Hung, Li appointed to new medical education roles

The Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators announced at its 2015 Education Showcase that Erick Hung, MD, will begin a five-year term on July 1 as the Endowed Chair in Psychiatry Medical Student Education, one of 20 matched endowed chairs school-wide in partnership with the Academy. The chair designation is the result of a competitive search process open to all Academy members within the department.

Hung’s proposal focused on faculty development in the new generation of UCSF medical student education. UCSF’s Bridges Curriculum for medical student education includes preparing graduates for expanded roles as 21st century physicians, highlighting newer physician competencies in systems improvement, informatics, population management, and inter-professional teamwork to create better systems of care. The endowed chair will support Hung’s goal of advancing faculty in the very competencies we hope to instill in our students by promoting faculty champions, faculty development and curriculum development in these areas.

Effective April 1, Descartes Li, MD, is the department’s new Director of Medical Student Education, overseeing the psychiatry curriculum across the entire MD curriculum, which currently comprises the MS-1 Brain Mind and Behavior (BMB) course; the MS-3 Psychiatry clerkships at Parnassus, SFGH, SFVAMC, UCSF Fresno and Kaiser-Oakland; dozens of classroom-based and clinical rotation electives for all level students; MS-4 clinical electives for visiting students; and the multi-department sponsored MS-1 and MS-2 Foundations of Patient Care course.

Li is also a member of the foundational sciences workgroup designing the new Bridges Curriculum, which integrates foundational sciences and clinical training at unprecedented levels, along with a focus on newer physician competencies. He will continue in his roles as the BMB course director, director of the LPPI Bipolar Program and UCSF Electroconvulsive Therapy Services, and Parnassus site director for the Psychiatry Residency Training Program.