Advancing Academic Excellence: Using Leo to Improve Communication at One of the World’s Largest Medical Centers

The Medical School’s biggest pain point was that they had no way of giving students full access and clear insight to all the events they were scheduled to attend. The school tried to use internal systems and Outlook calendars to solve the problem, but each “fix” proved too cumbersome to be effective.

As the school also began preparing to launch a new curriculum, curriculum mapping became another important piece of the puzzle. Though their internal system had a number of customizations, it was not as flexible as they needed it to be, especially when it came to the integration of events, listing the learning objectives of events, and mapping those back to required competencies. Many stakeholders also wanted to drop certain tech tools that were too expensive and did not fulfill enough of their needs.

Members of the decision-making team had recently attended conferences where they learned about some of the available software platforms. During the vetting process, the Medical School sent requirements out to DaVinci and several competitors, asking for a demo that covered features like student calendars and events, curriculum mapping, and academic portfolios.

Ultimately, the decision-makers at the Medical School were drawn to the ease of Leo’s implementation approach and how the platform’s functionality was designed to fit the needs of a medical school. The team at DaVinci Education made themselves available to answer questions and work out challenges. For instance, when the Medical School’s team had to figure out how to transition from using evaluation forms in their old system, the DaVinci client success team found helpful solutions within the Leo application.

At the same time that they were beginning the implementation process with Leo, the team at the Medical School was also working on their new curriculum, so time management was a major blocker in the process. The school’s Executive Director of Academic Technologies (“the ED”) expressed fear that their Leo implementation would fall lower in priority. But it never did, in part because the DaVinci support team was “available anytime we needed them.” The Medical School has a team of 30 IT professionals who provide classroom support, and they found DaVinci’s “train-the-trainer” approach to be effective in getting their staff up to speed on the new platform in the most efficient way.

The team especially values the ability to put time on their calendar electronically and sync up calendars. Additionally, the team responsible for training students on Leo consider the platform “easy to use,” which is critical for a smooth onboarding process.

The Medical School also expects to save money and streamline their processes by eliminating other tools such as eValue and Outlook calendars. Fortunately, Leo is able to integrate with a number of other applications that they want to continue to use. Even with their student information system, which the ED describes as “really old,” the DaVinci Education team managed to provide a way to integrate the systems.

As a partner, the ED points to the DaVinci Education team’s outstanding accessibility, knowledge and implementation approach. The ED especially appreciates the “hands on” commitment from the DaVinci team “starting with the CEO going down” and how the team is always available “to help us work out challenges.”

The Medical School is eager to see how Leo will continue to enhance their program's effectiveness and overall student outcomes.