Building Connections In Medical Education

 

 Learning Communities Institute 19th Annual Meeting

On behalf of the Learning Communities Institute (LCI), we are excited to extend this invitation to attend 19^th annual meeting of the LCI! The meeting will occur on October 21-22, 2022.  Designed for faculty, students and administrative staff, the conference will be highly interactive and will feature a plenary address, workshops, oral presentations, and a poster session. Registration is now open– conference information, registration, and draft agenda can be found here: https://lcimeeting.com/ 

We opted again for a virtual meeting, given our international community and the uncertainty of travel in the context of the pandemic, along with a desire to prioritize ease of participation for as many faculty, staff and students as possible during the busy fall academic season. In our last two virtual meetings, we’ve been able to achieve an engaging, welcoming, and collaborative virtual environment – and this year we are aiming for even more small group connection time, and relationship building.  We aim to return to in-person annual LCI meetings in 2023, if conditions allow.

Our virtual meeting this fall will be hosted by Tecnológico de Monterrey – we are grateful to our colleagues in Mexico for hosting! Our keynote speaker this year will be Dr. Inés Sáenz, Professor and Vice President of Inclusion, Social Impact and Sustainability at Tecnológico de Monterrey.  Dr. Sáenz earned her M.A. and Ph.D.  in Hispanic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She has participated in the UNESCO-Technological Chair of Monterrey on Ethics and Culture of Peace for the achievement of human rights. Her research focuses on contemporary narrative practices and their relationship with visual culture and with peace study. She is currently part of the IMPULSA Committee of the Center for the Recognition of Human Dignity, whose objective is to promote the leadership of women.

A few other tidbits:

1. During the LCI conference, several schools are planning to gather their faculty locally on their own campuses, so that they can ‘attend’ the conference virtually (on their own devices) and then log-off to gather in person and share pearls, debrief, and consider take-homes for their own institution (we will make space for this in the agenda). If more than one faculty member from your institution is attending, consider ‘attending together’!
2. Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit for the conference will be available. Additional information about the number of credits available and registration will be updated in the next month.
3. If you submitted an abstract, you should have received notification last week about the outcome of your submission (let us know if you did not, and please confirm with us if you can attend, if you were invited to present!). Final conference agenda with presentation times and instructions is forthcoming.  

We look forward to seeing many you virtually in October!  Forever Building Connections in Medical Education,

The Learning Communities Institute Annual Meeting Team

ANNUAL AWARDS

The LCI honors scholarship and contributions to learning communities with the following annual awards at our national meeting:

Arky Award

Background of the Award:
Ron Arky, MD, Professor of Medicine and Emeritus Director of the Francis Peabody Society at Harvard Medical School, has been a steadfast leader and supporter of medical school learning communities. It was Ron’s voice that argued most forcefully that it was time for medical learning community leaders to formalize and create the LCI as a means to propel meaningful change in medical education. Ron has also been an important benefactor for the LCI, providing a generous gift to enable us to begin as an organization. This award is named after Dr. Arky as a means to continually appreciate his contributions to the LCI and to the learning communities movement and serves to recognize an individual member who has made a significant contribution to the development of learning communities in medical education.

Selection Process:
1. The nominator should complete a contact form and write a nominating letter on behalf of the nominee. This along with a second letter of recommendation should be submitted to the LCI Chair Elect, Sara Fazio ([email protected]) by July 1, 2022.
2. The Arky and Shultz Award Committee will review all nominations and identify a short list of nominees to be reviewed by the LCI Leadership Council for final selection
3. The awardee will be notified by September 1, 2022.
4. The Arky Award will be presented by the Award Committee Chair at the LCI Annual Meeting.

Shultz Award

Background of the Award:

Since the inception and formation of the Learning Communities Institute (LCI), Susan Shultz has played an invaluable role in contributing to the success of the organization. As the LCI Administrator, Susan has provided key organization support, as well as being a key member of the leadership team. Moreover, Susan has provided consistency to the organization, and serves a reminder that our most precious asset are the people who are part of the LCI.  She models the ideals of service, relationship, caring, and compassion which are at the heart of the organization.

In 2021, Ron Arky, MD, Professor of Medicine and Emeritus Director of the Francis Peabody Society at Harvard Medical School, made a generous contribution to the LCI for the establishment of an award to honor Susan’s legacy. This award serves to recognize a professional staff member at an LCI institution who has made a significant contribution to the development of learning communities at their local campus as well as to the LCI, thus impacting the broader medical education community.

Selection Process:
1. The nominator should complete a contact form and write a nominating letter on behalf of the nominee, along with a second letter of recommendation submitted to the LCI Chair Elect, Sara Fazio ([email protected]) by July 1, 2022.
2. The Arky and Shultz Award Committee will review all nominations and identify a short list of nominees to be reviewed by the LCI Leadership Council for final selection
3. The awardee will be notified by September 1, 2022.
4. The Shultz Award will be presented by the Award Committee Chair at the LCI Annual Meeting.

Program Innovation Award

Background of the Award:
The LCI Executive Committee, in conjunction with the LCI Board of Directors, has newly established a program innovation award to recognize the creation of innovative educational designs/programs in the context of a learning community. This award recognizes that continuous quality improvement is inherent in the process of program innovation, thus includes projects that are still in the process of development; full evaluative measures are not required.

Given the nature of the Program Innovation Award, self-nominations are encouraged, as well as peer nominations.  Nominations should be no more than 500 words and in the format of ‘Really Good Stuff’ in Medical Education), should include: (1) the problem that is being addressed, (2) the innovation strategy and design and (3) lessons learned, including preliminary data/outcome measures, why the project succeeded (or did not), resources required, plans for longevity and next steps.

Selection Process:
1. The nominator should complete a contact form and write a brief letter answering the three questions noted. This should be submitted to the LCI Chair Elect, Sara Fazio ([email protected]) by July 1, 2022.

2. The Program Innovation Awards Committee will review all nominations and select one winner, who will be invited to present their innovation during the annual meeting.
3. The awardee will be notified by September 1, 2022.
   4. The Program Innovation Award will be presented by the Award Committee Chair at the LCI Annual Meeting.

We hope you will join us in “building connections in medical education” in October 2022!

With gratitude,

2022 LCI Annual Meeting Program Committee

LCI Mission

The LCI is a non-profit organization of institutions, learners, educators, and administrators who work together to promote, enhance and evaluate the use of learning communities in medical education. Through collaboration among learning communities, the LCI seeks to improve health care education across the continuum of learning by fostering scholarship, professional development, and the centrality of relationships among learners and teachers.