Division of Medical Education
"Transforming the education of Health Professionals through innovation."
We are dedicated to the mission of transforming the education of health professionals through innovation, building new approaches to teach health professionals. We have started a community of learners, colleagues and alumni who are dedicated to the same mission. Join Us!
About the Division
The Division of Medical Education was established in 1963 to support and encourage the improvement of medical education by providing faculty development; consulting on the design, implementation and revision of educational programs; and conducting research into effective means of delivering medical education. Over the years the division garnered an international reputation under the direction of Stephen Abrahamson, Ph. D. who is still active in the Division as an emeritus faculty. The current director is Maurice A. Hitchcock, Ed. D.
Masters Degree
The Division offers a two-year Masters Degree Program for faculty in health professions. The program combines 3-day workshops with additional training using distance education methods, faculty mentoring, and homesite projects. These educational programs focus on developing skills in teaching and learning, evaluation, information management, professional development, and academic leadership.
Faculty Development
The Faculty Development Program was designed especially for busy academic physicians interested in improving their expertise in teaching/learning, educational leadership and in implementing educational innovations. A limited number of grant-funded fellowships are available to Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics physicians.
The Clinical Skills Education and Evaluation Center
The Clinical Skills Education and Evaluation Center (CSEEC) is an educational resource, used for both teaching and evaluating the clinical skills of medical students and other health professional students and residents. The center provides the space and offers opportunities for faculty to help students practice, reinforce, enhance and refine the critical skills they need to examine and interact with patients. The Center conducts a clinical performance examination, a graduation requirement for all USC students in the fourth year of medical school, as well as Objective Structured Clinical Exams for students in Introduction to Clinical Medicine and various clerkships. The center participates as a member of the California Consortium for the Assessment of Clinical Competence, which was initially created by a grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
Research
The Division maintains a unit with expertise in psychometrics, research design, and statistical analysis. The unit is active in institutional research at USC (i.e. admission history, and graduation rates).