Members of the QEP team include (front row, from left) Kristen Fiebelkorn, M.D.; Theresa Chiang, Ed.D.; and Jaishree Jagirdar, M.D. On the second row are Robert Kaminski, D.D.S., Ed.D.; John Littlefield, Ph.D.; Gary Sertich, Ph.D., J.D.; and Luke Rosenberger.
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Frustrated by the challenge of preparing engaging lectures?

A new, interactive learning project is being developed at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The project is designed to immerse students in their future roles as health care providers where they will listen to patient concerns, review physical exam findings, examine X-rays and peer through microscopes while honing their skills of evaluating and providing health care for patients.

This new project is an online case-based teaching and learning platform called Virtual Information System (VIS). Once approved as part of the UT Health Science Center’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), VIS will provide a collection of patient cases through a standard online system that will help all faculty members more easily incorporate a more realistic learning experience for their students.

QEP is an important part of the accreditation process
“The QEP is a key component of our regional accreditation process,” explained Theresa Chiang, Ed.D., vice president for academic administration. “This is the first time all universities have been required to have a QEP as part of the accreditation process.

“Our team, which includes faculty and staff from throughout the university, has been working on this proposal since 2006 to come up with a truly innovative approach to make learning more interesting and exciting for our students. Case-based learning in health professional education has been shown to be very effective,” Dr. Chiang added.

Review team coming to Health Science Center Feb. 19-21
The QEP, a five-year teaching and learning enhancement project tied to the university’s strategic plan, will be examined on campus Feb. 19-21 by reviewers from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the regional accrediting agency operating under the auspices of the Department of Education.

“The reviewers could randomly ask students, faculty and staff if they are aware of the Quality Enhancement Plan and whether they understand how it will benefit the Health Science Center in the future,” she explained. “Having a general knowledge of this plan could have an impact upon our receiving timely accreditation, and, of course, accreditation is extremely important to our receiving continued federal funding for research and low-interest student loans,” she said. “About 75 percent of our student body receives some kind of financial aid.”

It all started with two pathologists
VIS is the brainchild of two Health Science Center faculty members, Jaishree Jagirdar, M.D., professor, and Kristen Fiebelkorn, M.D., assistant clinical professor, in the Department of Pathology. Dr. Jagirdar envisioned the idea of collecting case studies, complete with notes and tests used to diagnose the patient’s disease or condition, into an easily accessible interactive database. When her colleague, Dr. Fiebelkorn, heard about the idea, she saw the implications for more exciting and meaningful learning.

“Imagine VIS as an enormous Wikipedia of patient information,” Dr. Jagirdar said. “And it can be accessed by any faculty member in any school and individually by students from home.”

Dr. Fiebelkorn added, “We want to make it easy for faculty to use cases in teaching. Besides providing a resource where faculty can access images and other files to use in case-based teaching, we also want to offer the technical support for design and delivery, allowing faculty to focus on teaching goals and content, not technical issues.”

VIS selected after peer review and evaluation
Drs. Jagirdar and Fiebelkorn's ideas came to life in September 2006 when John Littlefield, Ph.D., director of the Academic Center for Excellence in Teaching, put out a request for education project proposals for the QEP. “Six proposals were reviewed by the ACET Steering Council, which has representatives from all five schools,” Dr. Littlefield explained. “After that, major stakeholders including the leaders of the Student Government Association, the Faculty Senate and the Executive Committee all reviewed and agreed this was an outstanding proposal that had a lot of potential,” he added.

The case studies can be studied from multiple points of view. “For example, diabetes is a major issue in South Texas,” explained Robert Kaminski, D.D.S., Ed.D., assistant vice president for academic administration and a member of the QEP development team. “Patient cases related to diabetes and it’s ramifications could be used to specifically target and enhance learning for graduate student researchers, dental students, dental hygienists, medical students, nursing students and others.”

“The idea is that VIS will be valuable to all faculty and will encourage an interdisciplinary approach to studying health care ― the preferred model of practice,” Dr. Littlefield added. “We expect students to use what they learn in school later in practice. Health care is moving to an interdisciplinary model, so we want to reinforce this idea so that our students will be well-prepared for their health care practices in the future.”

Other members of the QEP management team include Luke Rosenberger, director of knowledge management in the Dolph Briscoe, Jr. Library; Gary Sertich, Ph.D., J.D., legal officer in the Office of Legal Affairs; and Vid Desibhatla, Ph.D., M.B.A., director of nursing instruction and information technology, who is designing the technical aspects of the project.

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