First 4-year class ready to graduate from Wichita medical school

Jacob Wallace is an engineer, but in May he’ll also be a medical doctor.

Wallace is in the first class of students to complete all four years of medical education at the Wichita campus of the University of Kansas School of Medicine.

The original eight students have succeeded, and that was by design, said Dennis Valenzeno, associate dean for medical sciences, who was hired at the Wichita campus to implement the four-year program. The students had impeccable credentials, and most were from the area.

“We didn’t want to take any chances,” Valenzeno said. “The main thing that happened was that we gained a lot of confidence.”

Medical student Caitlin Chiles said she didn’t feel any qualms about joining the first four-year class in Wichita and said she has been amazed at how supportive the entire medical community has been.

“As a guinea pig class, they really wanted to make sure we didn’t fail,” she said. “Once you get into med school, they want to keep you in med school.”

In the subsequent years, 28 students have comprised each new Wichita medical school class. Additionally, since 1971, about one-third of the third- and fourth-year students from the main campus in Kansas City, Kan., have relocated to Wichita for clinical rotations. Altogether, the Wichita campus now serves about 200 medical students.

Valenzeno says there are three main advantages to being a regional campus such as KU Medical School-Wichita.

For one, the school is better positioned geographically to help serve the medical needs of the western two-thirds of the state. According to the KU Office of Public Affairs, 89 of Kansas’ 105 counties are designated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment as having a shortage of primary health care providers.

“We were taking students from all over and putting them in a big city,” Valenzeno said of the Kansas City campus. “Big surprise – many of them end up staying there. That’s what they know.”

Wichita is considered a community-based setting, with students learning at the largest two hospitals in the state.

KU School of Medicine-Wichita is ranked in the top 10 in the country for producing primary care doctors. About half of the graduates go on to primary care residencies, although some of them ultimately may end up pursuing subspecialties, and many of them end up practicing in Kansas.

Another advantage is cost.

“In many cases, it’s less expensive to educate a student at a regional campus,” Valenzeno said.

Rick Kellerman, chairman of the department of family and community medicine, notes that the expansion from a two-year campus for clinical rotations to a full four-year campus has been accomplished without additional state funding.

He says the students have been impressive – “they are smart; they’re conscientious; they work hard” – as have the faculty members. “They have really invested themselves,” he said.

Kellerman also says technology, specifically the ability to telecast lectures, played a significant role in the expansion.

“Ninety percent of lectures originate in Kansas City,” he said.

Wallace said that from a student perspective, this system worked well. The technology was in place for students to ask questions live, but Wallace said he usually wasn’t ready to do so at that point. He appreciated the ability to rewatch the lecture later – sometimes at double speed – after the material had soaked in a bit. Then, if he still had questions, he could e-mail the professor.

Partnerships with local universities also have allowed the Wichita expansion to be cost effective. The Wichita campus already had the clinical faculty in place, but it did not have the staff to teach basic sciences. Faculty with doctorates from Wichita State University fill that role, and the KU medical students use the Newman University anatomy lab.

Valenzeno says the third major advantage to being a regional campus is that the school is able to innovate in medical education.

“We can be a test site for curriculum,” he said. “We are more agile.”

Valenzeno referred to the traditional concept of the sage at the front of the room imparting knowledge to a large group.

“It’s efficient for the lecturer’s time,” he said. “But that’s not the most effective way to learn.”

Valenzeno said the Wichita campus is looking at ways to get students more clinical experience earlier as they work with a faculty guide.

Another significant part of the overall KU School of Medicine curriculum is problem-based learning in small groups. For the first four-year Wichita class, that “small group” was the entire eight students.

Scott Moser, vice chairman of the department of family and community medicine, led that first class and feels privileged to have worked so closely with the first eight four-year students.

“Every one of them is kind of a pioneer person,” Moser said. “They’ve already gone on to show quite a bit of leadership.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 9:14 AM with the headline "First 4-year class ready to graduate from Wichita medical school."