Overview
The noon conference curriculum of the Memorial Hospital Family Medicine Residency is a daily schedule of learning activities that includes didactic presentations, interactive sessions, small group learning and case presentations. Presenters vary by topic and include family medicine residents and faculty, medical and surgical specialists from the community and non-physician experts in topics relevant to the education of family medicine residents. While direct patient care is the primary method by which residents are educated, it is understood that some topics are enhanced by formal didactic presentation and that other valuable topics may not be universally encountered in daily patient care.
Goal
Noon conferences will provide a structured learning environment to ensure that residents receive comprehensive education on topics relevant to the specialty of family medicine.
Implementation
Noon conference will occur on a daily basis, Monday through Friday from 12:10 to 1 p.m. and is a required activity for residents and faculty. A monthly schedule will be developed by the Vice-Chief Resident in consultation with a designated faculty member and with the ongoing input of residents and faculty based on the scheduling guidelines. The topics presented are as follows:
Noon Conferences
Medicine, pediatric, and obstetric case conferences
Radiology case conference
Continuous Quality Improvement
Quality Improvement Study
Medical/Surgical Subspecialties
Geriatrics
Journal Club
High-Risk OB Conference
Psychiatry
Behavioral Medicine
Sports Medicine
Ambulatory Care
EKG Conference
Pediatric and Pediatric Intensive Care Conference
Office Procedure Workshops
Dermatology
Pharmacy Conference
Complementary Medicine
Occupational Medicine
Rural Medicine
Nutrition
Orthopedics
Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapies
Osteopathic Medicine
Ophthalmology
Otolaryngology
General Surgery
Emergency Medicine
Research Presentations
International Health
Community Medicine
Legal Issues in Medicine
Case Presentation Priorities
The noon conference curriculum includes case conferences presented by residents who have recently completed one of the core inpatient service rotations, i.e., internal medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics. Case conferences are intended to develop and assess a resident’s ability to collect, interpret and prioritize information about a patient’s illness, to draw diagnostic conclusions from such information, to meaningfully and succinctly convey this information to other physicians, to reflect upon and reinterpret the information subsequent to the patient’s hospital course, to apply the medical literature to real-world clinical medicine and to teach others based on this experience.
Each case presented must include a review of the history and physical examination, pertinent laboratory and imaging studies and an initial differential diagnosis. A brief overview of a pertinent medical topic should be presented along with the patient’s outcome, if known. A brief literature review must be performed and cited, as well as include multiple sources. Any ethical issues which arose should be discussed. Case presentations should generally be presented in approximately 15 minutes, allowing for questions and comments from the audience.
Case conferences will be evaluated by a faculty member using a standard competency-based presentation evaluation form.
Residents are expected to complete the following number of case conferences in the specified area of medicine by the end of their three years:
- Internal Medicine (6)
- Pediatrics (4)
- Obstetrics (2)
- Geriatrics (1)
- Journal article (1)
Evaluation
Residents are asked to evaluate the quality and content of noon conferences at least semi-annually and these responses influence the selection of subsequent schedules and speakers.
