Weill Education Center Resources
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The first year and second year of study consist of six basic science courses and Medicine, Patients and Society. The core basic science courses are sequential, integrated, interdisciplinary block courses that employ problem-based learning (PBL) in small groups with the faculty. PBL emphasizes active learning and requires the student first to identify issues needed to solve a medical problem, then to seek out the information needed to solve the problem, and then to reconvene in small groups to apply the information learned. Lectures are few and emphasize the conceptual framework of a field. Anatomic dissection and experimental laboratories complete the learning experience.
The course Medicine, Patients and Society approaches the doctor-patient relationship from both conceptual and practical perspectives. For one day each week, students spend the morning in seminar, and the afternoon in physicians' offices. Areas treated include medical interviewing, physical diagnosis, human behavior in illness, medical ethics, public health, biostatistics, clinical epidemiology, and others. Thus, students learn these vital topics in a patient-centered context.
The third year is dedicated to clinical learning and emphasizes the core clerkships, including Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Psychiatry, Neurology, and Primary Care. In these courses, students are assigned to clinical in-patient and out-patient services at NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Center and throughout the network of clinical affiliates. Students are integral members of the health-care team and actively care for patients, under the supervision of the faculty.
The fourth year centers on completion of clinical requirements as well as electives. Most students focus on three major types of electives in the fourth year: clinical electives, often in subspecialty areas; research; and international electives. Each year approximately half of the fourth-year class spends time abroad, typically in Cornell-funded programs that combine clinical care and research in the third world: South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. In the month before graduation, courses in advanced basic science allow students to study leading-edge biomedical science in depth.
