John Sealy SOM Educational Affairs - Instruction Management Office

Course Information: Year 1 Courses

• META: Mindfully Evolving, Thriving & Advocating

  META is a four-week long course that will introduce students to concepts and tools students need for their journey through medical school and beyond. The main objectives of the course center around cultivating cultural humility, developing an approach to lifelong learning, and personal wellness. The course also focuses on acquiring basic clinical skills to prepare students for early clinical experiences in a manner that is consistent with the POM1 and POM2 expectations and evaluations.​

  Students will be given access to career-advising resources to ensure they are aware of opportunities that will help them choose their future training path and career goals. Our intention is to give students a birds-eye view of what is to come in their metamorphosis to becoming a compassionate and exceptional physician.

• Gross Anatomy & Radiology: Overview

  In the Gross Anatomy and Radiology course students acquire a foundational knowledge of the anatomy and radiology of the human body. Educational strategies adopted in the course promote the development of student-directed problem-solving skills, while encouraging team-work in both small and large groups. Dissection of the human body allows to introduce learners to their “first patient”, appreciate anatomical diversity, and practice basic clinical skills. Team Based Learning, Interactive Sessions and other exercises integrate anatomy and radiology in the clinical contest. This allows learners to understand and manage the patient as a whole, integrating scientific concepts and socio-economic issues/barriers. Overall, activities presented in the course aim to stimulate students critical thinking, reaction, medical intuition, professionalism and compassion. ​

  The knowledge gained during this course will serve as a foundation for the remainder of the students’ medical education and future profession.​

• Molecules, Cells, and Tissues

  The objectives of the Molecules, Cells, and Tissues (MCT) course are to provide students with a strong foundational understanding of Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Pharmacology and Genetics, as well as their direct correlation to normal and abnormal tissue structure and function.  By acquiring this knowledge, students will develop the ability to analyze clinical cases presented in the subsequent organ-based courses, effectively explaining how molecular, cellular and tissue changes in patients lead to clinical symptoms and serve as a scaffold for disease management. To achieve these goals, the course will employ various teaching methods including Problem Based Learning, Team Based Learning and Interactive Sessions. These approaches will enable students to develop and utilize their skills in clinical reasoning, problem-solving, teamwork, public speaking and doctor-patient communication.
  

• Pathobiology & Host Defense

  The Pathobiology and Host Defenses Course provides MS1s the opportunity to acquire fundamental knowledge in 4 broad areas including Pathobiology, Immunology, Basic Pharmacology and Microbiology. PHD builds on the material covered in GAR and MCT with a. focus on host defense as a theme for understanding pathogenic processes, consequences and treatment approaches. Completion of the course provides the necessary introductory background for each broad topic to prepare students for the subsequent organ system curriculum. In PHD, through PBL, lectures, on-line Bricks and active laboratory sessions, the students sharpen observational skills, organize sets of data to support differential diagnoses and/or pathogenetic sequences, differentiate normal from abnormal organs, grossly and microscopically, develop a system for categorizing general pathologic processes that underlie diseases in all of the organ systems and outline and describe chains of causality for basic pathophysiologic mechanisms that comprise the pathogenesis of disease.

• Neuroscience and Human Behavior

  NHB is an organ-based course integrating basic neuroscience ​with clinical neurology and psychiatry. Students will attain ​a fundamental knowledge of the structure, as well as both the normal & abnormal function of the brain. Student will understand the fundamentals of behavior and become familiar with treatment options for costly neural injuries and disease processes, as well as current limitations to our understanding of the body’s largest and most complex organ.​ Students will discover these remarkable aspects of the brain through Problem-Based Learning (PBL), interactive (Poll Everywhere)​ sessions, dissection laboratory sessions, Retrieval-Based Learning (RBL), Team Based Learning (TBL) and collaborative testing (PBL Quizzes) as well as biweekly formative quizzes (Qmax).

• Practice of Medicine

  The Practice of Medicine is designed to equip 1st year medical students with the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to effectively practice the art and science of medicine. Building upon the foundations laid in the META course, this essential program serves as a bridge to POM 2, while further enhancing students' competencies.​
  

  During this course, students will cultivate and refine their abilities in history taking and conducting comprehensive physical examinations. They will learn to communicate professionally, fostering effective interactions with patients, colleagues, and other healthcare professionals. Moreover, students will hone their clinical reasoning skills, allowing them to analyze medical scenarios and make informed decisions in patient care.
  

