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Pre-Clinical Curriculum Component I

The primary goal of Component I (the first-year curriculum) is to provide a strong foundation in basic biomedical science and to prepare students for the detailed basic science content that will occur in a clinically-oriented framework in Component II.

Evaluation in all Component I courses is based on multiple choice, matching, and true-false exams, and also laboratory and practical exams. There are weekly quizzes with questions from all courses, and midterm and final examinations in each course. Weekly quizzes encourage students to keep up with the course material on a weekly basis and also allow them to get frequent feedback on how they're doing in the courses.

The grading scale in the first year is Satisfactory (>=75%) and Fail. The faculty adopted this system in the first year to foster student cooperation and to allow students with very different academic backgrounds to adapt to the rigors of medical school without feeling the pressure to compete for a High Pass or Honors grade.

Throughout the Year

Introduction to the Patient (ITTP): (32 weeks). The ITTP course begins early in the first year with an introduction to multicultural patient care. This experience is designed to raise the students' awareness of the different cultures they will encounter as providers of medical care. Lectures, small group discussions and encounters with simulated patients (individuals trained to portray patients) introduce students to the fundamentals of the medical interview, the physical examination and the patient experience. ITTP includes a patient-centered interdisciplinary “Human Growth and Development” sequence. Topics include physiologic and psychosocial developmental changes through the life cycle, and nutritional requirements and issues related to preventive medical care. Medical ethics, medical economics, social and cultural issues, and other topics essential to the education of physicians complete ITTP and round out the first-year curriculum.

Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB): (22 weeks). Students study the basic biology of cells and tissues through daily lectures, textbook reading and small group conferences (some facilitated by fourth-year medical students). In nine blocks (Introduction to the Cell, Information, Proteins, Regulation of Metabolism, Membrane Structure and Function, Signal Transduction, Neuronal Cells, Cell Motility and Force Generation and Extracellular Matrix), students master fundamental principles of cell biology necessary to understand both current concepts of disease and the breakthroughs that will impact medical practice throughout their careers.

Multidisciplinary Conferences (MDCs): (throughout the year). MDCs occur two-three times a month throughout the first year. They are designed to enhance, and place in a clinical context, material learned from the courses during the previous weeks, and to introduce students to clinical decision-making skills. Formats vary and include patient presentations, panel discussions and question/answer sessions.

Fall Term

Gross Anatomy: (16 weeks). Students study anatomy via multiple modalities to suit their learning style. Required lectures and dissection labs are the basis of the course, supplemented by pre-dissected models, state-of-the-art computer-aided instructional programs, an extensive database of self-tests and detailed textbooks and atlases. An introduction to radiographic anatomy is also part of the course.

Human Genetics: (8 weeks). Geneticists provide students with an introduction to basic molecular genetics and population genetics. Discussions explore ethics involved in the emerging field of gene therapy. Specific genetics diseases are used as illustrations of basic science principles, and clinical correlations are introduced by inviting patients to participate in classroom presentations.

Pathology: (7 weeks). This is consistently one of the medical students' favorite courses in the first year. Students are able to, as the course director says, “satisfy their appetite for the strange and bizarre” as they study the basic mechanisms of disease, discover the answers to such medical trivia as, “Define a trichobezoar” and begin to learn some of the fundamental vocabulary of medicine.

Winter Term

Embryology: (6 weeks). After finishing anatomy, students gain a deeper understanding of the process of formation of the human body in embryology. Through daily lectures, readings from a textbook authored by the course director, state-of-the-art computer models and a computer database of self-test resources, students examine the basis of normal development as well as congenital anomalies and malformations. The study of the basic science of reproduction serves as the introduction to the more clinically-oriented reproductive sequence in the second year.

Histology: (16 weeks). Students are provided with microscopes and hundreds of prepared slides for the review of the histology of normal human tissue. Lectures and laboratory are supplemented by atlases and state-of-the-art computer models. Electron micrographs and an introduction to histopathology are also included.

Host Defense: (6 weeks). Humans have developed defense mechanisms to cope with a world dominated by potentially harmful microbes. In Host Defense, students study the fundamentals of the inflammatory cascade and the body's reaction to foreign invasion. Also discussed are the cellular and molecular bases of allergic diseases, cancer immunology, organ transplantation, and how they relate to human disease.

Microbiology: (3 weeks). Students learn the basis of the microbial life cycle, including principles of structure, physiology and genetics, and how these come into play during microbial interaction with a host. These studies are a preamble to the overview of specific microorganisms relevant to human disease presented in the second year.

Pharmacology: (6 weeks). Students master the basic principles of pharmacokinetics (how drugs enter the body, how they are distributed to various sites of action, and how their actions are terminated by metabolism or secretion) and pharmacodynamics (how drugs act with receptor sites on cells, principles that affect how the intensity of drug responses is related to the drug dose, and common factors that can affect responses, such as age and genetic makeup) as a basis for understanding the mechanisms of hundreds of medications utilized in clinical practice.

Physiology: (15 weeks). Students receive the much-anticipated introduction to the normal functioning of the human body. Sequentially they master six organ systems: circulatory, respiratory, renal, gastrointestinal, endocrine and reproductive; these studies form the basis for understanding the manifestations of disease presented in the second year.

Medical students have prepared the descriptions of the Component I year and courses.

Component I

Component II