Alliance Sites:  
• AAIM
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• ASP
• CDIM
• AIM
• Affiliates
  • ACCM
  • AFMR
  • MPPDA

Overview of CDIM's Activities, Programs, and Initiatives

Founded in 1989, the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) promotes excellence in the education of medical students in internal medicine. CDIM sponsors many programs, projects, and activities. Through the support of CDIM members, the association is able to undertake the following:

Member Resources

• Online Resources: CDIM offers several online resources to its members. Located at www.im.org/cdim, the CDIM website contains CDIM’s online membership directory, meeting material, access to the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) Job Bank, an archive of publications including Academic Internal Medicine Insight and the CDIM/SGIM Core Medicine Clerkship Curriculum Guide, and a member listserver.
  
  
• Public Policy Initiatives: CDIM represents undergraduate internal medicine educators before the executive and legislative branches of the US government. The association is part of a coalition of organizations working with Congress and the Bush Administration to ensure appropriate funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which sponsors health services research. The association is also part of a coalition working on Title VII health professionals education funding and other issues of importance to the academic internal medicine community.
  
  
• Executive Leadership: Through the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Executive Leadership Program, members are given the opportunity to strengthen existing management skills and learn new ones. This professional development program offers departmental faculty and staff opportunities to learn about financial management (financial statement analysis, budgeting, and productivity assessment), strategy formulation and programming (strategic planning, marketing, and mission-based management), and organizational management (negotiation, mentoring, and career development).
  
  

• CDIM National Meetings: Each fall, CDIM holds a meeting to examine issues related to educating medical students. The next CDIM National Meeting will be held as part of Academic Internal Medicine 2008, October 30-November 2, 2008, at the Walt Disney World Dolphin in Lake Buena Vista, FL.
  
  

• CDIM/Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) Core Medicine Clerkship Curriculum Guide: Version three of the curriculum is available online. CDIM has also published a subinternship curriculum, which is also available through the association’s website.
  
  
• Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP) for Students: This joint effort from CDIM and American College of Physicians (ACP) is a printed collection of nearly 400 patient-centered, self-assessment questions and answers. MKSAP for Students 3 is available for purchase at the ACP website at www.acponline.org.
  
  
• Primer to the Internal Medicine Clerkship: Developed by CDIM members, the primer is a guide for medical students entering their third-year rotation. The primer outlines basic professional expectations, provides an overview of building differential diagnoses, reviews oral presentation skills, and provides suggestions for working with outpatient preceptors.
  
  

• AAIM Connection: Serving as the weekly voice of the alliance, AAIM Connection highlights current activities and initiatives. AAIM Connection updates CDIM members on how events “inside the Beltway” affect academic internal medicine, and provides other policy, meetings, and member services updates, as well as links members to new features on the alliance website.
  
  
• Academic Internal Medicine Insight: A quarterly publication, this newsletter provides members information about pertinent issues related to department of internal medicine faculty and staff.
  
  
• Teaching and Learning in Medicine (TLM): Through its membership in the Alliance for Clinical Education (ACE), CDIM is affiliated with TLM. In addition to publishing articles of interest to clinician-educators and researchers in medical education, selected abstracts of the CDIM National Meeting are published in this journal.
  
  
• The American Journal of Medicine (AJM): The association’s publications committee has the opportunity to identify commentaries for publication in AJM; these articles focus on issues of educational importance or association policy.
  
  

• Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM): CDIM continues to strengthen academic internal medicine by participating in AAIM. The members of this organization are the five academically focused internal medicine organizations: CDIM, the Association of Professors of Medicine, the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine, the Association of Subspecialty Professors, and the Administrators of Internal Medicine. AAIM is dedicated to improving academic internal medicine and is actively developing numerous programs to assist faculty and staff in departments of internal medicine.
  
  
• Alliance for Clinical Education (ACE): ACE is the consortium of all the clinical clerkship groups in the United States. Its mission is to foster collaboration across specialties to promote excellence in clinical education of medical students. ACE produces the Guidebook for Clerkship Directors, which is available from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). For more information, please visit their website at www.aamc.org.
  
  
• Council of Academic Societies (CAS): Along with APM and APDIM, CDIM participates in CAS. CAS is one of three governing councils of the AAMC. Its mission is to help faculty of medical schools and teaching hospitals pursue their primary responsibilities of research, education, and patient care, with an ultimate goal of improving the health of all Americans.