Drexel University College of Medicine

Within the rigorous academic program, students have a choice of two curricular tracks based on different learning styles. The faculty’s commitment and skill make the educational content and quality first-rate. We have some of the newest and finest educational technologies of any medical school in the nation, placing our facilities at the forefront of medical education

Our location also confers significant benefits. In Philadelphia students can take advantage of one of the nation’s leading centers of hospitals and academic medicine. Students have the opportunity to live in attractive neighborhoods near a myriad of activities in a thriving metropolitan area. College of Medicine students benefit from:

• Early exposure to clinical practice
• Caring, supportive faculty members
• Innovative, challenging curricula supported by educational technology
• Community outreach activities and volunteer projects

To learn how to think like a physician, first-year students are introduced to clinical experience within their first few weeks. Students practice their clinical skills in our Barbara E. Chick, MD ’59, Clinical Education and Assessment Center (CEAC). Here, students work with standardized patients to learn the skills necessary to be able to think like a physician. Through active participation in and out of the classroom and in community service experiences, medical students learn to be problem solvers and to understand that medical practice is a process of lifelong learning.

Physicians face situations like the one described above every day. They don’t look at the patient’s anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry in isolation; they look at the whole patient. Essentially, the approach they take is interdisciplinary. Our Interdisciplinary Foundations of Medicine (IFM) curriculum takes the same approach, presenting the core content of the basic, behavioral, and clinical sciences in interdisciplinary, symptom-focused modules in years one and two.

Each first-year module focuses on clinical symptoms and features relevant material from the perspective of several basic and behavioral science disciplines. Topics include abnormal amniocentesis, suspicious lump, muscle weakness, weight loss, chest pain, shortness of breath, failure to thrive, abdominal pain, missed menstrual period, and gunshot wound.

The time and place: 1:34 p.m., emergency room at Hahnemann University Hospital The case: A man arrives with a gunshot wound to the lower spine.His blood pressure is dropping quickly; his pulse is thready. Within only a few moments, his pupils become fixed and unresponsive. The problem: What basic science and clinical medicine does the medical team need to know to stabilize this patient?

A traditional medical school curriculum offers one course in anatomy, another in biochemistry, and so on, and presents them as separate, independent units at set times of the year. Our IFM curriculum integrates the material presented by these courses into modules of three to five weeks in length throughout the year, using patient symptoms as the organizing theme.

For example, the gunshot wound module opens by presenting students with the case of a patient wounded in the lower spine by a gunshot. As the module progresses, students learn the anatomical issues pertinent to the lower spine, neuroscience issues relevant to the central nervous system, and approaches to diagnosis and treatment of spinal cord problems. They also learn about related psychosocial issues, such as violence, death and grief, sexual functioning for patients with spinal cord injury, and the necessary associated clinical skills.

By the end of the first year, the basic and behavioral science courses have presented their entire core content, integrating it with related material in other disciplines, rather than in separate, compartmentalized units.

In addition to the basic science courses, modules include clinical lectures and small-group discussions on issues such as medical ethics, communication skills, cultural competence, nutrition, occupational and environmental health, disease prevention, professionalism, women’s health, and geriatrics.

IFM students also spend time away from campus at community- and hospital-based clinical and volunteer sites. In the second year, students study basic and clinical sciences using an organ-system approach structured in clinically focused modules.

Students who choose the Program for Integrated Learning (PIL) track learn in small groups rather than through traditional lectures. During their first two years of medical school, students analyze patient case descriptions along with a faculty facilitator. Each case enables students to identify a specified set of learning objectives in focused science disciplines emphasized in a 10- week block. Each block is built around a framework of discipline-specific learning objectives assembled by the faculty. The cases are derived from real patient cases and serve as stimulus and context for students to search out the information they need to understand, diagnose, and treat clinical problems.

There are seven 10-week blocks over two years. Each block contains 10 case studies detailing real patient issues related to the topics of the block (e.g., anatomy). The fourth block is a primary-care practicum, allowing students real-world experience with a community-based physician and in a community service project. Statistics, ethics, law, basic sciences, behavioral sciences, community medicine, and clinical skills are integrated through all of the blocks.

PIL students learn all the basic science material their IFM classmates do, but in a different way. They identify what information they need to learn using an interdisciplinary approach to the facts of each case. Developing the ability to identify the information they need is critical to the PIL approach.

