Medical Student Handbook

Double Helix Curriculum

Table of Contents Handbook Homepage POLICIES & GUIDELINES - Privacy & Access to Academic Records - Disabilities Technical Standards Policy - Assistance for Individual w/Disabilities - ADA Ombudsperson - Mistreatment of Medical Students - Sexual Harassment - Assessment Data - Religious Observance - The U.S. Medical Licensing Examination - Alcohol Use On School of Medicine Property - Impairment Due to Substance Abuse - Self Disclosure in the Course of Learning - Confidentiality - Teaching Exercises with Student Subjects - Video Equipment Use - Regulatory, Health and Other Requirements --- Infection Control --- In-Service Education Competency Exam --- Certification in Use of Clinical Information System --- Medical Student CPR Certification --- University Health Requirements MD Student Responsibility, Conduct, & Academic Policies ACADEMIC ISSUES - Verification of Eligibility for Matriculation - Verification of Academic Credentials - Completion of Required Experiences - Remedial Work - Completion of Academic Deficiencies - Grading Policy up to Class of 2002 - Double Helix Grading Policy - Student Assessment Guide --- Comprehensive Assessments - MD with Distinction - AOA and Dean's Letter Rankings - In-Depth Experience - Plagiarism - Absences from Classes & Academic Responsibilities - Policy on Time Away From Clerkships - Class Attendance - Leaves of Absence - Year-Out Fellowships - Drop/Add Deadline Policy SUPPORT SERVICES - Academic Support Services - University Health Service - Counseling and Mental Health Services - Chaplain's Office - Division of Medical Informatics - Women in Science, Dentistry & Medicine (WISDM) - Assistance for Pregnant Medical Students - Miner Library ADVISING & STUDENT ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS - Advisory Dean Program - Student Enrichment Programs - Student-Sponsored Symposium CONSUMER & LEGAL ASSISTANCE - Integrity Hotline - University Housing - Executing Legal Documents - Consumer and Legal Assistance OFFICES FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION - Medical Education - Student Services Center - Advisory Deans - Student Affairs Office - Registrar's Office - Financial Aid Office - Bursar's Office - Office for Ethnic & Multicultural Affairs - Admissions Office - Medical Alumni Affairs - Student Enrichment Programs - Graduate Studies - Offices for Educational Research - Curricular Affairs Office - Facilities for Students - Student Computing DOUBLE HELIX CURRICULUM MEDICAL EDUCATION OBJECTIVES

As the home of the biopsychosocial model, Rochester offers a student-centered educational program that prepares physicians for the 21st century. Our curriculum fosters knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of the physician/scientist/humanist by combining cutting-edge, evidence-based medical science with the relationship-centered art that is medicine's distinctive trademark.

Rochester's Double Helix Curriculum represents a major revision, beginning with the entering class of 1999, that will capture the integrated strands of basic science and clinical medicine as they are woven throughout the four-year curriculum. The focus of our educational program is not merely the transfer of information, but the transformation of the learner in a culture providing that ingenious combination of support and challenge which leads to education. Every course is interdisciplinary and, unlike most medical schools, clinical skills training from day one leads not to shadowing or preceptor experiences, but to the start of real clinical work as part of the health care team.

Students' actual clinical cases drive the learning of science, and students return to increasingly advanced basic science in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years through an integrated series of problem-based learning (PBL) exercises. Multidisciplinary PBL cases are used in all courses with usually 3 PBL tutorials per week and an average of no more than 8 lecture hours per week. Clinical exposure begins during the first week of school with an introduction to clinical medicine in the fall semester and the start of the primary care/ambulatory longitudinal clerkship beginning during the first spring semester. This experience, unlike any other in the country, includes all the ambulatory components of family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, women's health, psychiatry, and ambulatory surgery, and is completed by the end of the second year.

Years 2,3, and 4 conclude with case seminars that present basic and clinical science with increasing levels of depth each year. Inpatient clerkships are completed by December of the 4th year and focus on acute care experiences in adult medicine, women's and children's health, mind/brain/behavior, and urgent/emergent care.