Boppart serving on Carle Illinois College of Medicine core curriculum committee

Dr. Robert Good, the senior associate medical director of population health at Carle Health System, and professor Rashid Bashir, the head of the department of bioengineering at Illinois, have been named co-chairs of the 18-member group that will lead the effort to build the engineering-based Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s core curriculum.

Professor Stephen Allen Boppart will join them, as will faculty from across the Urbana campus and several physicians from Carle. Interim Provost Edward Feser said the group has an opportunity to have a significant impact on the future of medical education. “Our aim is to create something truly new and transformative,” he said.

The group includes expertise in the basic health sciences, clinical training, engineering and technology, and accreditation. The committee is tasked with building an overall framework for the curriculum and broadly engaging faculty from across the campus to develop details of the curriculum. The group is expected to engage with dozens of additional Urbana faculty and Carle physicians, as well as alumni and external thought leaders. 

“We are confident this team will create a curriculum with the right balance of clinical, biological and engineering instruction, giving our students the foundation they need to provide the highest quality care and to think and work as collaborative innovators,” said Matthew Gibb, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer of Carle Health System. 

Additional subcommittees of faculty and physicians with subject matter expertise will be organized to develop the specific, individual components of the curriculum. The process to begin forming those subcommittees is expected to begin in early 2016.

The Carle Illinois College of Medicine is the first college of medicine in the nation specifically designed at the intersection of engineering and medicine. With a search for the founding dean and initial steps in the accreditation process already underway, the college is expected to accept its first class of students in 2018.

A complete list of the Core Curriculum Group members:

Co-chairs

Rashid Bashir, Illinois professor and department head of bioengineering

Robert Good, Carle senior associate medical director of population health and a physician of adult medicine

Carle Members

Robert Cranston, medical director of talent development and physician of neurology

Malcom Hill, associate medical director of primary care and physician of pediatrics

Michelle Olson, residency director of general surgery and physician of colo/rectal surgery

Sarwar Orakzai, physician of cardiology

Gerald Welch, associate medical director of behavioral health and physician of psychiatry

Illinois Members

Brian Aldridge, clinical professor, College of Veterinary Medicine

Jennifer Amos, teaching associate of bioengineering

Boppart, an M.D./PhD and professor at ECE ILLINOIS and in bioengineering

Neal Cohen, director of the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Initiative and professor of psychology

Janet Jokela, department head of internal medicine and professor of clinical medicine

Susan Martinis, department head of biochemistry and medical biochemistry

Gay Miller, professor of veterinary pathobiology

James Morrissey, professor of biochemistry

Saurabh Sinha, associate professor of computer science

Brad Sutton, director of the Beckman Imaging Center and associate professor of bioengineering

Phyllis Wise, professor of molecular and integrative physiology