The Department of Medical Education recently held a REV (retreat for engaged visioning) summit via Zoom to begin the work to develop a strategic plan for undergraduate medical education at UAB.
Below is a Q&A with Toni Leeth, MPH, associate dean for Strategic Planning and Administration in the UAB School of Medicine and executive administrator in the Department of Medical Education, on the goals for the REV and how it will shape the development of a strategic plan in medical education. This Q&A is adapted from a conversation Leeth had with Corey Duke, Ph.D., MSTP student and survey development leader for the Independent Student Analysis.
What is the broad purpose of the REV?
I think it's important to know where you're going. How do you know if all the things that you're doing— and we do a lot—is getting you where you want to go if you haven't decided where you're going. That may seem circular, but the point is define first what your vision is then build the path to achieve it. The REV identifies for us the where and the start of how we will get there.
The REV is a fast-paced strategic planning process that works with a small group of representative stakeholders. At the end of the day you end up with a vision, goals and initiatives. One of the things I like most about the REV is we develop the vision first, unconstrained by the barriers, challenges and all the “why nots”. What is produced through the REV is not the end product; it will be further shaped by leadership and through engagement with other stakeholders. But, it gives us a great foundation on which to build. What we are building is a strategic plan for undergraduate medical education.
Who participated in the summit and why was it important to have these different leaders and educators involved?
One aspect of the REV I mentioned earlier is it engages a small group of people, 40 to be specific. To get to that 40, though, took a great deal of thought and effort. We started with a list of more than 400 stakeholders. Medical education isn't just on the people in Volker Hall to lead and administer— it really takes everyone because it's a core mission of what we do here as an academic medical center. Of course we included medical education leadership, educators, and students, but we also included health system leadership, department chairs, residents, residency program directors. Because when we all come together to figure out where are we going, these are all important stakeholders: not only in making sure we're all in agreement with what that outcome needs to be, but because we all have a have a role in achieving it. It was important to have all those people at the table so they are bought in to the ultimate vision and how we're going to get there.
What were the takeaways from the summit? How do you think this is going to shape the future at UAB?
One of the things that I was so pleased to hear from those at the summit was that they didn’t want to just check a box on the standards set by our accrediting body—they wanted us to be transformative and to set the bar for the rest of the country, and to do those things in a way that is grounded in our responsibility of providing care to the citizens of our state. And, and as a part of that, changing the landscape of health in our state, so that the health care disparities that challenge us so deeply start to change.
So everything that I think that we walked out of there with: a vision, goals, and some priority initiatives, we're going to take back to medical education leadership to start shaping them to a cohesive plan for how we will achieve them. It's challenging us to create an environment that supports all of those goals. I'm excited to see what all is going to come from this over the next couple of years because, appropriately, it will inform how we use our resources and the environment we create for our students, both now and in the future.