Grand rounds

Grand rounds is the name usually given to the major teaching conference in the clinical departments of American medical schools. Before specialization, in the late 19th century, grand rounds were known as medical grand rounds and were used by such preeminant physicians as William Osler as a form of bedside instruction that combined formal presentation of abstract concepts with the clinical evaluation of patients. As this activity became formalized into medical education, the students, house officers and attending physicians grew into too large a crowd to manage in a bedside round of patients, and instead the venue (but not the name) was changed to an amphitheater or lecture hall. Even into the last decade of the 20th century, "medical grand rounds remained a weekly convocation wherein house officers summarized a patient's history, often with the patient in attendance, followed by discussion of the case by a senior physician".(Hebert RS. Wright SM. Re-examining the value of medical grand rounds. Academic Medicine. 78(12):1248-52, 2003 Dec. UI: 14660428). Though such traditional grand rounds may still exist, generally the patient is no longer present, and, rather than a discussion of clinical cases the nature of grand rounds is more often a keynote lecture, often by an invited guest.