Curriculum Expanded for Third- and Fourth-Year Medical Students
In July the undergraduate medical curriculum at Northwestern was modified to include a required interdisciplinary curriculum for third-year students and a required emergency medicine clerkship and fourth unit of the Patient, Physician & Society (PPS) course for fourth-year students. The interdisciplinary curriculum, directed by Douglas Reifler, MD, assistant professor of medicine, will bring students from their clerkships to the medical school one Friday per month for active learning modules on such topics as communication skills, nutrition, evidence-based medicine, and translational research.
The four-week emergency medicine clerkship, directed by Amy V. Kontrick, MD, instructor in medicine, takes place primarily at Northwestern Memorial and Evanston Hospitals. PPS IV will focus on the ethical implications of health care economics, teaching skills, and professional perspectives. This unit is codirected by Dr. Reifler, Mari E. Egan, MD, instructor in clinical medicine, and Lester D. Friedman, PhD, senior lecturer in medical education.
