The overall objective and long term goal of this cancer education program is the production of practicing physicians who will provide optimal care to patients in terms of cancer prevention and early diagnosis and management, as part of a multidisciplinary team, thus improving the overall quality of care of patients with cancer. It is a multidisciplinary cancer education program for undergraduate medical students and continuing educational activities for other health professionals. A variety of pedagogical techniques are used.
The specific aims of the program in the grant period applied for are: 1) To develop an ongoing program of curriculum evaluation and longitudinal assessment of expanded cognitive data and behavioral change in undergraduate medical students. 2) To enrichen summer experiences in oncology for undergraduate medical students and develop new oncology electives. 3) To refine and further strengthen a core basic oncology course for all undergraduate medical students. 4) To increase the content of epidemiological, nutritional and psychosocial data provided trainees with regard to cancer risk, cancer prevention and treatment. 5) To utilize a cancer screening - Breast Self-Examination (BSE) - program for the education of students and the patient public. 6) To expand the available self-teaching materials in cancer readily available to students and increase student exposure to visiting oncologists. 7) To provide opportunities for in-depth investigation of specific problems related to cancer through the Minority Biomedical Science (MBS) clinical research program. 8) To provide activities for undergraduate medical students that will introduce them to major informational data bases in oncology. 9) To increase awareness of this cancer education program in the medical center and the local community.
