The third dean candidate for TCU’s new medical school said he wants to explore new clinic experiences for students and incorporate humanities and arts curriculum into the medical school’s coursework.

Dr. Marc Kahn, speaking at an open forum at TCU on Jan. 21, presented his idea of a longitudinal continuity clinic. Kahn said such a clinic would provide medical students the opportunity to follow a specific patient all throughout his or her stay at the health facility.

“What makes primary care fun is the relationship over time with your patient, but that’s what we never show students,” Kahn said.

Kahn acknowledged this type of clinic is rare and would need to be studied before being implemented.

“The longitudinal care clinic is something that isn’t really done,” Kahn said. “It makes sense that we’re going to train more primary care providers, but we need to do the experiments too.”

Kahn’s ideas weren’t limited to clinics. He said he wants to incorporate humanities and arts courses into the medical school’s curriculum because they provide emotional skills that are essential to physicians.

“Arts and humanities teach compassion,” Kahn said. “They teach emotion.”

Kahn is currently a professor of medicine in the Section of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Tulane University. He also serves as the associate dean for student affairs at Tulane.

Kahn received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania School of medicine and completed his residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Kahn also has a MBA from Tulane.

Phil Hartman, dean of TCU’s College of Science and Engineering, said Kahn’s broad interest in medicine is what made him very attractive to the search committee.

Kahn’s presentation was the third of four open forums in the search for the new medical school’s dean. On Jan. 20, Dr. Saul Weiner detailed his plan to educate students on contextualizing care. On Jan. 12, Dr. Stuart Flynn spoke about his goal to focus on competency-driven courses in the medical school.

The final candidate for the deanship of the new medical school will speak on Jan. 22 in Sid Richardson Lecture Hall 4 at 3:15 p.m.