Catchum - Project - Background Page

History of the CATCHUM Project
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1995-1998 (National Cancer Institute I)

Fundamental Question: Can substantive change in the emphasis placed on cancer prevention, detection, and control in medical education, and on those among the faculty who are its champions, occur in Texas medical schools?

Evidence of substantive change. During this first 2-year period of NCI funding, the CATCHUM Project provided the following evidence of the substantive change in the Texas medical schools:

curriculum assessment and maps of the content
groups of key faculty identified
uniform set of core competencies to guide curricular reform
required curricular hours devoted to cancer increased
committees or processes in place at each school to provide for ongoing change
inter-school task forces developing new materials and approaches, and sharing expertise
exposure of 5,123 Texas medical students to cancer prevention, detection, and control content (80% will train and 62% will practice in the state)
capability to produce students who can demonstrate that such consortium-based education does increase the knowledge and improve the skills needed to become effective agents in preventing, detecting, and controlling cancer
website established, used initially to store and archive educational resources

Evaluation of impact. Impact of the project was evaluated by 3 components:

external peer-review by a team of consultants familiar with medical education issues
extensive documentation of key performance measures (these were critical elements in substantiating impact of the NCI funding)
documenting changes in the students by measuring increased knowledge

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