- Home
- MD Program
- Curriculum
Curriculum
The Undergraduate Medical Education curriculum is a four-year program. It is designed to provide each student with an opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to advance to graduate or post-graduate studies leading to clinical practice, research or other medical careers. The educational format is a blend of lectures, laboratory experiences, small group, case-based learning and supervised clinical experience in community and hospital settings.
Curriculum Renewal
The Doctor of Medicine Program at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry is transitioning the undergraduate medical education curriculum to a competency-based, active learning medical education (CBME) model. This renewed curriculum will support personal and team adaptive learning along with a new assessment model as the foundation of its CBME model. The renewed curriculum will be socially accountable to the context of care in Southwestern
For more information and course descriptions please click on the index buttons above or continue scrolling down this page.
4 Year Course Track
The Patient-Centred Approach
Medicine is a calling, a call to service. The patient-centred curriculum reflects this noble tradition of commitment to individual patients, their families and community. The physician's covenant is a promise to be fully present to patients in their time of need - to "be there," even when the physician can offer no cure, to provide relief whenever possible, and always to offer comfort and compassion.
The patient is the centre of our clinical work and, consequently, the centre of our learning. Patient-centred care requires a relationship in which patients will feel that their concerns have been acknowledged and that the physician has understood their plight from each patient's own unique perspective. Patients and physicians must work together to find common ground regarding management - reaching a mutual understanding of their problems, goals of treatment and respective roles of patient and physician. Patient-centred care also incorporates the concept of ecosystem health which studies human health within the interrelations between economic activity, social organization and the ecological integrity of natural systems.
Our curriculum is a reflection of our responsibility to attend to our patients' suffering in the broadest and deepest sense. Our graduates must have a thorough understanding of the biological, behavioural and population sciences basic to medicine. They will apply their medical learning within the integrated context of patient's lives, families and communities and they must also begin a lifelong quest to understand the human condition, especially the unique responses of patients to their illnesses.
Undergraduate Curriculum
The undergraduate medical curriculum is a four-year program. It is designed to provide each student with an opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to advance to graduate or post-graduate studies leading to clinical practice, research or other medical careers. The educational format is a blend of lectures, laboratory experiences, small group, case-based learning and supervised clinical experience in community and hospital settings.
Year One
Foundations of Medicine
A course taking place from September to the end of December will support and assess learner competence on key topics in the foundational and specific clinical sciences necessary for critical thinking, problem-solving, and clinical decision-making. A key goal is outlined in the first week – “How to think like a physician”.
The curriculum will incorporate the social determinants of health, ethics, cultural competence, health promotion and prevention. This and all subsequent courses will be aligned with issues prominent in Canadian health care, especially those applicable to Southwestern Ontario.
An introduction to Hematology, Infectious Diseases, Immunology and Microbiology will offer clinical application for learning. This course will instill a firm grounding in what will be Themes within courses
Learning will use a variety of methods including case-based and small group/team-based learning, interactive large group learning, labs and independent learning. This course will serve as a secure grounding for learning in other parallel and subsequent Program courses. Students will be introduced to the grounding for EPAs in demonstrating the tasks of a physician.
Principles of Medicine I
Each course, (January 2 to mid-June of year 1 for Principles of Medicine I and September 2 to end January for Principles II), will support student development of competence in the key principles of
Clinical Skills (Year 1)
This course examines the process of
Professionalism, Career and Wellness (Year 1)
An important area of medical education is supporting the development of professional identity in students. This requires more than
Experiential Learning (Year 1)
A core strategy of Western University’s strategic plan is to expand student access to and assessment in learning that derives from involvement in future
Year Two
Principles of Medicine II
Each course, (January 2 to mid-June of year 1 for Principles of Medicine I and September 2 to end January for Principles II), will support student development of competence in the key principles of
Transition to Clerkship
Transition to Clerkship builds on content learned during Year 1 Foundation courses, Principles of Medicine 1 & 2 and Clinical Skills. It will prepare students for the practical skills and the clinical reasoning that are further developed during Clerkship. The focus will be on the transition from classroom-based learning to the workplace learning of clinical training. Students need to consolidate the knowledge they have learned from previous courses and begin the daily "thinking" and problem solving that physicians do, in the clinical environment. The course offers an introduction to the routins, and the culture of the workplace, as well as to expose their role and the expectations as part of the health care team. Learning outcomes and activities have been based on a framework of workplace learning which includes: (1) Preparation to participate in authentic tasks and activities of a physician; (2) Familiarization with relationships in clinical settings; (3) Introduction of Work Practices.
