SNMA/LMSA Glossary

CWRU SOM Glossary
by Chioma Elechi '22

Contributor(s): Chioma Elechi (‘22), Elizabeth Obi (23’)
This is a lengthy (but certainly not exhaustive) list of all of the terms that you will most commonly encounter while at Case. There is no shortage of acronyms at Case, so this glossary is for you to refer back to when the brevity of it all is too much.
Assessments

Anatomy Exam: GARLA end-of-block exam made up of both the anatomy practical and the GARLAQ exam
1. The anatomy practical will be administered via Holo-lens
2. The GARLAQ exam is made up of a selection of GARLAQ questions that were released earlier in the block. This exam is typed but also has drawing portions, so don’t forget to bring a writing utensil and some extra colors (but not a red pen!).
3. This exam is Tuesday of exam week.
GARLAQs: Gross Anatomy, Radiology, and Living Anatomy Questions
1. 20+ questions compiled by the faculty of the GARLA curriculum that cover a variety of anatomy topics based on the content of the block
2. These questions are released to you at the beginning of the block and tested during exam week.
3. Each question has several sub-questions that include anatomy, radiology, and ultrasound content
4. Most people work in groups to complete the GARLAQs, some people wait until other people post their answers and compare.
Histopathology Quizzes:
1. Weekly, open-book, multiple choice questions based on the material from the histopathology lectures. They aren’t mandatory, but are extremely helpful in studying for the Histo exams.
2. The only mandatory quizzes were during Block 1.
3. The histopathology exam is given on Tuesday of exam week with the anatomy portions for blocks 2-
4. This exam is closed book and multiple choice.
5. The End of block review and optional quizzes are the HIGHEST of yield.
MCQs: Multiple Choice Questions
1. Weekly, open-book questions that summarize lecture and IQ content. These aren't mandatory, but can be very helpful for reviewing block material.
NBME: National Board of Medical Examinations Cumulative Achievement Tests
1. Multiple-choice exam with clinical vignette style questions
2. These aren't graded, but they are kind of helpful for Step studying, so you should try to do well.
3. This exam is give on Friday of exam week.
SEQs: Synthesis Essay Questions
1. Weekly, open-book, short essay questions based (usually) on the material covered during lecture and IQ for the week
2. SEQs typically start with a clinical vignette followed by several questions addressing different aspects of the case
3. These are mandatory, so don't forget to do them every week (pro tip: set a recurring reminder for Friday afternoon and/or very early Saturday to avoid forgetting!).
4. These questions are due SATURDAY at 12:00pm.
5. After your answers are submitted, the ideal answers are provided and you will submit a reconciliation where you review how your answer matched up against the ideal answer. You are being assessed for completion rather than correctness, however your IQ facilitator will read your responses so you can’t completely phone this in. The reconciliation is due the following week at the same time as the current week’s SSEQs.
SSEQ: Summative Synthesis Essay Questions
1. Closed-book, short essay questions that make up the Foundations of Medicine and Health end-of- block exams (Blocks 1-6)
2. SSEQs are made up of several vignettes that are broken up into sub-questions that address the content of the block.
3. This exam is given Thursday of Exam week.
Year 1 Portfolio: Series of reflective essays that you will write based on your experiences during the first year of medical school
1. Don't worry about this until the end of the year, there will be several lectures throughout the academic year on how to complete your portfolio
2. You can “fail” the portfolio and its submission is mandatory, so make an effort to make sure your essays meet all of the requirements

