Whose Coat Is It Anyway?

Academic Medicine, Vol. 94, No. 4 / April 2019 459 We also completely disagree with the author’s characterization of a “takeover” since we meticulously followed university governance procedures, including formal approval of curricular changes by the faculty-led Curriculum Committee, the school’s Faculty Council, the dean, and the provost. Further, over 30 faculty members actively participated on our Curriculum Transformation Development Teams. As we described in our article, some seasoned contributors expressed reservations and decided not to engage in or embrace the curriculum transformation. In contrast, hundreds of other faculty members are enthusiastically participating in teaching and leading new curricular components. We agree with the author that our curricular changes are extensive. This was by design as we modernized the curriculum to integrate all three sciences—basic, clinical, and health systems sciences— instead of perpetuating the siloed and compartmentalized approaches used in the past. Further, we recognize the value to our students’ education of incorporating both content and instructional expertise in modern curricula. And it’s important to clarify that the “medical librarian” the author references holds a PhD in biochemistry and is an outstanding, highly regarded teacher.