MD Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
As an MD with a background in social sciences who focused her post-doctoral professional development on pedagogy, curriculum development, educational technologies, and user experience design, Laura Freidhoff is uniquely suited for areas of medical education that require facility with multidisciplinary sciences (biological and social), clinical application, pedagogical design, and educational technologies. She worked with a core team of clinicians, scientists, and educators to develop CHM’s Shared Discovery Curriculum (SDC)—a highly innovative, experiential, competency-based curriculum with a content foundation of 96 Chief Complaints and Concerns that puts the patient and clinical process at the forefront of student learning from matriculation to graduation. Having served on the Curriculum Committee and on Curriculum Development Groups across the longitudinal trajectory of the SDC, Freidhoff is one of few faculty members who creates content for and participates in the pedagogical endeavors of all four years of the curriculum.
In addition to curriculum design and development, Freidhoff collaborates with the JustInTimeMedicine team and Curriculum Development Groups to enhance user experience within and across digital platforms and curricular components. She also designed and maintains the SDC’s curricular metadata infrastructure that supports curriculum mapping and continuous quality improvement processes. Freidhoff’s work is highly collaborative, integrating components from multidisciplinary faculty contributors into technological spaces for use by individuals and teams to support student learning, facilitate curriculum delivery, and enhance user experience.