Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s growing medical education conference is forging new partnerships and collaborations to revolutionize the way doctors are trained. The Medical Education Experience (MEdX) conference held recently at CI MED is designed to leverage the expertise of CI MED’s educators, staff, and students, top clinicians from Carle Health, and researchers and innovators from across the University of Illinois to envision future changes in medical education both locally and on a large scale.
The theme of MEdX 2024 was “Breakthrough to Excellence: Innovation through Synergy.” In just its second year, MEdX doubled its attendance and created new opportunities for growth, collaboration, and expanded partnerships.
For the first time, MEdX included a Medical Student Mentor Match session, pairing medical students with potential clinical and research mentors, many from other disciplines. During brief get-acquainted sessions, students and potential mentors exchanged ideas about innovative research projects and collaborations. First-year CI MED student Antara Sira said the session was a valuable opportunity to learn about many different research opportunities and to connect with researchers she wouldn’t have met otherwise.
CI MED Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Development Deb Virant-Young, who spearheaded this year’s event, said MEdX is meant to foster increased collaboration and recognize medical educators as leaders in the larger effort to advance how future physicians are trained. “In the changing landscape of health care and medical education, it is about the growth of our connections across campus and the community and the growth of ourselves,” she said.
This year’s keynote speaker was Katie Ruger, EdD, of Michigan State University, who challenged the CI MED community to approach change and growth with a positive attitude and a willingness to contribute. “In the midst of change, presuming goodwill is the transformative catalyst that converts uncertainty into opportunity and fear into trust. It fosters curiosity, compassion, and collective progress,” Ruger said.
MEdX included a poster session open to contributors from across the CI MED community. Winning entries are listed below:
1st Place: JumpXR: A Case Study for Medical XR Simulation Curriculum Integration by Anthony Nepomuceno (CI MED Researcher), Avinash Gupta (Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering), Caroline Cao (CI MED faculty)
2nd Place: An Adaptive Spaced Practice Approach to Blood Pressure Skill Acquisition by CI MED Students Caleb Bowman, Neddie Byron, Alexa Lauinger; and Donald Greeley (CI MED faculty)
3rd Place: A Novel Approach to Social Determinants of Health Integration into Medical Education: Insights on Faculty Development at Carle Illinois College of Medicine by Samar Hegazy (CI MED faculty) and CI MED Student Kellie Mullany
See a list of all MEdX 2024 Poster presentations here.