UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan with Brodie Medical Education Visiting Scholar Paul Worley, MD, PhD, dean of the School of Medicine at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Brodie Scholar Paul Worley focuses on social accountability in medical education
Paul Worley, MD, PhD, dean of Flinders University School of Medicine in Adelaide, Australia, has dedicated his career to the practice and teaching of rural medicine. His passion is to “encourage medical schools to see their obligation to the communities they serve as integral to their academic leadership responsibility.” He brought that passion to UVA in March as visiting lecturer and 2016 recipient of the Anne L. Brodie Medical Education Scholars Award.
Evan Heald, MD, faculty member in DOM’s Division of General, Geriatric, Palliative & Hospital Medicine and director of the Brodie Medical Education Committee, which selects the annual award recipient, commented: “Paul was an inspirational visiting professor. Not only was his personal and international experience with Flinders’ Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) program a treasure, but he was also amazing in his ability understand our local strengths, resources and heritage and help us see new ways for UVA to lead in research, teaching, and service.”
The Brodie award, presented annually since 2010, advances medical education by bringing nationally and internationally recognized scholars to UVA who have demonstrated “innovation, creativity and leadership in clinical education.” Chosen by the Brodie Fund committee in conjunction with the School of Medicine’s Academy of Distinguished Educators and UVA’s Center for Biomedical Ethics & Humanities, honorees receive a $5,000 stipend and spend several days at UVA giving lectures and meeting with faculty and students in formal and informal contexts.
Dr. Worley’s visit, which coincided with Medical Education Week (Feb. 29 to March 4), began at Carr’s Hill with a dinner hosted by President Sullivan. Using the “Jeffersonian dinner model,” in which a small number of guests converse on a single topic chosen in advance, the group addressed the theme of Dr. Worley’s visit — “The Social Accountability of Medical Schools.”
Dr. Worley delivered a talk on “Transforming Clinical Education: Science, Service, and Social Accountability” at a combined Medical Center Hour/Medical Grand Rounds event on Wednesday, March 2, and spoke at the annual poster session sponsored by UVA’s Academy of Distinguished Educators on Thursday, March 3. He also addressed or held discussions with a number of School of Medicine-affiliated groups — including the Dean’s Group, directors of the residency programs, UVA graduates of the Harvard Macy Clinical Educators program, and groups of “socially-concerned” students and residents.
(l-r) Evan Heald and Paul Worley at Humpback Rock, with Dr. Heald’s dog Finley and daughter Kylie (March 2016).
During his visit, faculty learned about the innovative clerkship program — the 12-month Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) — that Dr. Worley directs at Flinders School of Medicine. He developed the LIC program based on his experiences as a rural generalist physician in Australia; it gives Flinders’ medical students an opportunity to develop in-depth relationships with assigned clinical mentors, panels of patients, and interprofessional teams from the local community. Students are not passive learners but active team members, and the quality of training is reflected in their high scores on national exams. The program has made Flinders a world leader in medical education and produced a new kind of faculty in academic medicine, in rural health. UVA SOM is exploring models to bring similar concepts to students here.
Dr. Worley was honored at the annual Ann Brodie Medical Education Scholar Award dinner; taken on tours of the Academical Village, Monticello and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection; taken on a hike along the Appalachian Trail, up to Humpback Rocks; and cheered on UVA at a basketball victory over North Carolina.
Thanks to all who participated in or helped organize his visit.
Brodie Medical Education Fund Committee:
- Evan B. Heald, MD, chair
- Elizabeth B. Bradley, PhD
- Eugene C. Corbett Jr., MD
- Karen L. Maughan, MD
- Nancy L. McDaniel, MD
- Margaret Plews-Ogan, MD
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