Curriculum Overview

Academic Year Planning Guide
The Essential Core
The Clinical Core
Advanced Studies
Other Medical Education Highlights at UCSF

The Essential Core

The Essential Core, the first two years, consists of nine interdisciplinary block courses organized around central themes or systems. Foundations of Patient Care (FPC), a longitudinal clinical and interviewing skills course, runs for both years. Each of the other block courses tackles a major biological theme; the basic and clinical sciences relevant to this theme are intertwined with other aspects of the practice of medicine, including public health, epidemiology, and the social and behavioral sciences. The Essential Core provides many opportunities for active and collaborative learning. The curriculum also fosters each student's professional stake in learning. Students are responsible for small group preparation and attendance. Evaluations of courses and faculty are also part of students' professional commitment.

The Clinical Core

The Clinical Core, the third year, includes the required clinical clerkships of the UCSF medical program. The Clinical Core runs for 54 weeks. It is comprised of six eight-week long clerkship periods. Three weeklong intersessions punctuate the clerkship rotations. Intersessions enable students to meet and exchange thoughts about their recent clinical experiences, further refine critical thinking skills, and explore more fully medical ethics, health systems, medical sciences, and evidenced-based medicine. The third year also includes the Longitudinal Clinical Experience, which runs concurrently with the clerkships, meeting for half a day each week and giving students exposure to an out-patient clinical setting in a field of their choice.

Advanced Studies

Advanced studies, the fourth year, encompasses elective rotations, research, and specific fields of inquiry that make up the fourth year of the medical program. Advanced Studies prepares students for post-graduate study and provides opportunities for international health, scholarly work, and senior clinical rotations. Students may select an Area of Concentration in order to develop expertise in a field that informs the kind of physicians they would like to be and to join communities of common interest (other than specialty). Areas include health policy, community medicine, humanities, international and public health, and medical education.

Advisory Colleges: the four colleges, led by faculty mentors, serve as communities for student well-being, and personal and professional advising. The colleges help students through all transitions of medical school. Mentors connect students with additional resources and opportunities.

Clinical Skills Center: the new clinical skills and simulation lab supports the development of clinical skills and communication abilities. Students have the opportunity to work in a realistic ambulatory care setting and practice hands-on skills with real and standardized patients.

iROCKET: the digital curriculum. iROCKET encompasses a range of educational technology solutions for the School of Medicine. It includes all of the innovative online course materials for the Essential and Clinical Core as well as the MissingLink database and the Medical Student portal.

PBL: problem-based learning, a small group discussion format that encourages student-led investigation. PBL cases are featured in all the Essential Core blocks. A faculty facilitator is present, but does not prompt the students or lead discussion. Students set the learning objectives.

Preceptorship: in Foundations of Patient Care as well as some of the other Essential Core block courses, students work in the offices of community physicians to gain clinical and professional experience.