After determining the essential information, PIL students independently select resources from a preliminary list provided by the faculty of the focused discipline. Starting from the facultysuggested resources, students are expected to identify additional resources that will assist in the learning process. These include textbooks, journal articles, electronic information sources, faculty members, and laboratory work. Students also attend structured labs and faculty-presented resource sessions that add to their knowledge base and assist in the selection of appropriate materials.

The time and place: 3 p.m., St.Christopher’s Hospital for Children The case: A 9-year-old boy has been brought in unconscious.The only information provided to the medical team is an advance phone call from the boy’s mother who said,"Billy passed out like before. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Please help me." The problem: Diagnose Billy's medical crisis and explain why it happened based on basic and clinical science knowledge.

Each small group is composed of up to eight students and one faculty facilitator. Group members and the faculty facilitator change after each block to allow for diversity of experience, education, and personal background. All PIL small groups work on the same case at the same time. Faculty facilitators ensure an equal educational experience for each group while allowing each group and individual to work at their maximum potential.

Sharing information, concept mapping, evaluation, and giving and receiving feedback are essential facets of the curriculum. The group experience gives each student practice in working as a member of a team and in collaborative problem solving. At the completion of the first two years, students will have acquired important skills and gained the knowledge that forms the foundation of medicine.

In the third year, students work with faculty members in metropolitan centers, working-class neighborhoods, suburbs, inner city areas, and rural communities.

This year — which starts with Intersession I – Transition to the Clinical Years — is devoted to required clinical clerkships in medicine, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery. Regardless of where the clerkships take place, all embody the following principles:

• Common curricular objectives at all clinical sites – Students receive comparable experiences on their clinical rotations
  
  
• Ambulatory-care requirement – Students spend a minimum of 30 percent of their clinical time in expanded ambulatory-care experiences on the six basic clerkships. These experiences include patient encounters in office practice sites, clinics, outpatient
  
  
• Interdisciplinary teaching – Each clerkship incorporates the concept of interdisciplinary teaching by facilitating interaction with representatives of other departments or service areas
  
  
• Basic science integration – Each clerkship integrates the teaching of basic sciences into clinical material

Each clerkship location has an associate director on site who works closely with a clerkship director at the College of Medicine to ensure that the principles are all being met and that students at all clinical sites are receiving a comparable educational experience. Clinical faculty participating in the clerkships, as well as clerkship directors at the College of Medicine, are available for student assistance and counseling. Each clinical department maintains an active faculty group for ongoing curriculum review and revision. Our faculty members have frequent contact with third- and fourth-year students and visit the various clinical sites regularly. Third- and fourth-year students log their patient and procedure experiences into a PDA or Web-enabled cell phone (which is required of all third- and fourth-year students) for frequent review by College of Medicine faculty.

The fourth-year curriculum is structured in the form of Pathways — courses that give students a well-rounded educational experience with a focus on potential careers. Many students choose a discipline-specific Pathway. Others who want a more broad-based experience choose the General Professional Pathway. All students have an advisor who works closely with them throughout the fourth year. Each Pathway allows the student to balance the structure and flexibility of his/her learning needs, prepares the student to enter postgraduate training with confidence, and maximizes the guidance and counseling available from preceptors.

Pathways help students focus their preparation for graduate medical education and careers. They also give students experience in fields of interest other than the one that is likely to be their career path as they continue their medical education. The Pathway system is structured so that students take both required courses and electives. Four course rotations are required: a sub-internship in internal medicine, a clerkship in neurology, an additional course specific to the Pathway chosen, and Intersession II – Transition to Residency. Students also choose 22 weeks of elective courses in close consultation with their Pathway advisors. Fourth-year students have opportunities to do up to 12 weeks of elective rotations at hospitals and sites that are not Drexel clinical affiliates, including international rotations.

Examples of the College of Medicine’s 26 discipline-specific Pathways:

• Anesthesiology
• Emergency Medicine
• Dermatology
• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Neurology
• Obstetrics/Gynecology
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedics
• Otolaryngology
• Pathology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Radiology
• Surgery
• Women’s Health

Students benefit from the counseling and advice of their specific departmental Pathway advisor in course selection. The advisor is also critical in each student’s planning leading up to the residency match (see green box on the left side).