Drexel University College of Medicine formulated a new unified curriculum for medical students in the third and fourth year clinical years. The new third-year curriculum commenced July 1, 1997, for the Class of 1999.

The third-year curriculum will be composed of six separate clinical clerkships:

1. Family Medicine	6 weeks
2. Medicine	12 weeks
3. Obstetrics and Gynecology	6 weeks
4. Pediatrics	6 weeks
5. Psychiatry	6 weeks
6. Surgery	12 weeks

The new clinical clerkship curricula will embody the following principles:

I. Common curriculum at all clinical sites - Each clerkship will provide clinical site rotations that result in students' receiving comparable experiences based on common goals, objectives and outcome evaluations.

II. Ambulatory care requirement of 30 percent per clinical clerkship - Innovative concepts have been developed to achieve the necessary goal of expanded ambulatory care experience for third-year students in all six basic disciplines noted above. These experiences will include patient encounters in office practice sites, clinics, outpatient procedure units, etc. The ambulatory care experience will be integrated throughout the entire rotation or given in specific focused block sessions.

III. Interdisciplinary teaching - Each curriculum incorporates the concept of interdisciplinary teaching with representatives of other departments or service areas. The multidisciplinary format will be led by individuals from many levels of the health care delivery system.

IV. Basic science integration - Each clinical clerkship in the third year will have a program for the integration of basic science teaching. Creative curricular processes will be included at a number of clinical sites. Utilization of advanced telecommunication techniques for inclusion of off-site faculty may be included in a number of departmental curricula.

V. Goals and objectives are clearly noted by each of the individual departmental clinical clerkships. These may be examined in the official student manual containing the clinical curriculum.

After satisfactory completion of the third-year clinical clerkship curriculum, the student will have attained abilities at the levels described in the respective clerkship curricula to:

• obtain an effective clinical history of illness in all six clinical disciplines;
• correlate physical examination findings;
• design an appropriate problem list;
• recognize interdisciplinary teaching contributions to problem solving;
• interpret clinical laboratory data;
• initiate diagnostic plans;
• correlate basic sciences with clinical problems;
• apply ambulatory care principles to all six clinical disciplines.

VI. Integration of clerkship goals - Objectives of the clerkships will be linked longitudinally to ensure appropriate coverage of the curricular material for the third year.

VII.The syllabus of each of the departmental clinical clerkships will serve to provide a formal description of the clerkship material for the student's review/information.

VIII.Examinations - The third-year clinical clerkship evaluation process will include a formal written examination to be given at the end of each clerkship. Additional clinical evaluations may be given by each of the specific departments. In some cases, oral examinations and practical bedside examinations will be included in the evaluation process. The weighting of the written and clinical evaluations is noted in each of the individual departmental clerkship descriptions. The evaluation criteria and weighting are to be uniform across all sites within a clerkship.

Towards the end of the third year, all students are required to participate in a 10 station standardized patient Clinical Practice Exam (CPX). This exam assesses core clinical skills of history taking, physical examination, information giving and doctor/patient communication. Students who fail this exam will be required to take a two - four week remediation experience in their fourth year of medical school. From our experience in previous years of this exam, we anticipate that only a very small number of students will fail. Most students do very well We will notify students several months prior to the beginning of the CPX so that students can schedule an appropriate date and time to take it. If there are any questions about the CPX, please contact Dr. Dennis Novack, Associate Dean of Medical Education, at 991-8537.

IX. Evaluation of clinical course by student - Clinical course, clinical faculty and clinical site evaluations will be carried out by students at the completion of each clerkship.

X. Clinical faculty - The clinical faculty participating in the clerkships will be available at their respective clinical sites for student counseling. The Clerkship Directors and Associate Clerkship Directors are clearly listed in the individual departmental clinical clerkship syllabus. Each clinical department will maintain an active faculty group, such as a Clinical Curriculum Committee for ongoing curriculum review and revision.

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Revised 4/14/00