A combat veteran and board-certified anesthesiologist with more than 15 years of experience, Martin Harssema, MD, most recently served as a staff anesthesiologist at the Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic and Surgical Center in Maryland. Alongside his day-to-day activities, Dr. Martin Harssema maintains membership in the American Medical Association.
The American Medical Association (AMA) oversees a variety of activities and initiatives aimed at improving medical care and patient health. In recent years, the organization has been particularly focused on preparing medical students and physicians for the health care innovations that will affect how they diagnose and treat patients in the future.
As part of these efforts, the AMA oversees the Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, an initiative to help medical schools prepare students for the changing health care system. Initially launched with 11 schools in 2013, the consortium expanded two years later to include a total of 32 schools across the United States. In September 2017, the AMA held a conference to highlight the work of the consortium and further advance the efforts to improve medical education.
During the three-day ChangeMedEd 2017 conference, which took place September 14-16, leaders of health systems and medical education organizations nationwide came together to learn about curriculum-redesign projects currently under way as part of the Accelerating Change initiative. Attendees also had the opportunity to get their first look at the AMA’s Coaching in Medical Education Handbook, which offers best practices for medical education professionals who train student physicians.
