EdTech Learning Lab

In this episode, we interview Dr. Darren Salmi about his approach to teaching anatomy, embryology, and histology at the Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Salmi explains how he uses etymology to demystify complex medical terminology and incorporates digital tools and 3D models to reflect real anatomical variability. He also shares insights on curriculum design, emphasizing the importance of working backward from final learning outcomes rather than building content around traditional lectures.

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EdTech team members Teggin Summers and Adam Hain join Assistant Dean of Research Operations Victoria Leyton and Associate Director of Training and Development Sarah Daadi to discuss the creation of ROVER, a new training curriculum for Research Administration professionals at Stanford Medicine. In this conversation, we focus on strategies for making training feel useful and engaging, and the importance of instructional designers in the curriculum design process.

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In this episode, members of the EdTech team discuss the building and launch of the Stanford Medicine Studio, a state-of-the-art multimedia production studio that exists to serve Stanford Medicine faculty, staff, and students.

Resources mentioned:

Stanford Medicine Studio: https://med.stanford.edu/edtech/stanford-medicine-studio.html

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Episode Notes

Hosts: Teggin and Adam Hain

Guest: Dr. Rebecca Miller-Kuhlmann, Assistant Dean for Preclerkship Education and Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University

Episode Summary

Former 8th-grade science teacher turned neurologist, Dr. Rebecca Miller-Kuhlmann joins hosts Teggin and Adam Hain to unpack the instructional design behind Stanford's pre-clerkship curriculum. She shares how foundational K-12 teaching principles inform her management of over 1,200 hours of medical content. The conversation covers the realities of active learning versus traditional lectures, lowering technical friction for guest faculty, creating medium-stakes assessments, and building non-evaluative communication coaching programs for residents.

Key Takeaways

Pedagogy in Medical Education: Unpacking overarching institutional goals into granular session objectives ensures alignment and gap-free learning across complex, multi-week blocks.

Pragmatic Active Learning: Direct instruction and active application are complementary, not mutually exclusive. Students still need dedicated baseline time to acquire dense scientific concepts before grappling with active case studies.

Frictionless Faculty Tools: Simple instructional strategies like Think-Pair-Share often outperform complex educational technology, especially when onboarding hundreds of guest lecturers on tight clinical schedules.

Medium-Stakes Assessments: Frequent, moderately weighted closed-book quizzes allow adult learners to identify study strategy flaws early in the term without the high stress of a single final exam.

Longitudinal Communication Coaching: Providing residents with non-evaluative, peer-driven observation and debriefing builds psychological safety and helps them master high-stakes patient communication.

EdTech instructional designers Claire Kulikowski and Jessica Whittemore team up with Stanford LGBTQ+ Program leaders Bláz Bush and Weichen Ling to discuss the creation and launch of "Teaching Gender-Affirming Care: A Case-based Simulation to Improve Transgender Health Outcomes". Launched in January 2026 after three years of development, "Teaching Gender-Affirming Care" is a visual novel-style patient care simulation designed to teach healthcare students and practitioners how to treat trans and gender-diverse (TGD) patients.

Resources mentioned:

TGD microsite: https://med.stanford.edu/edtech/portfolio/teachinggenderaffirmingcare.html,

Enroll on MedEd: https://mededucation.stanford.edu/courses/teaching-gender-affirming-care/,

HRC: https://www.thehrcfoundation.org/professional-resources/healthcare-professionals

Connect with Us:

Subscribe to the EdTech Learning Lab on All major platforms!

Want to collaborate? Learn more about our work at Stanford EdTech: https://med.stanford.edu/edtech.html