Issue 50 - June 21, 2016
Making the Rounds with Founding Dean Dr. Barbara Atkinson

N SHE Regent James Dean Leavitt, NSHE Chancellor John V. White, with Dr. Barbara Atkinson at land transfer ceremony
Friends and Colleagues,    

The past week has been incredible on many fronts - from preparing for our accreditation site visit, to securing the land for our first academic building, to meeting with our architects to design it. It has been a week of milestones.
 
Land secured for medical school
 The Clark County Commission officially approved transferring nine acres to UNLV School of Medicine. We celebrated the milestone with a ceremonial deed-signing event with County and City officials, the University Medical Center, Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Regents and many more amazing people who made the land transfer possible. The celebration was held at the future home of the medical school at 625 Shadow Lane. 
 
Building design process starts for the medical school 
 We met with our architectural firms -- Tate, Snyder Kinsey (TSK) of Henderson, the primary and managing partner, and CO Architects from Los Angeles, the firm specializing in medical education buildings on Monday. At the meeting, we outlined our educational vision and mission, curriculum, and the unique learning needs of our program, such as the problem-based curriculum. All this data was then put into a model, which indicated we would need approximately 105,000 square footage to accomplish our education goals. This space will include small-group learning and study space, conference rooms, library facilities, and the technology for simulation rooms, computer boards, and teleconferencing. Our team will continue to meet on a regular basis. We plan to have the first phase of the design completed by August 30.

Accreditation preparation
 The UNLV School of Medicine leadership team held a "mock" site visit last week to prepare for our "real" accreditation visit from the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) in July.  Three accreditation experts spent two days questioning the team who will participate in the July site visit. The mock team followed a similiar schedule outlined for the "real" visit and asked questions that likely will be asked by the LCME. They checked our answers and written materials against the LCME medical school standards to ensure we are prepared to meet all of its requirements.  
 
I especially want to thank our "mock site visit team" who did an outstanding job:
  • Daniel Harrington, MD, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Carilion Clinic, and Vice Dean, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
  • Henry Pohl, MD, Vice Dean for Academic Administration, Albany Medical College
  • F. Terri Workman, Advisory Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers
I personally have experience on both sides of the accreditation process. I was the team leader on seven LCME site visits for other medical schools, and as a medical school dean I've gone through the LCME site visit process three times. Our upcoming visit will be new because we are a brand new medical school.
 
The LCME will meet with our team and review materials to ensure we are ready to accept our first class. While they look at the school as a whole relative to the standards for all medical schools, they are particularly concerned that we can provide the first two years of the curriculum, can complete our admissions, and that we indeed meet our stated mission. 

We are making tremendous progress thanks to all of you. 

Best wishes,
 
Barbara
Community Advisory Board Spotlight
 
Meet William Evans , MD, founder and Co-Director of Children's Heart Center Nevada (CHCN), the only congenital cardiology practice in the state of Nevada with 15 pediatric cardiologists, two congenital heart surgeons, and 120 professional and support staff working in five locations throughout Nevada. Dr. Evans obtained his MD degree from UC Irvine in 1976. He then completed his internship, residency, and fellowship at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. He is a past Chief of Staff at Sunrise Hospital and past President of the Western Society of Pediatric Cardiology. His vision is simple, "Good medicine is good business".  
 
In addition to participating in the Community Advisory Board, Dr. Evans and CHCN are one of the medical school's founding scholarship donors, supporting the "T he Children's Heart Center Nevada Scholarship Fund"  for our charter class.
 
Dr. Evans says, "The Children's Heart Center Nevada supports UNLV School of Medicine because medical research and scientific discovery will improve the quality of Nevada children impacted by heart disease."
Community-based nonprofit, Together We Can, runs the Vegas Roots Community Garden, which grows food and teaches health, gardening, and nutrition classes to southern Nevadans. (Courtesy Vegas Roots)
UNLV School of Medicine: The Community and the Curriculum
By Ed Ort

Connecting with the community will be an important part of our medical school's curriculum. Dr. Ellen Cosgrove, vice dean of academic affairs says, "Health care is not just about the body, it's also about the social, economic, physical, and cultural environment of the person. We want our students to understand that when they see a patient to take these factors into consideration." Read more.
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