The Hawai’i version of the curriculum inspired Harvard University and other schools which adopted or adapted it around the country
By UH Med Now
Alex Anderson, MD, a pioneer in the innovative problem-based learning used by the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), passed away on March 26, 2018 at the age of 88.
Along with former JABSOM Dean Christian Gulbrandsen, MD, Anderson and his medical school collaborators changed the curriculum from lecture-style teaching to active, hands-on, mentor-to-student and student-to-student learning. Problem-based learning earned the praise of institutions including Harvard University, and helped pave the way for modern medical student training.
Dr. Anderson served as Director of the JABSOM Office of Medical Education from 1989 until 1996.
“Dr. Anderson joined the medical schoool when it was in its infancy,” said Dr. Christian Gulbrandsen, now of Waimea, Hawaiʻi. “He was instrumental in developing an educational program for MD students and MD Residents (licensed doctors in specialty training) that was probably the most important element in the success of our training programs.”
The flexible clinical clerkship, also called the Longitudinal Clerkship, took root under Dr. Anderson’s leadership. The flexible clerkship is an extended period of time — at JABSOM it is five months — during which a medical student volunteers to serve in a community health center or physician’s office. Day by day, the student is exposed to doctors (1,203 volunteer faculty physicians statewide) as they interact with patients covering the full scope of healthcare, from preventive care, to severe illness, to everyday scrapes, bruises and the common cold. The course is offered as an alternative track option for third-year medical students.
The JABSOM curriculum was praised again this year by Dr. David Hirsh, Director of the Harvard Medical School-Cambridge Integrated Clerkship.
“We actually built our longtitudinal clerkship program after having a phone call with the people here in Hawaiʻi,” said Harvard’s Dr. David Hirsh. “We’re sort of one of the children of your program,” he said, noting that the JABSOM style of learning exposes students to rural communities where they may want to establish their practices, helping UH achieve its goal to expand the doctor workforce statewide.
