History:

The IGC Project was administered by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (1994-1998).

OBJECTIVES:
The Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculum Project, a federal contract through the Health Resources and Services Administration, funded 10 schools to implement innovative primary care curricula early in medical school training. Through collaboration among family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics, the IGC curricula exposed students to a minimum of 150 hours of generalist curriculum time, at least 50% of which wasdevoted to a direct supervised clinical experience with a generalist physician preceptor or mentor from family medicine, general internal medicine, or general pediatrics. External evaluation efforts undertaken by a team from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine were directed at assessing the impact of the IGC Project within the 10 schools and on career choices of students.

METHODS:
Funded from 1994-1997 were Eastern Virginia Medical School, Medical College of Ohio, University of Colorado, University of Nebraska, and University of Wisconsin. Funded from 1995-1998 were Marshall University, Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine, University of California-San Francisco, University of Illinois at Chicago, and University of Vermont. These schools found it advantageous to share information to improve their own programs and to gain a more accurate understanding of the impact of the preclinical innovations.

RESULTS:
The IGC Project studied what works and what does not work in curricular innovation within 10 individual demonstration institutions and across institutions. In particular, lessons are emerged in the following areas:

1) interdisciplinary collaboration;

2) community preceptor recruitment and retention;

3) faculty development (both community-based and university-based faculty);

4) integration of clinical and nonclinical teaching through an early clinical experience; and

5) integration into the 4-year curriculum for medical students.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:
Through the collective experience of 10 different institutions and an external evaluation effort, the IGC Project fostered innovation in medical education. Experience with the IGC Project will help determine future directions for interdisciplinary approaches to medical education in primary care.

IGC Project Findings Summary Academic Medicine April 2001