Clinical Experiences

Clinical Immersion Week: A week-long clinical experiences intended to emphasize the material of the block. Currently Clinical Immersion Week only occurs during Block 4, but that may be subject to change depending on the curriculum.
1. Students are divided into groups and meet with patients and physicians at UH, MetroHealth or the VA
2. All of the Clinical Immersion Week activities are mandatory and can be extremely helpful in reviewing the material of the block
3. Due to COVID our Block 4 clinical immersion week was virtual. It consisted of a series of lectures, patient interactions, and following doctors throughout the hospital via zoom. Only one session was mandatory. Feel free to attend the week’s activities if they will be helpful to you!
Comm(unication) Workshop: Series of workshops where students have the opportunity to practice communication skills with patients. Topics range from shared-decision making to delivering bad news.
1. M4s will serve as preceptors for these sessions and they will be assessing you for your competency in exhibiting the required communication skills.
2. Remember to use lots of empathetic cues (examples include “I’m sorry to hear that.”, and “Tell me more about that.”). You’ll know you’re doing it right when you start using these in your everyday life.
3. Always check in with Howard first and remember white coat attire.
CPCP: Community Patient Care Preceptorship
1. A great opportunity to work with a physician preceptor from one of the hospital systems in the area in a given specialty, takes place over the course of 10 sessions in the Spring, Sumer, or Fall.
2. This is more than just shadowing; you’ll get the opportunity to practice your history-taking, physical exam, and diagnostic skills on actual patients without all of the pressure of rotations.
3. A survey will be sent out early in the year for you to rank your preferred specialties. If you are interested in a specific specialty, definitely rank that as your first choice, but keep in mind some specialties lend themselves to hands-on participation more than others. If you’re interested in getting more experience performing full histories and physical exams as well as giving presentations, then a specialty in primary care may be a better option than a surgical specialty.
LCSP: Longitudinal Clinical Skills Program
1. The COVID-19 replacement for CPCP and PD3 (see below)
2. This is a hybrid of CPCP and PD3 that involves a combination of outpatient clinical sessions, patient facing sessions, skill development sessions, and inpatient interview session
CSE: Clinical Skills Exam
1. Several exams designed to test the skills learned during the PD series. These are graded and you can fail these (pro Tip: Wash your hands!)
PD: Physical Diagnosis Series
1. PD1: Series of sessions during which focused physical exam skills are taught
  1. During the "learn" week, you will review the exam skills with a group of students and an M4 preceptor who will demonstrate the skills
  2. During the "test" week, you will be evaluated on your physical exam skills by an M4 using a standardized patient
2. PD2: Series of physical exam and diagnostic practice sessions with actual patients
3. PD3: 5-day course of sessions during which you will get to work on your history-taking, physical exam, and diagnostic skills in the clinical setting with a physician preceptor (think CPCP-lite)