Clinical Skills (Year 2)
This course examines the process of
Professionalism, Career and Wellness (Year 2)
An important area of medical education is supporting the development of professional identity in students. This requires more than
Experiential Learning (Year 2)
A core strategy of Western University’s strategic plan is to expand student access to and assessment in learning that derives from involvement in future
Students participate in early patient contact that emphasizes a patient-centred approach to medicine, beginning in Clinical Methods in Year 1. At the end of
The weekly timetable is often structured around a case which is introduced at the beginning of each week. The case provides the stimulus for
Year Three
The third year of medicine includes a 52-week integrated Clerkship (Medicine 5475)
Clerkship
-
The Clinical Clerkship Program at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is an integrated 52-week course in the third year of the four-year MD program which is distributed across various sites in Southwestern Ontario. During Clerkship, the student becomes an active member of clinical care teams in the following medical disciplines: family medicine, medicine, obstetrics and
gynaecology ,paediatrics , psychiatry, emergency medicine, anesthesia, and surgery. Under the supervision of faculty and more seniorhousestaff , clerks are given graded responsibility in the diagnosis, investigation, and management of patients in hospital, clinic and outpatient settings. All students inthird year are required to complete a community/rural Clinical Clerkship rotation for a minimum of four weeks.The Clinical Clerkship Program in London is being delivered at the Medical Sciences Building and the Dental Sciences Building at Western University, at the London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care and at other regional education sites through the Distributed Medical Education.
The Clinical Clerkship Program in Windsor is being delivered at the Medical Education Building on the campus of the University of Windsor, at Windsor Regional Hospital, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital and at other regional education sites through the Distributed Medical Education.
Distributed Medical Education includes faculty located in over 45 communities in the region from Tobermory to Leamington. Students learn clinical skills in various geographic sites. The objective is to ensure that Western students at all levels gain an understanding and experience of the practice of
Medicine from both a rural/regional and tertiary care/urban perspective.
Professionalism, Career and Wellness (Year 3)
An important area of medical education is supporting the development of professional identity in students. This requires more than
Year Four
The fourth year of medicine includes Clinical Electives (Medicine 5401) and Transition to MD (Medicine 5402).
Clinical Electives
-
Beginning in Year 4, Clinical Electives are arranged entirely by the student in any area of medicine, at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry or in other centres. After completion of the Clinical Electives, students return to campus in January for Transition to MD which permits students to further integrate the basic and clinical aspects synthesized with their clinical experience. For more information on 'What You Need to Know' about Year 4 Clinical Electives (including Applying for Electives, Academic/Clinical Policies & Procedures, Assessment and General Information), please click on the link below.
Transition to MD
Transition to MD advances student competency beyond Clerkship and is foundational for entering supervised practice. The course supports a learning environment of professional practice to advance Year Four students as mature learners who must be able to function in a learning environment that is grounded in independent learning; small group; collaborative and with some large group interactive non-didactic sessions based on clinical presentations
Professionalism, Career and Wellness (Year 4)
An important area of medical education is supporting the development of professional identity in students. This requires more than
The Undergraduate Medical Education curriculum is a four-year program. It is designed to provide each student with an opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to advance to graduate or post-graduate studies leading to clinical practice, research or other medical careers. The educational format is a blend of lectures, laboratory experiences, small group, case-based learning and supervised clinical experience in community and hospital settings.
4 Year Course Track
The Patient-Centred Approach
Medicine is a calling, a call to service. The patient-centred curriculum reflects this noble tradition of commitment to individual patients, their families and community. The physician's covenant is a promise to be fully present to patients in their time of need - to "be there," even when the physician can offer no cure, to provide relief whenever possible, and always to offer comfort and compassion.
The patient is the centre of our clinical work and, consequently, the centre of our learning. Patient-centred care requires a relationship in which patients will feel that their concerns have been acknowledged and that the physician has understood their plight from each patient's own unique perspective. Patients and physicians must work together to find common ground regarding management - reaching a mutual understanding of their problems, goals of treatment and respective roles of patient and physician. Patient-centred care also incorporates the concept of ecosystem health which studies human health within the interrelations between economic activity, social organization and the ecological integrity of natural systems.
Our curriculum is a reflection of our responsibility to attend to our patients' suffering in the broadest and deepest sense. Our graduates must have a thorough understanding of the biological, behavioural and population sciences basic to medicine. They will apply their medical learning within the integrated context of patient's lives, families and communities
Undergraduate Curriculum
The undergraduate medical curriculum is a four-year program. It is designed to provide each student with an opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to advance to graduate or post-graduate studies leading to clinical practice, research or other medical careers. The educational format is a blend of lectures, laboratory experiences, small group, case-based learning and supervised clinical experience in community and hospital settings.
