The first-year curriculum begins with a focus on a fundamental understanding of how the various basic science disciplines relate to the normal human body. It then moves into an integrated systems-based approach that blends the normal process of the human body with the abnormal processes of disease. Each course has integration across the three major domains of study: The Basic Sciences, the Clinical Sciences, and the Health System Sciences. Each of the courses provides vertical integration of various disciplines and horizontal integration of clinical sciences using clinical cases, vignettes, and clinical skills experiences to motivate and reinforce learning. It’s also in the first year that the students are introduced to the research experience through the Focused Individualized Research Experience (FIRE).
Our program curriculum fully integrates basic and clinical sciences across all four years. The first two years of the curriculum are structured into modules, with the first year focusing on a fundamental understanding of how the various basic science disciplines relate to the normal human body. The second year takes an organ system-based approach and applies the basic knowledge of the first year to the study of clinical disease, pathological processes, and treatment. The third and fourth years of the curriculum are devoted to clinical experience through clerkships, selectives, and electives.