The purpose of this proposal is to improve tuberculosis (TB) education for students and residents at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) School of medicine and for health professionals at outreach sites, including state correctional facilities, clinics in rural Texas, and the Galveston community. Currently, coverage of TB in the medical school curriculum is limited, no efforts are made to coordinate this teaching, and some important aspects of the disease are not sufficiently emphasized. Moreover, UTMB offers no TB educational programs to professionals off-campus. Many learning experiences are planned to increase the proficiency of health professionals in diagnosing, managing, controlling, and preventing TB. The project should have a long-lasting and far-reaching impact, contributing to national and state public health efforts to control TB and facilitating the national goal of TB elimination.
The specific aims of the project are: 1. Develop a high quality model curriculum for medical students and house staff, with applications for students in other health-related fields, that addresses the principles and practice of prevention, diagnosis, management, and control of TB and is responsive to the cultural and social issues associated with the disease. This will be accomplished by integrating TB-related lectures, case presentations, computer-based interactive learning exercises, audiovisual materials, and written self-instructional materials into the curriculum. 2. Adapt and disseminate the student curriculum to university and community health professionals and lay audiences through instruction and discussion at professional meetings and in outreach programs, including the production of interactive videos for dissemination of information about TB to sites in rural Texas. 3. Develop and implement a coordinated, interdepartmental approach to the diagnosis and management of patients with TB and UTMB through the institutional continuous process improvement mechanism. A multidisciplinary team, lead by the Principal Investigator, will adapt a model TB control program (previously developed by a co- investigator) to UTMB hospitals and facilitate its implementation at UTMB. All aspects of the proposed project will be carefully evaluated and modified as needed to enhance their effectiveness, and the information will be shared with other institutions. The implementation of a model TB curriculum at UTMB has several advantages. Educational interventions will be developed by a multidisciplinary team, strongly committed to the control of TB. The curricular changes proposed for the medical school will reach a large audience, 36% of whom belong to a minority group. UTMB provides care to a large population of persons at high risk for TB; it serves over 80 outreach clinics, many in rural Texas; and it is implementing major reforms in its medical education curriculum, emphasizing health maintenance and patient education, into which the model TB curriculum can easily be interwoven.
