[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/COMPASS.jpg” caption=”COMPASS curriculum Web page”]The architects of the new curriculum for McMaster's undergraduate MD program are holding a public forum to provide an overview of the changes in store for the university's world-renowned medical school.

Known as COMPASS, the new curriculum will be rolled out this September for students entering the first year of the three-year medical program of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. The public forum is designed to give faculty, students and staff of the Faculty of Health Sciences, as well as anyone from the McMaster community who is interested, a chance to learn about the objectives and developments of the new curriculum and to ask questions.

The forum will take place on March 31, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., in Room HSC-1A1 of the McMaster Health Sciences Centre.

Susan Denburg, associate dean, academic, of the Faculty of Health Sciences, will discuss the innovative evolution of McMaster's problem-based learning curriculum, and Alan Neville, assistant dean of the MD program, will highlight key features of the revamped program. Professor Geoff Norman, assistant dean of the Program for Educational Research and Development and holder of a Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Dimensions of Clinical Expertise, will provide an overview of the science of instruction that lays the foundation for COMPASS.

The forum will be an interactive session, the first in a series of community events in the spirit of COMPASS.

Work on the new curriculum began in 2002, and has been conducted by a group of dedicated faculty, under the leadership of Neville and Norman.

“This curriculum renewal, led by a committed group of faculty and students from within and outside the MD program, has involved scrutiny of every aspect of the program – nothing was sacred,” said Denburg. “While it remains true to the tenets of problem-based learning, which originated at McMaster and initiated a revolution in medical education many years ago, it will set a new standard for evidenced-based curriculum development and draw on new learning technologies to strategically enhance and reinforce the self-directed and small group learning that is the hallmark of the program.”

The new curriculum includes renewed emphasis on conceptual thinking and problem solving, greater emphasis on professional competencies, better links between academic and clinical learning experiences, and increased opportunities for inter-professional collaborations.