By Caleb White | Date published: December 3, 2024
David Hatem Recognized for Impact in Learning Communities
David Hatem, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, recently received the Ron Arky Award from the Learning Communities Institute (LCI) in recognition of his “significant contributions to the development of learning communities in medical education.” Dr. Hatem is a founding member of the LCI’s leadership council and a founding co-director of the UMass Chan Learning Communities. Additionally, he has provided consultation for numerous schools launching their own learning communities, along with valued colleagues from the LCI.
“When I came to UMass Chan, two aspects of medical education really caught my attention – one was helping physicians develop fundamental clinical skills, and the second was helping them with professional development,” Dr. Hatem explained. “There are a lot of questions that come with these subjects. How do you become a practicing physician and increase in expertise? And how much of it is developing as a physician and how much of it is developing as a person? What I became interested in was the integration of these two things.”
After directing the Physician Patient and Society course, a precursor to the current Early Clinical Learning course, Dr. Hatem became involved with the start of the UMass Chan Learning Communities in 2009. The institution set out to combine clinical skills education with a strong mentoring program through the creation of “house communities” of students and faculty. “Having a community of like-minded individuals is a really important developmental step for any professional, especially for physicians,” said Dr. Hatem. “You can’t grow only by yourself. We create community so that we all can benefit from learning with each other and developing ideas together. It’s also about finding people who are going to challenge you to develop further.”
After receiving the Ron Arky Award from the LCI, Dr. Hatem said he felt especially humbled to be chosen. Dr. Arky, director of the Francis Peabody Society at the Harvard University School of Medicine, has been a renowned leader and supporter of medical school learning communities since their inception. “I've known Ron personally for a long time, and so it takes on an added significance that I received an award named after him. Learning communities as a movement in medical education took off around the year 2000, but back in the mid-1980s, Ron was the architect in starting those at Harvard,” he said. “Ron was also a valued colleague to my cousin Charlie Hatem MD, a revered educator in the Harvard system, and a key mentor to me during my career. To me, this further reinforced the importance of longitudinal connection and community that helps us develop fully during our career.”
Dr. Hatem will deliver a Medical Grand Rounds presentation about professional identity development on January 16. It will include research from the LCI Research Network, which conducted studies on how students develop a professional identity in medical school and the influence of learning communities on their formation.