Harvard graduate and current professor in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Jane Turner has been invited to speak at the "Healing Health Disparities through Education Workshop" Oct. 5 at the Harvard Business School, Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.

The workshop is a joint collaboration between the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Medical School. Turner will join colleagues Dan Mayer from Albany Medical College of Albany, N.Y., and Desiree Lie from the University of California, Irvine of Irvine, Calif., on the program.

Turner will be speaking about the curriculum transformation she helped implement as the former assistant dean for the pre-clinical curriculum in the College of Human Medicine. In 2002, funding allowed the College of Human Medicine to analyze its current curriculum and make changes that allowed for the treatment of low-income patients.

“We had the opportunity to make some fundamental improvements on the curriculum so that our students would be better prepared to take care of patients on Medicaid and other low-income, vulnerable populations,” Turner said.

By consulting with faculty and staff, as well as reviewing course objectives and work, the research led to development of coursework that did not repeat information, but refreshed, reinforced and extended student learning. Besides tweaking the current curriculum, new units, lectures, and courses were added.

The findings were implemented as the new students of 2002 in the College of Human Medicine went through college. The class of 2006 was the first class to graduate with the changes that were being made while they were in school. The study was published in 2008, and the development of the curriculum is still on-going.

###

Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.