Reena Karani, MD, (middle row, blue jacket) with Meg Keeley, MD, (middle row, far right) and other Center for Excellence in Education and Brodie Committee members.
The UVA School of Medicine Brodie Medical Education Fund Committee welcomed Reena Karani, MD, as the 2025 Brodie Medical Education Scholar for a series of special events in November. Dr. Karani is the chair of the National Board of Medical Examiners and director of the Institute for Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with research interests in clinical workplace-based learning, feedback, and assessment. She seeks to understand the drivers of inequitable assessment and places equity and justice centrally in teaching and learning.
UVA has embarked on a transition to competency-based assessments, a topic the Brodie Committee explored with Dr. Karani at their annual Nameless Field Dinner. Healthcare professionals from across the School of Medicine and UVA Health attended the dinner and discussed the questions: What kind of assessments optimize future learning and performance? Has an assessment ever taught you something about your priorities? The storytelling event included a diverse group of 11 participants ranging from a student and a resident to senior leaders. Each person was charged with sharing a personal story as a vehicle to better understand if assessments have informed priorities for growth. The answer was a resounding yes, but sometimes in unexpected, unintended and even counterproductive ways, highlighting the challenges we face currently.
Reena Karani, MD
In addition to the roundtable dinner, Dr. Karani delivered the Medical Center Hour talk and met individually with SOM leaders. She led an interprofessional conversation with medical and nursing students facilitated by a “third thing” that each participant brought to represent their unique contribution to patient service.
Allison Schilling, a graduate nursing student said, “Dr. Karani provided a safe space for meaningful discussion in her visit as the visiting Brodie Scholar. As a practicing FNP and PhD nursing student, the patient-centered focus from a personal, vulnerable space helps to inform the way we think about our intentional care for patients and peers.”
School of Nursing Class of 2026 student Tyler Atkinson stated, “As nurses, I feel like we pride ourselves in our wide diversity of backgrounds as well as in the commonality of our shared experiences. With our professions siloed, it is easy to forget that physicians share that same pride and generally want the same things we do, albeit through a different lens. Collaborative dialogues like these, held outside the hierarchical clinical setting, allow for more open and honest communication, helping to cement bonds as equal members of the care team.”
Expanding her impact at the other end of the education continuum, Dr. Karani was one of five speakers in a “Resident Teaching Bootcamp.” She was able to leverage her experience as a founding co-director of the Harvard Macy Program for Postgraduate Trainees, which prepares residents and clinical fellows for leadership careers in health professions education.
At the end of her visit, Dr Karani received the traditional custom Brodie Scholar Spoon honoring her innovation (stirring) in medical education. “My take home from Dr Karani’s visit is that it is critical for us to get assessments of students and programs right. Getting it right requires that we think about the populations we are testing and the populations we serve and continually assess our assessments,” said Evan Heald, MD, director of the Brodie Committee.
History of the Brodie Committee
The Brodie Medical Education Fund Committee, in the UVA School of Medicine Center for Excellence in Education, hosted the first Brodie Scholar 15 years ago. The committee is named for Anne L. Brodie, a patient who highly valued the longitudinal relationship with her trusted personal physician, Dr. Eugene Corbett. Mrs. Brodie willed her estate to the UVA School of Medicine for the purpose of innovation in medical education. The Brodie Committee funds initiatives that promote Mrs. Brodie’s objective that future generations of physicians have the heart and skill to care for patients in the patient-centric manner shown by Dr. Corbett in his care for her. Please visit the linked webpage to learn more about Mrs. Brodie and the committee’s ongoing work.
Filed Under: Education