SCS learns from Harvard Medical School

Eric Morand and Jane M Neill at Harvard Medical School

While attending the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston last week, School of Clinical Sciences Head, Professor Eric Morand, accepted an invitation to visit Harvard Medical School (HMS).

Professor Morand met with Jane M Neill, Associate Dean for Medical Education Administration and Planning, Harvard University to learn about the HMS medical education precinct.

“These discussions were timely given SCS is planning to develop a major health care professional education precinct at Monash Medical Centre,” said Professor Morand.

"Harvard recently upgraded their clinical skills centre and Monash is keen to learn from the best around the world."

“Monash and Harvard Medical Schools are both research-intensive environments where most teachers are also hospital clinicians,” added Professor Morand. “Importantly, we share similar values about education and teaching patient-centred care.”

Professor Morand reported he learned “what Harvard believes they got right, what they would do differently, and what the future looks like.”

Beyond the discussions about building a medical education precinct and building on the links between the two organisations, Professor Morand discovered that Monash's links to Harvard have a long history.

Foundation Professor of Anatomy at Monash, and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1977 to 1988, Emeritus Professor Graeme Schofield was an anatomy instructor at HMS and some of his former students, who are current HMS staff, remember him fondly as an outstanding teacher.