  Additionally, the POM 1 course will provide correlation to the concurrent basic science courses by providing didactics and small group exercises that parallel topics covered in the basic science courses and organ-system course as NHB. ​
  

  Beyond the acquisition of clinical skills, The Practice of Medicine also plays a crucial role in shaping students' professional identity as future physicians. In summary, The Practice of Medicine helps students to develop critical skills, build a professional identity be better prepared to take on the more advanced POM2 curriculum.

Course Information: Year 2 Courses

• Cardiovascular & Pulmonary

  In Cardiovascular and Pulmonary (CVP), students acquire knowledge of the structure and function of the heart and lungs. Students will understand the anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems in health and disease and the relations to fundamentals of treatment. It prepares students to understand acid-base regulation and hypoxemia, heart failure, coronary disease, rhythm disturbances, obstructive and restrictive diseases, lung cancer, congenital heart disease, and other common anomalies of the heart and lungs. Through problem-based learning and simulations, students discover how basic science and clinical medicine explain the signs and symptoms of cardiopulmonary problems and the physiology of their mitigation. Vertical integration with MS1 courses and MS3 clerkships occurs annually, and horizontal integration with other MS2 courses (RFE, POM2) occurs more frequently.

• Renal, Fluid & Electrolytes

  The Renal, Fluids and Electrolytes (RFE) course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the normal function, physiology, anatomy/ histology of the kidneys, and common pathologies associated with the renal-urinary system. By building on key concepts introduced in the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Systems course such as acid-base regulation, RFE delves into renal function and hypertension, and their underlying the anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology. Additionally, the course explores the elaborate connections between glomerular and interstitial diseases, renal oncogenesis, microbiological, immunological, and pharmacological treatments.  A strong emphasis is placed on self-directed learning through problem-based cases that emphasize the relevant basic science aspects of renal function as well as fluids and electrolyte homeostasis with a clinical perspective. To complement and enhance student self-directed learning, RFE offers large group interactive sessions to provide a broader context for student learning and clarifying difficult-to-understand concepts. 

• Gastro-Intestinal/Nutrition

  The Gastrointestinal/Nutrition (GIN) course provides an integrated approach to understanding the pathophysiologic basis of gastrointestinal, hepatic and nutritional disorders as well as the pharmacological rationale for their therapy. The structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract and associated organs are explored at the physiological, cellular, molecular and biochemical levels in both health and disease. A variety of traditional, interactive and online tools are used throughout the course, with special emphasis paid to laboratory sessions in pathology and related disciplines. At the same time, students are introduced to the clinical approach to these disorders, including clinical, laboratory, and radiographic findings.

• Endocrine/Reproduction

  The Essentials in Endocrinology and Reproduction Course (EER) is designed to ensure that medical students build up a critical mass of knowledge in the way that hormonal systems: 1) regulate many of the body’s metabolic processes in health; 2) help the body respond to various maladies by adjusting appropriate metabolic parameters; and 3) promote the genesis of reproductive cells, the fertilization of an ovum, the development of a fetus, and parturition. Medical students also will build knowledge in how derangements in organs that make or respond to hormones can lead to pathologic conditions, infertility, and the inability to complete a pregnancy. EER builds upon the Molecules, cells and tissues (MCT) course in integrating cell-biology and molecular-pathway principles into clinical presentations. Since hormones affect most cells in the body, there is some overlap with all other organ-based courses. There are scientific advancements in therapies (pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic and procedural), so in our course students learn the process of undertaking and interpreting clinical trials and learn about the regulatory process in the development of such therapies.

• Derm/Heme/Musculoskeletal

  In the Dermatology-Hematology-Musculoskeletal course, students are exposed to three discrete organ systems: 1) the skin and its associated adnexal structures, 2) the blood and lymphoreticular systems, and 3) the musculoskeletal system. By applying concepts from previous courses, including microbiology and immunology (PHD), anatomy (GAR), histology, cell biology, biochemistry, and pharmacology (MCT), to these organ systems, students will gain an integrated understanding of their pathophysiology. They will then apply this understanding in clinical scenarios through problem- and team-based learning.

• Practice of Medicine

  The POM 2 Course will build on the knowledge and skills learned in META and POM 1 to expand student knowledge in the practice of medicine and skills in history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, medical ethics, professional identity formation, preventive health, behavioral medicine, and evidence-based medicine.   Through a combination of small group sessions, large group didactics, and clinical experiences, students will learn how to evaluate patients.  Students will have the opportunity to engage with experienced clinicians through experiential learning in a clinical environment both in a simulated setting and in the hospital and ambulatory clinics.  Additionally, the POM 2 course will provide clinical correlation to the concurrent organ-system science courses by providing didactics and small group exercises that parallel topics covered in the organ-system courses.  ​

  The overarching goal of the course is to best prepare students for the clerkship phase.