First-Year Medicine

Essentials of Clinical Medicine I

Develop skill in gathering and reporting a patient profile; develop skills in basic clinical communication, acquire knowledge of ethical principles guiding the doctor-patient relationship; develop awareness of how culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, age and social context influence the doctor-patient interaction; acquire knowledge of human behavior throughout the life cycle; develop skills in retrieving and evaluating information; recognize how the principles of epidemiology underlie diagnostic reasoning.

Standardized patients are used to teach and evaluate communication skills. Biostatistics is taught in this block in order for students to understand both the principles of epidemiology that underlie diagnostic reasoning and the basis of evidence-based medicine. An additional component of this course is the introduction of students to patient care in a clinical outpatient setting.