School of Medicine
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UNIVERSITY PROGRAM
The Western Reserve2 Curriculum (4-Year MD Training Physician-Scholars)
The Western Reserve2 Curriculum is a much needed reform in medical education. The four-year curriculum unites the disciplines of medicine and public health into a single, integrated program that trains students to study the interplay between the biology of disease and the social and behavioral context of illness, between the care of the individual patient and the health of the public, and between clinical medicine and population medicine, to emerge as leaders in science, practice and health care policy.
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Four Themes
The Western Reserve Curriculum2 interweaves four themes - research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership, and civic professionalism - to prepare students for the ongoing practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century.
The Western Reserve2 Curriculum seeks to train physician-scholars in an environment that emphasizes self-directed learning and scientific inquiry in collaboration with some of the nation's leading medical facilities. Students learn primarily through small group case-based discussions, large group experiences, lectures, interactive anatomy sessions, clinical skills training and patient-based activities.The learning process is supplemented by a rich array of electronic and Web-based resources called the eCurriculum.
In-Depth Research Experiences
Students are immersed in a graduate-school atmosphere characterized by flexibility, independent study and collegial interaction with faculty. Students complete in-depth, mentored research experiences based on their individual interests, with the goal of understanding the scientific process and cultivating the process of lifelong learning. The ability to question, critically analyze, and to formulate hypotheses are essential skills in both clinical and research-oriented practices. All students also receive mentoring and career counseling as members of one of four academic societies.
The principles of health and population medicine are firmly embedded within the Western Reserve2 Curriculum from the moment students begin their education at the School of Medicine.
Guiding Principles of WR2
- The core concepts of health and disease prevention will be fully integrated into the curriculum.
- Medical education will be experiential and emphasize the skills for scholarship, critical thinking, and lifelong learning.
- Educational methods will be chosen that stimulate an active interchange of ideas among students and faculty.
- Students and faculty will be mutually respectful partners in learning.
- Students will be immersed in a graduate school educational environment characterized by flexibility and high expectations for independent study and self-directed learning.
- Learning will be fostered by weaving the scientific foundations of medicine and health with clinical experiences throughout the curriculum. These scientific foundations include basic science, clinical science, population-based science, and social and behavioral sciences.
- Every student will have an in-depth mentored experience in research and scholarship.
- Recognizing the obligations of physicians to society, the central themes of public health, civic professionalism and leadership will be longitudinally woven throughout the entire curriculum.
- The systems issues of patient safety, quality medical care, and health care delivery will be emphasized and integrated throughout the curriculum.
- Students will acquire a core set of competencies in the knowledge, mastery of clinical skills and attitudes that are pre-requisite to graduate medical education. These competencies will be defined, learned and assessed and serve as a mechanism of assessment of the school's success.
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Becoming a Doctor
The principles of health and population medicine are firmly embedded within the Western Reserve2 Curriculum from the moment students begin their education at the School of Medicine.
In typical programs, students begin their medical education by studying basic science at the molecular level, not fully aware of the relevance that this knowledge will have in their future education or how it relates to the actual practice of medicine. The Western Reserve2 Curriculum begins differently, however, with a block called "Becoming a Doctor". This introductory block focuses on health and disease within the broader context of society, and provides both a perspective and a framework for subsequent learning of biomedical and population sciences. Additional foundations courses in the first year shift the focus to basic science training closely linked to clinical experiences and interactions with individual patients. The second year of the Western Reserve2 Curriculum includes the continuation of foundations courses.
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Flexibility characterizes the third year, which can include the MD thesis research block or clinical blocks that incorporate basic science experiences, as well as advanced clinical studies, in-depth seminars in medicine and health, and electives. The fourth year includes the MD thesis research (as applicable for each student), advanced clinical studies, acting internships and in-depth seminars in medicine and health.