Year One
MED5115 - Introduction to Medicine
This course ensures that all students, regardless of their academic background, are grounded in some principles of the basic sciences that underpin medicine. These include anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, pathology, physiology and pharmacology. It also introduces some aspects of human development; and addresses some areas that are contextual to medicine including ethics, epidemiology, health and healthcare. In addition to lectures on these topics, students meet in small groups each week to discuss issues arising from patient cases and the week's lectures. (weight 1.0)
MED5121 - Blood
This course covers the essential fundamental knowledge of blood structure and function in health and disease. Blood is a highly specialized circulating system that is linked to all body organs and responsible for the life and wellbeing of an individual. At the end of the course, the student will have the necessary skills to make the appropriate diagnosis/differential diagnoses, be able to perform the necessary investigative tests, and treat the disease. (weight 1.0)
MED5116 - Infection & Immunity
This course outlines the attributes of infectious agents relevant to understanding the causation, control, and management of infectious diseases. The course also provides
MED5117 - Skin
During this course, the students will learn how to take a dermatological history and describe cutaneous physical signs in an organized way using proper terminology. The students will learn about the pathophysiology and treatment of important and common medical and surgical skin diseases. Students will appreciate the impact of skin diseases on patients and their families and will take part in a community outreach program.
MED5120 - Heart & Circulation
This course examines the structure, function, disease recognition and management of the cardiovascular system. Integrative learning models will be used to study congenital heart disease, valvular and coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, hypertension, trauma, heart failure, and rehabilitation of patients with heart disease.
MED5119 - Respiration & Airways
This course examines the structure and function of the upper respiratory tract and lower respiratory tract. Basic science material will be correlated with respiratory tract symptoms of clinical relevance, such as dyspnea, wheezing, hoarseness, dysphagia, cough, airway obstruction, and neck mass. Basic science material will also be correlated with clinically relevant respiratory tract problems seen in clinical specialties including, but not limited
MED5104 - Genitourinary System
This course uses basic principles of renal physiology to understand commonly encountered fluid and electrolyte disorders and the actions of diuretic drugs. The pathophysiology of diabetic kidney disease, glomerular and tubulointerstitial diseases, and the relationship between hypertension and the kidney are discussed. The basic principles of urinary system anatomy and physiology are applied to understand kidney stones, genitourinary cancers and infections, as well as disorders of the bladder and prostate. The course also introduces basic principles of dialysis and kidney transplantation. Lectures, small group problem-solving and team-based learning sessions will be used to help medical students gain insight into the interesting world of genitourinary diseases. (weight 1.0)
MED5151 - Social Medicine
A year-long integrative social medicine course concentrating on the social, cultural and economic impact of medical phenomena. This course will include social medicine, population health, epidemiology, medical ethics and
For more information on Service Learning, please click here.
MED5139 - Patient Centred Clinical Methods (Year 1)
This course examines the process of
MED5140 - Professional Portfolio (Years 1 & 2)
An Introduction to the concept of a professional portfolio. Through practical application of curriculum
Year Two
MED5203 - Digestive System & Nutrition
This course introduces the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of the gastrointestinal tract and its role in nutrition. The student will learn the common diseases that involve the esophagus, stomach, intestines, pancreas and liver as well as the pathophysiology, epidemiology and treatment of these diseases. The nutrition component includes the absorption of essential nutrients, nutritional assessment, normal nutrition and the use of nutrition as therapy. The study of gastrointestinal malignancies will be covered in the associated
MED5202 - Endocrine and Metabolism
This course introduces common diagnoses of the Endocrine system. The physiology of the hypothalamic–pituitary–
MED5205 - Reproduction
This course covers the relevant anatomy, physiology and pathology of
MED5210S - Key Topics in Family Medicine
Students are introduced to the most common complaints that patients present to their family physicians. Key components of the history and physical examination skills that are core to family medicine and that aid in determining the most appropriate management style will be identified. The course will build on how the Patient-Centred Clinical Method is incorporated into clinical practice through case vignettes. (weight 0.25)
MED5218 - Musculoskeletal System
This course examines the structure, normal function and pathologic dysfunction of the musculoskeletal system to develop the skills necessary to perform a general musculoskeletal screening examination. This course covers musculoskeletal and joint anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and pathology with clinical correlates, musculoskeletal radiology, biophysics, musculoskeletal injuries, development and
MED5208 - Emergency Care
This course introduces the care of the patient with shock and multiple traumas. Objectives include an approach to initial assessment and resuscitation of patients presenting with respiratory distress, hypotension, trauma, disorders of temperature regulation (hyperthermia and hypothermia) or cardiac arrest. (weight 0.25)
MED5206 - Neurosciences, Eye & Ear
This course introduces and integrates the basic and clinical science aspects of the nervous system, the eye and the ear. This course uses small and large group sessions in addition to lectures to provide the essentials of neuroanatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology in a clinical context. At the end of Neurosciences, Eye, and Ear, the student will be able to discuss the presentation of common illnesses involving the nervous system, eye and ear.
