The Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP) is an organization for ALL educators and administrative staff dedicated to promoting excellence in behavioral sciences and psychiatric education for medical students. Our members range from individual preceptors to course and clerkship directors to those who are involved in medical student education across the four year curriculum. We have around 200 active members from the US, Canada, and Australia and almost 40 clerkship administrators representing over 100 LCME-accredited medical schools. Our president this year is the affable and talented Greg Briscoe, MD, from Eastern Virginia Medical School.
ADMSEP emphasizes the sharing of innovative teaching activities, educational research, assessment strategies and effective mentoring/advising activities. This past year ADMSEP published the “Key Diagnoses, Learning Goals and Milestones for Psychiatry in Undergraduate Medical Education” and every medical school that has a member in ADMSEP received enough of these brochures for every medical student in their third year class. The Clinical Simulation Initiative (CSI) has been at work over several years now developing online case-based learning modules for use in teaching psychiatry to medical students. The 11 modules produced thus far are available on the ADMSEP website. Several more are in development focusing on disorders from the "Key Diagnoses" so that these modules can be used for an "alternative learning experience" in clerkships should a student not encounter a patient with a given diagnosis. ADMSEP is also currently working with members of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) to develop a "Psychiatric Boot Camp" model curriculum to prepare senior medical students who have matched into psychiatry for their intern year.
To support professional development of our members, we offer a two year Education Scholars Program that consists of didactics and mentorship to enhance knowledge and skills in research methodology and educational scholarship related to medical student education. The program culminates in a presentation at the annual meeting and, hopefully, in a publication. To foster educational research and further development of CSI modules, ADMSEP offer several grants annually for up to $2500 each. Please see our recently beautifully revamped website (http://www.admsep.org/) for details about these.
The ADMSEP annual meeting in June outside of Kansas City had 162 attendees, our largest meeting ever. Our 2017 meeting will be June 15-17 at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, and in 2018 we will be in Minneapolis. On a personal note, I have attended both the Association for Academic Psychiatry and ADMSEP annual meetings for most of the last 15 years and have found them very complementary for my career in medical student education in psychiatry. The meetings and attendees are, somewhat surprisingly, distinctly different and I have gained both professionally and personally from the academic offerings and people from both organizations. I look forward to seeing you all in San Juan and would be happy to tell you more about ADMSEP there if you have any questions.
John Spollen, MD
President Elect/Treasurer, ADMSEP
AAP Bulletin – Spring 2016, Page 2 of 7
