The Cancer Teaching and Curriculum Enhancement in Undergraduate Medicine, or CATCHUM Project, is a collaborative effort of the eight Texas Medical Schools and the Texas Cancer Council. Its goal is to ensure that every medical student in Texas has the opportunity during their undergraduate medical education to learn what is necessary to effectively prevent, detect and control cancer. A steering committee comprised of the curriculum deans and key faculty from each school, supported by the staff of The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Cancer Center, have developed a cognitive examination of cancer prevention, detection and control knowledge and have used it as a baseline assessment at each school. The results of this baseline assessment of about 1000 senior medical students indicates they have command of only 60% of the essential knowledge in this area. This baseline data was correlated with the findings reported in the American Association for Cancer Education Survey to guide curriculum enhancement efforts and has resulted in the development of a set of core competencies to serve as guidelines. Available learning materials that address these competencies and the bibliographic citations of the current literature have been provided to each school. A work group of key faculty is developing outlines for several problem-based learning modules to be used with standardized patients in teaching and evaluating these core competencies. Currently, each school is in the process of developing a cancer education committee and auditing their curricula to determine where cancer prevention detection and control education might be integrated or enhanced and to identify additional faculty who might be enlisted to assist in attaining the project goal. This application seeks port for the continuation of the CATCHUM Project, and specifically to complete specific curricular plans unique to each school, to implement the various learning activities contained in each plan, including those in clinical settings, and to evaluate the outcomes of the project on students, faculty and the schools.
| Eldredge, Jonathan D (2002) La Biblioteca Medica Nacional: The National Medical Library of Cuba. J Med Libr Assoc 90:246-8 |