MED5207 - Psychiatry & the Behavioural Sciences
Psychiatry and the Behavioural Sciences is an integrated course that synthesizes basic science and basic psychopathology including diagnostic criteria and treatments. The emphasis of this course will be on the most commonly encountered psychiatric disorders. The approach follows that of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM
MED5250 - Professional Identity
MED5246 - Patient Centred Clinical Methods (Year 2)
This course examines the process of
MED5140 - Professional Portfolio (Years 1 & 2)
An Introduction to the concept of a professional portfolio. Through practical application of curriculum
Students participate in early patient contact that emphasizes a patient-centred approach to medicine, beginning in Clinical Methods in Year 1. At the end of
The weekly timetable is often structured around a case which is introduced at the beginning of each week. The case provides the stimulus for
Year Three
The third year of medicine includes a 52-week integrated Clerkship (Medicine 5475)
MED5475 - Integrated Clerkship
-
The Clinical Clerkship Program at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is an integrated 52-week course in the third year of the four-year MD program which is distributed across various sites in Southwestern Ontario. During Clerkship, the student becomes an active member of clinical care teams in the following medical disciplines: family medicine, medicine, obstetrics and
gynaecology ,paediatrics , psychiatry, and surgery. Under the supervision of faculty and more seniorhousestaff , clerks are given graded responsibility in the diagnosis, investigation, and management of patients in hospital, clinic and outpatient settings. All students inthird year are required to complete a community/rural Clinical Clerkship rotation for a minimum of four weeks.The Clinical Clerkship Program in London is being delivered at the Medical Sciences Building and the Dental Sciences Building at Western University, at the London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care and at other regional education sites through the Distributed Medical Education.
The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry expanded its clinical clerkship program to the University of Windsor in 2002. In September 2008, the complete undergraduate medical education program was launched in Windsor with the entry of 24 first-year students to the class of Meds 2012. The Windsor Campus welcomed 30 new first-year students in September 2009, 38 first-year students in September 2010 and 38 in September 2011.
The Clinical Clerkship Program in Windsor is being delivered at the Medical Education Building on the campus of the University of Windsor, at Windsor Regional Hospital, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital and at other regional education sites through the Distributed Medical Education.
Distributed Medical Education includes faculty located in over 45 communities in the region from Tobermory to Leamington. Students learn clinical skills in various geographic sites. The objective is to ensure that Western students at all levels gain an understanding and experience of the practice of
Medicine from both a rural/regional and tertiary care/urban perspective.For more information, including
Polices , Guidelines and Curricular Information for the Clinical Clerkship Program at each of our sites, please choose the correct program link: - Clinical Clerkship Program in London
- Clinical Clerkship Program in Windsor
Year Four
The fourth year of medicine includes Clinical Science Electives (Medicine 5401) and Integration and Transition (Medicine 5402).
MED5401 - Clinical Science Electives
-
Beginning in Year 4, Clinical Science Electives are arranged entirely by the student in any area of medicine, at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry or in other centres. After completion of the Clinical Electives, students return to campus in January for Integration and Transition which permits students to further integrate the basic and clinical aspects of synthesized with their clinical experience. For more information on 'What You Need to Know' about Year 4 Clinical Science Electives (including Applying for Electives, Academic/Clinical Policies & Procedures, Assessment and General Information), please click on the link below.
- Clinical Science Electives - What You Need to Know
- Online Summative Assessment Form
MED5402 - Integration and Transition
Integration & Transition advances student competency beyond Clerkship and is foundational for entering supervised practice. The course supports a learning environment of professional practice to advance Year Four students as mature learners who must be able to function in a learning environment that is grounded in independent learning; small group; collaborative and with some large group interactive non-didactic sessions based on clinical presentations
