The Distinction in Medical Education (DIME) track is designed for residents who are interested in becoming clinician educators and who wish to include medical education as part of their profession career.  The DIME curriculum provides experiences and further educational instruction beyond the current three-year longitudinal resident teaching skills curriculum by focusing on curriculum design and development, educational innovations, and educational scholarship.  Each resident in DIME works with a mentor on a scholarly project.

Some example projects include:

• Curriculum development for the Transition to Residency course offered to fourth year medical students at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.  Workshops developed by DIME residents included workshops on hypoxia, chest pain, and altered mental status
• The Clinical Unknown Series
• Introduction to Medicine Workshop for Under-Represented High School Students
• Core Physical Exam Technique Simulation for Internal medicine Clerkship Students
• Medicine workshop series

Residents have presented their scholarly projects at local and national meetings.

Both the Master Clinician Mystery Case series and the Distinction in Point-of-Care Ultrasound stem from work done as a part of the Distinction in Medical Education.