About Us
Medical Education Reform
Twenty years ago, Harvard Medical School [HMS] embarked on a major reform of the MD curriculum called the New Pathway. Harvard’s bold reform not only changed the way our own students learned medicine but also influenced the way medicine is taught in medical schools around the world. Beginning in the fall of 2006, HMS embarks on another major reform of our medical educational programs, and we hope that this reform will also be momentous for our students, for our faculty, in particular those who are directly involved in the education of medical students and trainees, and for the medical education community at large at HMS.
Since 2002, faculty at HMS have been engaged in a multi-phase initiative to revise the four-year MD program with the following goals:
1. Develop a new model of clinical education that is based on the educational and developmental needs of the student and which offers continuity for patient experience, faculty mentoring, and student evaluation.
2. Engage the faculty, including the most senior faculty, as teachers, mentors, and guides for Harvard medical students.
3. Increase the rigor of the teaching of science (basic biologic, social, and population sciences) at HMS and truly integrate the teaching of science and clinical medicine throughout the entire student experience at HMS.
4. Provide opportunities for all Harvard medical students to acquire in depth knowledge in one area of inquiry and to produce a scholarly product in their area under the guidance of an expert faculty member.
The HMS Medical Education Reform Initiative will culminate in the rolling implementation of a new curriculum beginning in August, 2006.
In the mid-August, Introduction to the Profession, a new course for the entering class, will inugurate the new curriculum, and the preclinical curriculum, called Fundamentals of Medicine, will begin in September. Included in Fundamentals of Medicine are the basic biological and population sciences that underlie clinical medicine as well as Patient-Doctor I and II, courses that introduce students to clinical medicine.
Much work has gone into increasing integration throughout the curriculum at all levels. The first-year curriculum has been designed to build from molecules to cells to organisms, beginning with a molecular framework that integrates seamlessly with the transition to anatomy. In the second year, the teaching of pathophysiology will be presented in a more integrated way that incorporates aspects of pharmacology, pathology, and nutrition associated with individual systems. To address important issues confronting physicians in the 21st century, our students will participate in a longitudinal sequence of courses in medical ethics/professionalism, social medicine, clinical epidemiology, and health policy that will span the first year and a half and that will be integrated with the teaching of the basic biological sciences and with introductory clinical exposures.
The third-year clerkships, now the Principal Clinical Experience, will be taught at a single site and will incorporate the many disciplines of medicine. The experience will focus on a longitudinal multidisciplinary curriculum, mentoring, assessment, and ambulatory care experience. Exciting pilots are already under way to help us scale up to full implementation by the spring of 2008. We are also working on incorporating faculty-mentored, in-depth scholarly projects into the curriculum and on enhancing the role of an expanded “elective” period toward the end of undergraduate training.
We have arrived at this launch stage through a deliberate, painstaking, community-wide process. In December, 2004, after more than two years of work, we distributed a review of the conclusions of the faculty committees, task forces, and working groups on Medical Education Reform. During the November, 2005 retreat on the reform initiative, plans were reported by the design groups working on components of the curriculum (Introduction to the Profession, Fundamentals of Medicine, Principal Clinical Experience, Advanced Experiences in Basic Sciences and Clinical Medicine, and In-depth Concentrations). After the retreat, the Medical Education Reform steering committee endorsed the new curriculum structure, and in January, 2006, we distributed the reports and conclusions of the five design groups (see eCommons at http://ecommons.med.harvard.edu, navigate to Organization List and MedEdReform).
For comments or suggestions please email mededreform@hms.harvard.edu.
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Mailing Address:
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Harvard Medical School
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TMEC, Room 384
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260 Longwood Ave
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Boston, MA 02115
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mededreform@hms.harvard.edu
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