Return to Main Menu

3rd-year clinical medicine course succeeds Now past the midway point in its initial year, Foundations of  Clinical Medicine, a course for third-year medical students, is enjoying good reviews to date. Course authors Elisha Brownfield, M.D., and Jerry Ondo, Ph.D., say they are pleased with the response they have had to the program, which provides students with a strong basic science foundation. They have met with students and faculty members in the past few months to get feedback  about the course. “The response has been generally positive,” Brownfield said. “There  has been overwhelming support for this type of course.” “I was surprised how positive (the response) was,” Ondo concurred. “Overall, it’s been good. Everyone likes the idea of a standardized  curriculum.” The College of Medicine’s curriculum committee asked Brownfield and  Ondo to develop the third-year course last year. Designing the course from scratch, they made it similar to the parallel curriculum,  emphasizing small group meetings, case-based studies and student initiative. The course is designed to provide students with a standardized curriculum consisting of: important clinical conditions; associated basic science principles; concepts of health promotion and disease prevention; behavioral science and ethical issues; and physician-patient relationship issues. The course is organized into themes, with each comprising several medical ailments falling within the respective themes, such as addiction, panic and depression coming within the theme of psychiatry. “The themes reflect what a third-year student should know. It’s what they see in the highest frequency of their patients. These are not esoteric topics,” Brownfield said last June when she and Ondo were finalizing the course. FCM is composed of two segments: case discussions and physician-patient relationships. During case discussions, students meet in small groups to review clinical cases and related basic science principles. During the physician-patient sessions, students discuss ways to relate to patients in which both parties receive the highest  satisfaction. Bobby Morgan, one of the third-year students who met with the dean’s office about the course, said he was very satisfied with the result.  “The FCM course allows us as students to review the pathophysiology  of major diseases and the mechanism of action for treatments,” he said.  “It is an added benefit to have both clinical and basic science doctors precepting the groups. My experience is they work well together explaining the information.” As far as any adjustments to be made in the course, that will be up to the parties more involved in it. “Jerry and I will leave it up to the departments to do the fine tuning,” Brownfield said. “They can add or subtract what they think is  necessary. If there are holes in the curriculum, they are the ones who  would see them.” Any changes to be made, however, would appear to be only minor. “It’s all student-driven, the way it’s supposed to be,” said Ondo.  “They’re doing a superb job. Without their effort, it wouldn’t work.” That sentiment is mutual, based on Morgan’s evaluation. “I am very pleased with the FCM course and believe Drs. Brownfield  and Ondo deserve a lot of credit for the success of the program,” Morgan  said. “I definitely feel the FCM course is a plus to the third year.”