Grand rounds: what is the point?

INTRODUCTION The chalkboards are no longer only chalkboards but are PowerPoint presentations. Textbooks are rarely texts but rather CDs to be downloaded at a reader's discretion; and classrooms are almost optional. Still the university hospital environment reflects a belief in the pedagogic effectiveness of the 19th century medical wisdom by encouraging and maintaining grand rounds. What makes the grand rounds is debatable. The large crowds, which historically attended to hear and to feast on a specialist's pearls of wisdom, have been replaced by sparse crowds often inattentive and in a rush to be elsewhere. This survey was designed to assess the status of the grand round in Canada. We contacted the 16 medical schools via e-mail and asked either the chairperson or the obs-gyn grand round coordinator to respond to a 2-page questionnaire. The Association of professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology (APOG) assisted in diffusing and collecting the data.