The DISCuSS model: Creating connections between community and curriculum - A new lens for curricular development in support of social accountability

Medicine's social mandate recognizes the importance of introducing changes to systems and practices to meet the healthcare needs of marginalized populations. Social accountability efforts encompass a wide array of actions, including equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and adapting knowledge relevant to practice across education, research, and clinical domains. To influence change in education, ongoing structures and processes are needed to ensure adequacy, relevance, and effectiveness of curricular coverage. In support of this, we created an innovative and creative approach to developing curricular modules to prepare medical students to provide care that is responsive to the cultural, economic, and psychosocial realities of diverse patient populations. The DISCuSS model (Diversity, Identify, Search, Create module (with community engagement), Sustainability, Social accountability) provides a community-engaged, iterative approach to curriculum development relevant to social accountability. Over the past 5 years, we have created nine curricular modules focused on health-related inequities and social concerns, including modules on Indigenous and refugee health, sexual and gender minority health, human trafficking, and addiction. AFMC Graduation Questionnaire results have shown a statistically significant increase in our students 'preparedness to provide care to diverse populations.' The DISCuSS model, which continues to evolve, can be adapted and used in other settings.

Lessons learned from a student-driven initiative to design and implement an Organ and Tissue Donation course across Canadian medical schools

The competencies required of the well-trained physician are constantly evolving, and medical education must adapt accordingly. In response, a growing number of influential medical education licensing and accreditation bodies have proposed frameworks that outline society's expectations of physician competencies. In Canada, undergraduate and graduate curricula have undergone major changes to meet the specifications of the CanMEDS framework, and similar efforts are underway internationally. Nonetheless, ensuring the values enshrined within such frameworks become integral to a physician's identity remains challenging. We believe that student-led curricular initiatives represent a novel way of approaching this shifting medical education landscape.In this article, we reflect on lessons we learned as medical students spearheading an initiative to change how organ and tissue donation is taught in Canadian medical schools. Citing relevant medical education literature where applicable, we include a detailed description of our approach as a roadmap for students contemplating their own curricular innovations. By outlining the factors influencing this project's implementation, as well as the benefits and limitations of student participation in curriculum reform, we offer educators a fresh perspective on optimizing the student role in this important process. Ultimately, the authors argue that not only can student participation render curricular content more accessible to learners, but that the responsibilities students take on in this role naturally lead to the development of CanMEDs-based competencies such as advocacy, scholarship, and inter-professionalism.

Finding a path to growth as a leader: a medical learner perspective

Physicians are often required to lead teams in clinical and non-clinical environments but may not receive formal training in advance of these opportunities. In this commentary, three medical learners discuss their views on leadership education in undergraduate and postgraduate medicine, arguing that leadership development should be more explicitly integrated into training programmes and that medical leaders need to be better recognised for their contributions to this field, much like expert clinicians, clinician-educators and clinician-scientists are recognised for theirs. After reviewing the published literature in this domain, reflecting on their experiences engaging with medical leaders and attending a leadership education summit, the authors conclude that, as initial steps towards improving leadership training in medical education, faculties and programmes should commit to incorporating leadership training into their curricula, and strive to deliberately connect learners interested in leadership with practising clinician-leaders with an eye towards improving learners’ leadership skills. These first steps could help to catalyse the necessary shift towards improved leadership education and better patient care.