Behavioral Science

Terry D. Stratton, Ph.D.

(University of Kentucky, 1999)

College Of Medicine Bldg, Leader Ave 9983
Phone: (859) 323-2785
Fax: (859) 323-2076
e-mail: tdstra00@uky.edu

Dr. Stratton holds an administrative appointment in the College of Medicine, where he oversees activities in the Division of Student Assessment & Program Evaluation. His research interests are focused in the general area of medical education, with emphasis on non-cognitive attributes of students (e.g., emotional intelligence), performance-based assessments of student competencies, evaluation of curricular objectives and faculty instruction, and gender discrimination and sexual harassment within undergraduate curricula. Dr. Stratton is currently involved in efforts to establish: (1) College-wide curricular quality assurance standards, (2) a longitudinal medical student database of non-cognitive measures; and (3) a comprehensive system using faculty peers and professional non-peers to access instructional quality.

2011 Accomplishments

Dr. Stratton began his second year as project evaluator on a HRSA-funded Biomedical Informatics grant designed to create an internal computing infrastructure and data warehouse to allow clinical researchers to more easily access clinical data.  This includes integration with the NIH-funded “Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside” (i2b2) platform utilized by most Federally-funded CTSAs.  He was appointed to the editorial board of the Education Research International (ERI) – an online, open-access education journal.  Dr. Stratton completed his service as Chair of The Generalists in Medical Education (TGME) – and helped coordinate the November (2011) annual meeting in Denver; he now begins a two-year stint on that organization’s steering committee.  He coordinated the piloting of ExamSoft® in several first-year courses.  ExamSoft® is an integrated testing platform that allows: (1) test item banking; (2) exam construction; (3) exam administration; and (4) test scoring of in-class, written examinations.  The system enables students to take secure, high-stakes tests using their own laptop computers – eliminating the duplication of “hard copy” versions, Scantron (“bubble”) sheets, etc.  Dr. Stratton presented faculty development workshops on test item writing and interpreting test item statistics to faculty in the UK Colleges of Medicine and Dentistry, respectively.  He represented the College of Medicine on the University Assessment Committee (UAC) – a group charged with complying with new Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation standards regarding student learning outcomes, improvement action plans, etc.  Dr. Stratton is working with Lisk Associates – a local (Lexington) personnel consulting firm – piloted the administration of the TTI TriMetrix® HD Talent Report to incoming fist-year medical students. This represents the initial use of this “personal profile” instrument in a health professions population, and included a detailed (and entertaining) presentation/discussion of results to the UKCOM Class of 2016.  Future plans are to explore the utility of this tool in admissions and/or career counseling contexts.  Dr. Stratton participated in five national presentations and several peer-reviewed publications.

Research Funding

Evaluator, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Curriculum Project. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), NIH # 5 R25 AT682-02, 2002-2007.

Representative Publications

Stratton TD, McLaughlin MA, Witte FL, Fosson SE, Nora LM. Students’ Exposure to Gender Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in Medical School: Does it Impact Specialty Choice and Residency Program Selection? Academic Medicine. (In press).

 Stratton TD, Witzke DB, Elam CL, Cheever TR. Learning and Career Preferences of Medical School Applicants. Journal of Vocational Behavior. (In press).

Haist SA, Wilson JF, Pursley HG, Jessup ML, Gibson JS, Kwolek DG, Stratton TD, Griffith CH. (2003). Domestic violence: Increasing knowledge and improving skills with a four-hour workshop using standardized patients. Academic Medicine, 78(10), S24-S26.

Stratton TD, Elam CL, McGrath MG. (2003). A liberal arts education as preparation for medical school: How is it valued? How do graduates perform? Academic Medicine, 78(10). S59-S61.

Elam CL, Sauer MJ, Stratton TD, Skelton J, Crocker D, Musick DW. (2003). Service learning in the medical curriculum: Developing and evaluating an elective experience. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 15(3), 194-203.

Nora LM, McLaughlin MA., Fosson SE, Stratton TD, Murphy-Spencer A, Fincher ME, German DC, Seiden D, Witzke DB. (2002). Gender discrimination and sexual harassment in medical education: Perspectives Gained from a 14 school study. Academic Medicine, 77(12), 39-47.

Gallagher EB, Wadsworth AL, Stratton TD. (2002). Religion, spirituality, and mental health. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 190, 697-704.

Stratton TD, Witzke DW, Jacob RJ, Sauer MJ, Murphy-Spencer A. (2002). Form effects on students’ ratings of faculty teaching in a multi-instructor setting: The case of monotonic response patterns. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 7(2), 99-116.