Education is one of the three legs of the “Ochsner stool.” From the inception of the clinic, Alton Ochsner's desire was to create an academic environment and culture. With the opening of the Foundation Hospital in the 1950s, a home for Ochsner academics was established. It is therefore very appropriate to dedicate an entire issue of The Ochsner Journal to education.
Ochsner would not be Ochsner without a large effort toward quality medical education. Ochsner has had a long-time association with both local medical schools—educating Tulane University and Louisiana State University third- and fourth-year students, essentially free of charge. In fact, if it were not for Ochsner, neither medical school would have been able to return to New Orleans as soon as they did after the hurricane season of 2005. Prior to Katrina, Ochsner was teaching approximately 400-450 student-months annually. In 2006, we were on a run rate of 900 student-months, and now we have leveled off to around 600 student-months.
Our partnership with The University of Queensland (UQ), establishing the Ochsner Clinical School, will soon have us teaching 240 of our own students annually and graduating 120 new doctors in New Orleans every year. By embedding these students within our integrated academic health system, we will be able to train future caregivers to deliver healthcare the way we do—in a cost-effective, evidence-based manner that results in superb clinical outcomes.
Our initiatives in patient quality outcomes and safety are transforming our graduate medical education (GME) program. We have been a leader in the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers' 3 National Initiatives. These translational research programs demonstrate the link between GME and patient quality and safety. Additionally, the Ochsner Resident Patient Safety and Quality Council recently launched an anonymous Patient Safety Hotline for Residents—another area in which we are a national leader. Through my participation on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Board, I am not only able to put Ochsner at the forefront nationally, but also able to contribute to the redesign of ACGME's Next Accreditation System. This system will revolutionize GME accreditation by linking it to an institution's patient quality outcomes.
Ochsner is, of course, involved in other areas of education, including nursing, allied health, and healthcare administration. Recently, in addition to our UQ efforts, we have reached out internationally to partner with universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
I am proud of the many national and international contributions from varied institutions in this issue of The Ochsner Journal. In this eclectic collection of interesting education-related articles, Guest Editors Drs Ronald Amedee and Leonardo Seoane have appended epitoma (Latin for summary, abridgement) to most of the articles, explaining each article's importance and relevance in the academic context. In addition, this issue continues the journal's practice of identifying the ACGME competencies each article addresses.
Improving the training of the next generation of physicians is a reaffirmation of Ochsner's legacy and its future.
- Academic Division of Ochsner Clinic Foundation