Curricular Components

IQ: Small-group sessions during which clinical cases are reviewed to present block content. Content from IQ represents a significant portion of the content on the SSEQ exams so it is essential to make an effort to actually learn and contribute in IQ.
1. Blocks 1 & 2 IQ groups are made up of the same people, and this group will also serve as your FCM group
2. Each block you will be randomly assigned into an IQ group with your classmates
3. At the midpoint of the block, you’ll be required to give anonymous feedback on the performance of each of the members of your IQ group and in turn, you’ll also receive feedback on your performance.
LOs: Learning objectives
1. During IQ you will generate unofficial learning objectives which are topics your group will research to better understand the clinical case
2. Avoid the trap of having non-specific unofficial learning objectives (ULOs). In the later blocks, having broad ULOs will make your research more difficult.
3. At the end of the week, official learning objectives that summarize the intended topics of the case will be released
4. Find (or be!) the group that has high-quality official learning objectives (OLOs) and study these for the exams
5. The OLOs serve as the basis for some of the SSEQ questions, so familiarizing yourself with them will set you up for serious exam success
6. You may use any resources you like to answer the ULOs you make during IQ, but there are also recommended resources provided to assist your research.
Facilitator: Your facilitator is there to do just that, facilitate your group in reading and reviewing the case, developing learning objectives, and then teaching the material to each other
1. You should never feel like your facilitator is dominating your group. The point of the facilitator is to keep you out of the weeds and provide more clinical information, but not to teach or lecture. If you feel that your facilitator is stepping outside of this role, speak up!
2. Your facilitator will provide feedback on your SEQs and your performance in IQ each week. You will also get mid-block and end-of-block feedback that is part of your FHM grade
FCM: Foundations of Clinical Medicine
1. Most often refers to the Tuesday seminars which are also referred to as "Touchy-Feely Tuesdays"
  1. Series of lectures with small group discussion on special topics that are not covered in the Foundations of Health and Medicine curriculum. Includes topics such as health literacy, big data, and domestic violence.
2. Also includes the PD and Comm Workshop content
Foundations of Health and Medicine: Primary curriculum of the M1 and M2 years. Makes up the bulk of the clinical content of the curriculum and assessed at the end of each block using the SSEQs.
1. Made up of the content of Blocks 1-6
IPE: Interprofessional Education
1. Monthly sessions with students from the dental, medical, physician assistant, nursing, and social work graduate programs designed to teach students about how to work in interprofessional teams
2. You'll be bored, but IPE represents one of the few structured opportunities to meet students from the other programs
PLP: Professional Learning Plan
1. Online plan for achieving a personal, professional or academic goal, can create a different PLP each block or consistently address the same goal
2. You will refer back to this for your portfolio, so try and take it a little seriously
TBL: Team-Based Learning
1. Medium group sessions held periodically throughout Blocks 1-6, used to review special topics from the block content.
2. You will be assigned to a group of 6 that is different from your IQ group. All of the small group are then divided into one of two rooms to make the larger group.
3. You will answer questions as a team of 6 and then discuss, debate, and defend your answer with the other groups in your room.
4. Material from TBL may show up on the SSEQ exams
Structure: Case's anatomy and histology curriculum

Technology

Canvas: Online site that houses all of the materials for the curriculum
eAssessment: Webpage link from Canvas that houses all of the assignments for each of the blocks
Examplify: Computer program used to download and take SSEQ and Histopath exams
1. This is a lockdown browser that disables your devices wifi. You will not have access to your desktop or the internet during exams.
CaseMed Minute: Series of videos produced by the CWRU faculty on various topics in the multiple disciplines of the FHM curriculum

Administration

Black Out Days: Days throughout the year that cannot be missed without a medical or other emergency exemption
CSR: Committee of Student Representatives
1. The umbrella organization under which all student groups on campus are housed
2. Each year, CSR officers are elected from the M1 class and students will have the opportunity to submit themselves for election. Stay tuned for emails about that process.
Flex Days: Requested absences from mandatory curricular activities such as GARLA or IQ.
1. Flex day requests are made in the Attendance portal on Canvas and must be submitted at least 3 days in advance. You do not have to provide a reason for requesting a flex day.
  1. Flex days do not have to be approved by your Society dean, unlike sick days or absences for conference attendance
2. You can't take a flex day on a scheduled blackout day, so keep that in mind when planning to be away from school
3. There are 3 flex days for your first year and they do not roll over!
ISC: Intersociety Council
1. Student-led organization that plans events to allow the societies to mix and mingle
Societies: Think of these as Case’s Hogwarts houses, without all the inter-house drama and judgements on your personality
1. This is mostly a sorting system for student advisement. Each society is led by a society dean
  1. Societies
    1. Blackwell-McKinley
    2. Geiger
    3. Robbins
    4. Satcher
    5. Wearn
Society Dean: Designated faculty member who leads each society. You will be required to meet with your society dean several times throughout the academic year, but you can also schedule meetings with your society dean whenever you want. Though you’ll be assigned to a specific society, you can meet with any of the deans (“Society deans are a team practice.”)
1. Your society dean will be writing your recommendation letter for residency programs, so it’s essential that you form a relationship with them. Outside of that, the society deans can be great resources for information and a safe space to vent as they are not responsible for assessing you in any part of the curriculum. Also, most of them have snacks in their office!

CWRU SOM Glossary ​by Chioma Elechi '22

CWRU SOM Glossary
by Chioma Elechi '22