Throughout its history, Tufts Medicine has been committed to excellence and innovation in teaching, learning and patient care. Below are some of the initiatives that support our efforts.
Global Health
Exemplifying Tufts commitments to active citizenship and internationalism, TUSM has been committed to the continued expansion of its Global Health initiatives for students. Through a combination of private philanthropy, foundation grants, and NIH grants, Tufts sent 32 students abroad in 2007 for two-month stays: 11 to Panama, 6 to Mangalore, India (Father Muller Medical College), 5 to East Africa, and 6 to Vellore, India (Christian Medical College). Additionally, we sent one student each to Cambodia, Kenya, Ghana and the Dominican Republic. An estimated 20 to 25 percent of our students obtain international experience prior to graduation. Such experience represents a high priority at TUSM, given evidence that physicians who have spent time abroad are more likely to become primary care doctors – and are far more likely to work in resource-poor areas of the U.S.
Global Health Interest Group
The Global Health Interest Group (GHIG) is one of the fastest growing student organizations at TUSM, and works closely with several faculty mentors. The Global Health Interest Group provides monthly seminars on international health topics, including programs addressing ways to balance a career in international health with practical concerns such as financial issues and family life. GHIG also promotes internships, research, clinical experiences and other opportunities for students, helping students to coordinate and fund their projects.
The growth of GHIG has been an integral part of TUSM’s expansion of formal opportunities for international health education experiences, which have grown to include such offerings as an international health elective in Nicaragua and exchange and collaboration opportunities for students and faculty at Father Muller Medical College and Christian Medical College in India.
Learn more about GHIG and international student experiences
Innovations in Education Grants
In recognition of the importance of teaching at Tufts, Dean Rosenblatt introduced the Innovations in Education Intramural Grant Program in 2004. This program is designed to promote and support teaching innovations developed by our faculty that will enhance the core educational programs, further the goals of the strategic plan or support the overall mission of Tufts University School of Medicine, including the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. Proposals may focus on innovations in instruction, evaluation, or content and the grant process is open to all current TUSM faculty, including those based at Sackler and affiliated hospitals.
The specific objectives of this program are to stimulate faculty to:
- Reflect on ways to advance the mission of TUSM through curricular change
- Develop new approaches to teaching and learning that are creative, innovative, and effective in addressing fundamental educational and programmatic issues
- Implement and evaluate new educational models that will reinforce our tradition of continuous improvement and teaching excellence
Learn more about the Innovations in Education grants program and the 2007 grant recipients
Sharewood
Do you remember volunteering in communities Dorchester, East Boston or other neighborhoods during your years at TUSM? Current TUSM students continue the tradition every Tuesday night in the basement of a Malden church. The Sharewood Project is a completely student run, student/physician-collaborated free health care clinic aimed specifically at offering medical services to the medically under-insured in the Boston community. The Sharewood Clinic offers drop-in urgent and primary care services, and has extended those services to a more comprehensive level, including nutrition counseling, mammography advocacy, and social service counseling.
The Sharewood Project is based on a commitment to honor service, education, and communication in the surrounding community. The clinic operation provides direct health care access to those who would otherwise not have such services available to them.
Sharewood provides clinical experience in the field of primary care for first and second year medical students and allied health students. Moreover, the clinic provides a more personal experience for future health care providers, challenges their understanding of community, and sensitizes their perspectives concerning people who are medically under-served, people with addictions, and people who have special problems that are not likely treated adequately in standard medical situations. All Tufts medical students are welcome to volunteer.
Learn more about Sharewood and how you can volunteer
TUSK
Tufts University Hirsh Health Sciences Library, with the support of the Medical, Dental and Veterinary schools, has created a dynamic multimedia knowledge management system (TUSK) to support faculty and students in teaching and learning. TUSK is a complete system of education software and is shared with eight institutions nationally and internationally. TUSK combines powerful content, knowledge and course management within a highly flexible, portable infrastructure. Numerous content development and management tools, as well as personalized user tools, enable faculty, students, and administrators to carry out their daily tasks more effectively. Features such as clinical encounter logs or a unique case-based teaching tool provide students with information-rich learning resources. TUSK’s relational database environment allows easy searching, editing, reuse, and management of content. To further TUSK’s mission, TUSK staff works with faculty, students, and partner schools and institutions to continually enhance educational applications. TUSK has won several prestigious awards since its inception including the first CIO Enterprise Value Award given to a university.
Learn more about TUSK
