Volume 4, 2011


LearningMedicine byDesign


A medical student using virtual reality technology to “travel” inside the human heart. An instructor asking her students to identify a dermatological condition, as images flash on multiple high-definition screens that surround the classroom. A computerized patient complaining of chest pains suddenly going into cardiac arrest – and students scrambling to save his virtual life.


Such experiences are providing today’s students in the UVA School of Medicine the most technologically advancedmedical education in the nation. UVA’s newClaudeMooreMedical Education Building, a 58,000 square-foot building located in the heart ofUVAHealth System, was inaugurated this fall by the school’s Class of 2014.


As the foundation for the school’s innovative new curriculum, the building houses custom- designed classrooms to facilitate small group and individually directed learning; examination rooms where students use computerized patient simulators to learn complex procedures and other vital skills; and a center in which students are observed and videotaped while working with standardized patients to refine their clinical exams and patient interactions.


“When planning the new building and its design we identified technologies we wanted to incorporate into the facility, but it was imperative that we simultaneously consider the future of medical education and the changing learning styles of our students,” explains Senior Associate Dean for Education and Admissions Randolph Canterbury, MD. “We knew our students wanted more interaction and problem solving, more hands-on learning. We knew small group settings and an increased usage ofmedical simulationwere going to be part of the new curriculum, so these became focal points in the building’s design,” Canterbury says.


“The bricks, mortar, tile and computers are, in the end, just objects, albeit highly valuable ones,” says Steven T. DeKosky, vice president and dean of the UVA School of Medicine. “What make the new building and its groundbreaking features so valuable are the people who designed themwith careful precision and are nowrunning them.Generations of students and other trainees will benefit from the building, the technology, and the advances in educational technique that will occur here.”


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