Dean's Message

Each summer, VTCSOM welcomes a talented new cohort of students to begin their journey toward becoming physicians. Eager to engage with both faculty and patients, they arrive seeking opportunities for early clinical exposure. One meaningful way this occurs is through the Longitudinal Ambulatory Clinical Experience (LACE), a component of the Community and Clinical Immersions (CCI) course. Each October, LACE formally launches as students enter Carilion ambulatory clinics across the Roanoke Valley. The program is carefully mapped to course objectives and assessments and is complemented by other CCI activities such as nurse shadowing and community engagement, ensuring that students begin integrating classroom learning with authentic clinical and community contexts.

At the heart of LACE, every student is paired with a VTCSOM physician preceptor and works with them consistently over the entire fifteen months of Phase 1. This sustained engagement fosters meaningful relationships and continuity of learning. Faculty preceptors, whose participation is supported by their department chairs, represent a wide diversity of specialties within Carilion Clinic, ranging from early-career physicians to department chairs. To ensure shared understanding of program goals, LACE faculty are invited to an annual orientation each October that reviews the learning objectives, processes, and assessments of the program. On the student side, first-year medical students receive a structured orientation within the CCI course, which includes training in universal precautions, completion of the Carilion Clinic 2025 Cornerstone Infection Control module, and, on October 9, a required ambulatory EPIC training program developed in partnership with Carilion’s IT and compliance teams. Successful completion of this training allows students supervised note-writing access in EPIC, preparing them for authentic participation in patient care.

This year also marks an important evolution in how students are paired with their preceptors. Historically, assignments were made randomly each fall. In response to student feedback requesting more agency in the process, VTCSOM is piloting a new match system developed by technical specialist, Michael Long. Students ranked their top five specialty preferences, and the internally designed program generated match lists based on preceptor availability. This innovation reflects VTCSOM’s responsiveness to student feedback and commitment to aligning clinical experiences with learners’ interests.

Beyond skill development, LACE plays an important early role in cultivating VTCSOM’s mission to educate patient-centered physicians. Through their preceptors, students gain early practice in bedside skills, while also encountering the social determinants of health that profoundly influence patients, families, and communities. Twice yearly—at the end of the fall and spring semesters—students return to the classroom to present a de-identified patient from their LACE experience. These exercises assess both oral and written presentation skills while requiring students to identify social determinants affecting their patient’s health. Facilitated small-group discussions further extend this learning, reinforcing systems thinking and cultivating a value-added mindset that positions students as active contributors to the interconnected healthcare system.

The impact of LACE is consistently affirmed by student evaluations, where it remains a highly rated component of the Phase 1 curriculum. One student captured the essence of the program by noting, “LACE is the single best experience I have had in medical school. It is learning in a different way and provides opportunity to apply concepts we have already studied.”

As we launch LACE again this month, we are excited to partner with our clinical departments in welcoming first-year students as value-added members of our clinical and community teams. Since the charter class, LACE has provided meaningful early clinical exposure that not only shapes foundational skills but also helps our students grow into the patient-centered colleagues they aspire to become.

In appreciation to all the LACE preceptors for your investment in VTCSOM medical education,

Tarin Schmidt-Dalton, M.D.
Associate Dean, Clinical Science
Community and Clinical Immersions Co-Director

News Around Campus

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Events

Humanism Note

Dr. Pauly, Dr. Knight, and Jamie Hollimion recently presented at the 2025 Gold Humanism Summit in Baltimore, MD. The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, which hosts the event, champions humanism in healthcare, defining it as clinically excellent care that is kind, safe, and trustworthy. The team presented an academic poster on “Leading Teams Through Transition: Humanistic Tools for Success.” This poster was a collaborative effort from Lisa Uherick, Sarah Harendt, Lee Learman, Rebecca Pauly, and Jamie Hollimion. The team hopes to give an expanded presentation session at next year’s summit.

Publishing

Recognition

Paige Markham Jentsch recently earned the VT Fiscal Management certificate that required completion of assigned work spanning twelve months and passing a comprehensive final exam.   The series of fiscal certificate programs are part of the Fiscal Training and Development Program hosted by the Vice President for Finance provides a comprehensive structure of ongoing professional development, an environment of continuous learning and sharing, and an opportunity to increase overall understanding of fiscal responsibilities at Virginia Tech. Fiscal Management specifically teaches fiscal staff to create a stronger and more resilient workforce, improve and standardize business practices, and improve compliance with internal controls. 

Spotlight on Giving

Giving Day will be February 18th-19th for 2026! Make sure to mark your calendars and keep an eye out for more info as we get closer!

Alumni Update

Please join classmates, faculty and other friends for activities to celebrate this exciting milestone for the Class of 2016!
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Take Note

Education Day is a celebration of our health professions educators, bringing together a diverse community of interprofessional educators and education researchers to celebrate outstanding achievements in teaching. 

In addition, join us for the annual Richard C. Vari, Ph.D. Endowed Lecture and celebrate excellence in health professions education. The lecture was established in accordance to Vari’s wishes to bring in an internationally renowned innovator in medical education annually as part of Teach Education Day. 

Last Note

Incorporating an oral health component into our curriculum has truly helped our students view and treat the whole patient. We’re fortunate to have such a long-standing partnership with Delta Dental, whose support makes both our curriculum and events like this possible.

Thanks to Delta Dental of Virginia, a comprehensive oral health curriculum is now a key part of the education students receive at the VTC School of Medicine. This collaboration is helping future physicians “put the mouth back in medicine” by recognizing the critical connection between oral and overall health.

With the continued expansion and refinement of this curriculum, our students are better equipped to identify and treat oral diseases early — preventing them from contributing to serious health risks such as heart disease, diabetes, oral cancer, and pregnancy complications.