Dr. Todd Cassese Appointed to the Faculty of the Frank H. Netter, M.D., School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University

HAMDEN, Conn., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A medical educator who specializes in creating progressive curricula has joined the faculty of the Frank H. Netter, M.D., School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University.

As assistant professor of medicine and director of the Clinical Arts and Science Course, Dr. Todd Cassese will oversee the clinical skills taught to first- and second-year medical students. He is drafting a curriculum that integrates patient care into these years—a period traditionally reserved for studying the science behind care.

Cassese, an internist from New Haven, comes to Quinnipiac from Yale University, where he was an assistant professor of medicine.

Under Cassese's new curriculum, Quinnipiac medical students will see patients during all four years of medical school, giving them additional time to sharpen their clinical skills by integrating textbook concepts and real-life patients.

"We will have early exposure to patients under the guidance of mentors who are active clinicians," Cassese said. "We'll be developing community service models that are going to help students become patient-centered primary care physicians."

In January 2010, Quinnipiac began the complex accreditation process to establish a medical school with an emphasis on primary care. The university plans to enroll the charter class by fall 2013.

Cassese was drawn to Quinnipiac's integrative educational model and its student-centered learning environment. "It's a supportive infrastructure for what I enjoy and what I do best," he said.

"Dr. Cassese is a medical educator with experience using simulation to train caregivers in critical care settings.  He will develop and direct the course that will teach first- and second-year medical students the knowledge and skills they need to talk with, evaluate and examine patients," said Dr. Bruce Koeppen, founding dean of The Frank H. Netter, M.D., School of Medicine.

Previously Cassese has been a hospitalist at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Penn., and a clinical instructor in the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, where he also helped draft the educational component of the residency program.

Cassese completed his internal medicine internship and residency at the University of California San Francisco. He earned a medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and a bachelor's degree in biology from Harvard University.

SOURCE Quinnipiac University