Ubd Discovery Year Requirements

[Hetty Calin]

Ourmission is to educate and inspire a diverse group of leaders in medicine and science who will improve human health through discovery, innovation, scholarship, education, and the delivery of outstanding patient-centered care.

Only at Stanford, the Discovery Curriculum enables students to complete their MD Program at a more individualized pace, introducing a greater diversity of learning pathways available to students. Depending on their unique goals and pursuits at Stanford, students can complete the pre-clerkship curriculum at full pace in two years or at a slower pace in three years. During the first year, all students will complete the same courses at the same pace. In the autumn quarter of the second year, students can complete the remainder of their pre-clerkship curriculum at full pace or apply for the option of splitting the course workload over two years. Students who are approved for the three-year option will have substantially more open time to pursue independent research, a dual degree, or other longitudinal scholarship and leadership activities. The course requirements, learning objectives, and assessments will be the same for two-year and three-year pre-clerkship students. The three-year option is selective with an application process; we expect the majority of students initially to opt for the traditional two-year pre-clerkship option. The three-year pre-clerkship option will be available as of August 2018.

The Discovery Curriculum introduces new courses and restructured courses. The new courses provide students with earlier clinical experience, a robust education in pharmacology, repeated exposure to core concepts, and deeper exploration of advanced topics. As part of continuous quality improvement, some existing courses have been restructured or redesigned according to feedback from faculty and students. All course changes impact only the pre-clerkship curriculum, with the exception of the Reflections, Research, and Advances in Patient Care course (RRAP), which is taken during the clerkship years. The total class hours in the Discovery Curriculum are approximately the same as in the former curriculum. The matriculating class of 2017-18 will be the first cohort to experience all of the course changes.

The Discovery Curriculum preserves many strong components of the former curriculum, including prior courses that were deemed highly successful, the Scholarly Concentration program, and the Educators for C.A.R.E. longitudinal clinical skills mentorship program. Students will continue to have the option to choose when they take the USMLE Step 1 exam (either immediately following the completion of the pre-clerkship curriculum or later in the first clinical year). There are no changes to the clerkship curriculum, with the exception of modifications to the Reflections, Research, and Advances in Patient Care (RRAP) course.

During the first year of medical school, all students will complete the same Foundations of Medicine, Practice of Medicine (POM), and Science of Medicine (SOM) courses at the same pace. Starting in Academic Year 2019-20, Early Clinical Experience (ECE) will also be part of the required coursework for Year One. In the autumn quarter of Year Two, students will either take the POM and SOM curriculum at full-pace or half-pace. Students in the traditional two-year pre-clerkship pathway will take a full course load of 6 half-days per week (diagram provided below), which still allows open time for longitudinal scholarship because there are no classes on Wednesdays and during summer quarters.

In comparison, the three-year pre-clerkship option only requires class work on 3 half-days per week for the autumn and winter quarters of Year Two and Year Three (diagrams provided below). Additionally, the spring quarter of Year Two will not have scheduled courses except for requirements for continuity. Since there are no classes during summer quarters, three-year pre-clerkship students will have nearly 6 months of open time for scholarship right after the winter quarter of Year Two. Spreading out the pre-clerkship education significantly increases the open time for scholarship. The three-year pre-clerkship is a selective option that students must apply for prior to the second year of medical school.

The Discovery Curriculum provides excellent clinical training through the following courses and programs. Stanford students are trained to provide compassionate patient-centered care, using best practices in the biomedical, clinical, epidemiological, and social-behavioral sciences.

The last major curricular reform took place almost 15 years ago in 2003. While the changes implemented at that time were reflective of the best practices in medical education, they did limit the flexibility afforded to our students for pursuing scholarly interests. With our constant process of quality improvement, we felt the need to reintroduce that flexibility to provide multiple optional pathways for successful scholarship outside the MSTP program.

The process for redesign and implementing the new curriculum began to take concrete shape 2 years ago under the leadership of Dr. Neil Gesundheit. There have been a number of students, faculty, clinicians, scientists and staff from all parts of the School of Medicine involved in the discussion and execution of the redesign. The graphic below outlines the different committees that have been created.

With the introduction of new courses, revamping of current ones, improvement in teaching quality and the new option to split, all students will be impacted by the redesign. The level of impact will vary depending on the path taken. The fundamental essence of our MD program (grading system, emphasis on research, etc.) will remain unchanged, however there will be improved flexibility in choosing a pathway that optimizes your time, learning experience and scholarly research.

Many students will pursue the traditional route currently offered and take their basic science over 2 years. However, since an overwhelming majority of students already take 5 years or more to complete their medical degree, having the option to stretch the preclinical curriculum over 3 years via the split will give them more time to dedicate to longitudinal scholarly research projects. Students will still have the option of taking a full year of dedicated research, if they and their advisor believes that this is in their best interest.

Splitting the curriculum means stretching out the second year of pre-clinical courses into 2 years by completing it half time. The strands are the tracks through which the second year is split. For example, to complete the Science of Medicine course in a single year (full time), a student would take both strands (A and B) of the course simultaneously. Those who split will take strand A in their second year followed by strand B in their third year.

Students should carefully consider their options before committing to splitting their curriculum. If you decide to split and are approved, you will not be able to change your mind. Although it is possible that exemptions could be made for extenuating circumstances, the logistics of reversing the decision to split after the quarter begins are extremely difficult.

Any medical student following completion of the first year can apply to split the curriculum. There are no additional requirements, but approval to split will be determined by the merit of the proposal/application. For the first year (2018-2019) we will be starting with a pilot cohort, and will limit the number of students splitting as we determine the interest level and work out any unanticipated logistics of splitting.

Yes, and in fact, splitting may have added benefits to MSTP students by increasing their flexibility in scheduling. For example, attending at a part-time pre-clinical class load will make it easier to work on a more rigorous project while minimizing the amount of class time missed.

Students who split the curriculum will enroll in SOM-A and POM-A, totaling 11 academic units. As such, they will be eligible for full financial aid at their level as awarded by the School of Medicine. Details about how their financial aid optimally combines with MedScholars funding should be discussed with Marti Trujillo or another financial aid officer.

Yes, provided that you propose to add a second degree in any discipline on Stanford campus. Students considering adding a second degree should contact the MS or PhD program to which they plan to apply to obtain details of the application process, and also to determine if a split curriculum is compatible with the classes required for the second degree. Students are also encouraged to contact Dr. PJ Utz for help with the Knight-Hennessy application process and for helpful tips.

Splitting the curriculum is required for BWF Scholars, but not for MSTP. Students considering applying for the BWF or MSTP program should contact Drs. PJ Utz and Katrin Chua, respectively, to go over details related to splitting the curriculum.

No, the Intention to Step out of the MD Curriculum form and Clinical Skills Maintenance Plans are only required for those students stepping out of the curriculum for one year or more. Students that split the curriculum will still be enrolled in the curriculum and will register for the Practice of Medicine course series.

The third year begins with final clerkship rotations following by a dedicated study period for exams. Discovery and the Longitudinal Clinical Experience run concurrently for the remainder of the year.

DGSOM Discovery Area of Concentration Program is a faculty-mentored, scholarly experience. There are eight DGSOM Discovery AoCs. Areas of concentration include a broad range of disciplines to align with student interests and better prepare students to impact the future of healthcare. Opportunities unique to Los Angeles and specific strengths of UCLA were also taken into consideration during planning.

Students work with faculty to design and implement a project from multiple areas to frame clinically relevant questions, develop strategies for answering the questions, analyze their findings, and present their results.

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