2009 Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Awards

Eugene C. Corbett, Jr., M.D.
University of Virginia School of Medicine

A proponent of interprofessional collaboration and competency-based education well before these trends entered the mainstream, Eugene Corbett keeps his students well ahead of the medical education curve. And by leading the way in clinical skills education at all stages of the medical education continuum, he ensures that they'll stay ahead.

At the University of Virginia (UVA), Dr. Corbett is the Anne L. & Bernard B. Brodie Professor of Medicine and a professor of nursing, and was recently appointed assistant dean for clinical skills education. He is also a visiting faculty and steering committee member of the Harvard Macy Institute for Physician Educators.

Shortly before joining the UVA medical school faculty, Dr. Corbett was a general practitioner in central Virginia, where, in addition to caring for underserved populations for 11 years, he provided opportunities for UVA students and residents to learn in his community practices. One of Dr. Corbett's first projects at UVA was to help develop a grant-funded rural practice site for primary care internal medicine residents. Today, as a result of further efforts, third-year medical students in the ambulatory internal medicine and family medicine clerkships spend four weeks in community-based rural and urban outpatient practices learning to provide comprehensive care to patients of all ages.

In addition to his expertise in primary care, Dr. Corbett is also recognized for his contributions to nursing education in the realm of pathophysiology, a combination that has served him well in advancing interprofessional collaboration. He was involved early on in developing a nurse practitioner program at UVA, and today is a key participant in the School of Medicine and School of Nursing Interprofessional Education Initiative.

A nationally recognized expert on competency-based education, Dr. Corbett has been involved with almost every major advance in UVA's undergraduate medical education curriculum, in addition to resident training and faculty development. In his new role as assistant dean for clinical skills education, he leads the integration of two key programs—the Clinical Skills Training and Assessment Program and the Medical Simulation Center—to create the Clinical Performance Education Center (CPEC). The center will enable students and health care professionals to gain and demonstrate competency in clinical skills in simulated settings. It also will allow medical students to practice upon and receive feedback from standardized patients about clinical skills such as patient interviewing, physical examinations, and professionalism.

No stranger to the AAMC, Dr. Corbett spent a year on sabbatical as a Robert G. Petersdorf Scholar-in-Residence from 2002 to 2003, where he continued his work on competency-based clinical education and was known for his "tremendous energy and nonstop ideas." In addition to forming the AAMC Task Force on Clinical Skills Teaching, Dr. Corbett helped produce three monographs on the topic—AAMC Project on the Clinical Education of Medical Students (2004), Recommendations for Clinical Skills Curricula for Undergraduate Medical Education (2005), and Recommendations for Preclerkship Clinical Skills Education in Undergraduate Medical Education (2008). Today, he continues this important work by serving as chair of the AAMC Task Force on the Clinical Skills Education of Medical Students.

Having won nearly every education award (sometimes more than once) in both the schools of medicine and nursing, Dr. Corbett's remarkable ability to anticipate medical education trends has earned him the admiration of his students and colleagues. UVA Dean Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., said Dr. Corbett "represents a model teacher and educator on behalf of medical student education."

Dr. Corbett received his B.A. degree from Florida State University and his M.D. degree from the University of Chicago. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore City Hospital.

About the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award

The Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Awards were established by the AOA medical honor society in 1988 to provide national recognition to faculty members who have distinguished themselves in medical student education. The award is named for long-time AOA executive secretary Robert J. Glaser, M.D.

Find out more about the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award.