Marc Dinkin, MD
Rabkin Fellow in Medical Education
Instructor of Neurology, Associate Clerkship Director, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital (prior to July 1, 2009)
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Cornell Medical School, NY Presbyterian Hospital (August 1, 2009 - present)
Fellowship Project:
The efficacy of song-based neurology module in enhancing proximal and distal knowledge retention in medical students
Before his recent move to New York, Dr. Marc Dinkin was a neuro-ophthalmologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He completed his undergraduate education in Biology at Harvard College, where he conducted animal research on stem cell transplantation for the treatment of Parkinson Disease. Following medical school, he worked in education, first as a Physics and Anatomy and Physiology teacher at Packer Collegiate in Brooklyn, NY, and then as an education software developer at Mpen. While at Mpen, he designed Germ War, a simulation introducing students to microorganisms and the immune systems, as well educational music software and CD ROMs for Scholastic's Magic School Bus series. He then completed medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College where he was an instructor in the Neuroscience Course, Brain and Mind, followed by a Neurology residency at NY Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell. In his last year of residency, he was Chief resident in Neurology and received several teaching awards including the House Staff Teaching Award and the Class of 1952 Resident Physician Prize for dedication to the instruction of medical students.
Upon completion of a fellowship in Neuro-ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Dr. Dinkin joined the Neurology faculty at the Brigham and Women's Hospital where he specialized in enruo-ophthalmology. While there, he served as a preceptor in weekly resident clinic and was the Associate Clerkship Director for the medical students. He also helped found a new fellowship in Neuro-Ophthalmology at the hospital in association with Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has recently accepted a position in the Cornell Medical College Ophthalmology Department at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he will be heading up a newly expanded neuro-ophthalmology division and plans to continue his work teaching students and residents in both neurology and ophthalmology.
Dr. Dinkin is also an accomplished musician and children's song-writer and was awarded First Prize in the 2006 International Songwriter's Contest for the song, "I Believe in B." He has written many educational songs, including a series for The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit CD-ROMs. His play, "SUV: The Musical" (co-written by Gersh Kuntzman) had a successful run in New York and also received several awards.
As a Fellow at the Institute, Dr. Dinkin designed a 10-song module covering the core concepts and topics in the medical student clerkship curriculum which he is recording in the summer of 2009. Together with Dr. Tracey Milligan, who is Clerkship Director at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, he will be utilizing the module both at Harvard and Cornell Medical College and comparing its effect on SHELF scores (proximally) and USMLE 3 scores (distally).