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Clinical Competence Center


of New York

 


Our Faculty


We are pleased to announce that C3NY has assembled some of the world's foremost authorities in the fields of standardized patient assessment.

Mark H. Swartz, M.D.

mswartz@c3ny.org

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 Dr. Swartz, CEO and President of C3NY, has been recognized nationally and internationally for his teaching ability and has received many teaching awards. In 1998, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) awarded Dr. Swartz their prestigious national AAMC/Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award.


Dr. Swartz is the author of five textbooks. His Textbook of Physical Diagnosis: History and Examination (Fourth Edition - 2002) was reviewed for the second time in the New England Journal of Medicine (July 10, 2003), which cited this new edition as “the most accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive textbook of physical diagnosis available today.” It is the most widely read textbook in this field. The Sixth Edition of his Textbook will be published in March 2009. His new book entitled The Ultimate Guide and Review for USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills was published in December 2006.


His research over the past 17 years has centered on improving medical education and assessment of clinical competence. Dr. Swartz has published more than 30 seminal articles in this area. The founder of The New York City Consortium for Clinical Competence and the founder and director of The Morchand Center for Clinical Competence for more than 13 years, Dr. Swartz is currently Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate College of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College.


Prior to founding C3NY in 2003, Dr. Swartz was the developer and director of the Kaplan Medical CSA Program.

Anna Lank

alank@c3ny.org

Anna Lank

 Ms. Lank, Managing Director of C3NY, is a theatre professional and a fifteen year veteran in the standardized patient field.  Ms. Lank assisted in training SPs at The Morchand Center (in addition to being one herself for many years) and at the National Medical School Review at Felician College in Rutherford, New Jersey, where she served as Associate Program Manager during the first year of the program.


As an actor, Ms. Lank performed regionally, Off and Off-Off Broadway, assaying everything from Moliere, Shakespeare and Gilbert & Sullivan, to Wasserstein, Durang and David Ives.  She was the Producing Director of the New Artef Players in Los Angeles and has coached and trained actors professionally since 1985.


In addition, Ms. Lank has worked extensively as a consultant in development, special events, fundraising and human resources for many not-for-profit arts organizations in the tri-state area.  She holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from UCLA, and is a member of ASPE, the Association of Standardized Patient Educators.

Virginia Drda

vdrda@c3ny.org

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Ms. Drda, Program Associate of C3NY, is a theatre professional with over twelve years experience merging the art of theatre with the science of medicine.

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Ms. Drda acted, directed, and managed educational theatre programs with Kaiser Permanente Health Maintenance Organization for seven years. She also co-wrote and developed live interactive encounters designed to enhance the communication skills of health care providers, portraying various patients and medical professionals. Her additional live and filmed performances have dealt with health and social issues such as AIDS awareness, conflict resolution, and coping with terminal illness.

Ms. Drda has acted in an array of standardized patient roles for over five years in and around New York City including programs at New York University School of Medicine, SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine, City College of New York, and the Residency Programs at Beth Israel and Lenox Hill Hospitals.

Additional acting credits for Ms. Drda include roles in Regional Theater, Off-Off Broadway and film. She holds a B.A. in Communications from John Carroll University, and has studied at The Actor’s Studio, at The Denver Center, and with the Russian Art Theater.
Deni Mayer

dmayer@c3ny.org

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Mr. Mayer, Program Manager of C3NY, has been involved in clinical skills education since 2001. Getting his start as a standardized patient, Mr. Mayer has also worked as a standardized patient trainer and physical exam instructor, exam proctor, case monitor, as well as assisting in the development of new cases. He has worked with the medical schools at University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago, Tufts University, Boston University, University of Massachusetts and Harvard.

A director and actor by training, Mr. Mayer has directed and performed in plays from Washington state to Illinois to Maine and New York City. He was co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of Naugahyde Productions in Seattle, WA, where he directed and starred in several world premiere productions.

Mr. Mayer received his B.A. in Theatre from Western Illinois University and is a member of ASPE, the Association of Standardized Patient Educators.

Sandy Gruenwald

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Ms. Gruenwald, Adjunct Faculty of C3NY, has gained over ten years experience in standardized patient methodology at the University of Toronto 's standardized patient program. She specializes in teaching and assessing communication skills based on the patient-centered model of interviewing. Her work spans all levels of health-professional training, from undergraduate through postgraduate to continuing education.

Ms. Gruenwald has collaborated in the development of curriculum for courses such as "Successful Interviewing" for family medicine residents, "Patient-Centered Interviewing" for practicing physicians, and the 'Pre-Residency Program' for international medical graduates. She is central to the Ontario College of Pharmacy's quality assurance and remediation process for practicing pharmacists. Ms. Gruenwald also has extensive experience in tutoring individual trainees with communication difficulties.

Ms. Gruenwald received her B.A. in Urban Studies from Concordia University and M.F.A. from Brandeis University. Now a resident of New York City, Ms. Gruenwald continues to work at the University of Toronto on special projects.

Jerry A. Colliver, Ph.D.

colliver@siumed.edu

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 Dr. Colliver is professor of medical education at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where his major responsibility is as director of the Division of Statistics and Research Consulting, a school-wide consulting unit. He is the editor of Teaching and Learning in Medicine: An International Journal.


Dr. Colliver received a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Northwestern University where he also completed post-doctoral study in research methods with Professor Donald T. Campbell. He has authored or co-authored some 200 papers published in medical and scientific journals or presented at national and international conferences. He has been involved in research on standardized patient testing and has authored no less than 40 papers on this subject. For the past ten years, he has been a collaborator with Dr. Swartz in the standardized patient testing program for The New York City Consortium for Clinical Competence at The Morchand Center. He has received national awards for his research in this area, including the 1990 and 1992 Best Paper by an Established Investigator from Division I of the American Educational Research Association. He received the 1995 John P. Hubbard Award from the National Board of Medical Examiners “in recognition of his significant contributions to the pursuit of excellence in the field of evaluation in medicine”.


Recently, Dr. Colliver has written on the educational effectiveness of problem-based learning, the role of theory in medical education, and the need for assessing effect size in medical education research.


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