A Look at Medical Education in Northern Europe: Dr. Povilas Ignatavicius, Vice Dean at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

Raise the Line

Today on Raise the Line, we make a stop in Northern Europe on our ongoing tour of medical education around the globe and bring you the perspective of Dr. Povilas Ignatavicius, a hepato-pancreato-biliary and liver transplant surgeon and vice dean at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, which is the largest institution of higher education for biomedical sciences in that country. In particular, Dr. Ignatavicius shares his insights on medical simulation and student evaluations, which are among his areas of responsibility. As he describes to host Michael Carrese, his school takes an approach to simulation that values a continual presence of instructors and distributes resources so that individual programs such as surgery and nursing can offer access to what he describes as improved simulation technology. “Our students are exposed to medical simulation starting in year one. Our plan for the next year is that they will spend about 30% of the time with medical simulation at different levels,” he explains. This enlightening conversation also touches on the growth of international students at the university, how AI is impacting education, and a key quality that he thinks sets his school apart from others in Europe.

Mentioned in this episode:

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences