To Be...A Spartan MD

Henry Ford Health System and Michigan State University have announced the two organizations signed a letter of intent to significantly expand their long-term partnership, a unique primary affiliation among the first of its kind for the region between a fully integrated academic health system and major state university. Committed to redesigning care around patients and communities through education, research and clinical care, the enhanced collaboration will focus on improving access, affordability and outcomes, especially for Detroit’s and Michigan’s most vulnerable populations. “Partnerships with the potential for greater impact are more important than ever before,” said Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health System. “The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing injustices and recent protests in cities across our nation have amplified the importance of and urgency for innovation and discovery that radically improves the health of all of the communities we serve.” “Healt...

Many things have understandably changed in the last few months, as medical schools continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical school students have been among those adapting nobly to the current circumstances. Yet as the Class of 2020 concludes their medical school training despite these unusual disruptions, one thing that hasn't changed is that College of Human Medicine graduates continue to move on to some of the most competitive residency placements across the country.  It's time for another great group of #SpartanMD physicians to enter the workforce and, in fact, some already have. This past March, Michigan State University announced a swift move to make graduating health care students available in the COVID-19 response. Whereas students typically begin their residency positions in July, a group of CHM graduates were among the 350 health care workers to enter the workforce before the end of April. The announcement came shortly after yet another strong Match Day...

The College of Human Medicine had to make some decisions. After all, the Shared Discovery Curriculum requires clinical experience as a foundation to the hands-on training that CHM students receive. Yet in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the college made the necessary call to remove students from their clinical posts. “I am disappointed that our students are not currently in clinical settings, and I think it is deeply important for students to re-enter clinical rotations soon,” said Dr. Aron Sousa, CHM Interim Dean in the April 3rd Dean’s Update . “The whole point of our curriculum is that students will be useful, because being useful is a powerful educational experience and the key to their future performance.” The college decided to quickly transition from inpatient clerkships to delivering remote courses before preparing Late Clinical Experience students for a safe return to patient care. A small group of CHM administrators were charged with addressing those tasks. What they pr...

These continue to be very unusual times. As such, we recognize that the COVID-19 crisis is life-disrupting for everyone and that colleges and universities are navigating this crisis in varying ways.  Many of our current and future applicants are facing uncertainty about how 2020 winter and spring courses will continue and be graded, including coursework that is traditionally considered prerequisite or recommended for many medical school admissions processes. The challenge for medical school admissions committees is that accurate and specific information is always preferred.  When committees are faced with ambiguity, their bias may factor a pass as a “C/D” or 2.0/1.0 rather than a higher grade.  So, if you have an option to proceed with a letter grade for prerequisite coursework, many schools (including the College of Human Medicine) would prefer this option.   For those of you in which a Pass/Fail or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade is rendered for any of these ...