Medicine, Patients, and Society I

Welcome to Medicine, Patients, and Society I (MPS I), your first clinical course. This course is designed to introduce you to important principles related to being a practicing physician. The knowledge and skills you will acquire in this course will form the foundation of your clinical practice and are important building blocks in the development of your professional identity.


Course Objectives

This course is designed to involve you in a structured curriculum to achieve the following objectives:

Knowledge
  • appreciate the special nature of the physician patient relationship
  • understand the structure of the medical interview
  • define communication techniques and styles
  • identify how patient care changes in the different stages of the life cycle
  • outline the types of complementary medicine
  • describe the general principles of clinical nutrition in preventative medicine

Skills
  • take vital signs of adult and pediatric patients
  • apply communication techniques to take medical and social histories
  • elicit nutrition histories, evaluate patient diets, and provide dietary counseling
  • provide patient education
  • apply the principles of biostatistics, epidemiology and evidence based medicine (EBM) to clinical scenarios

Attitudes
  • appreciate different styles of medical practice
  • recognize how gender, sexual identity, and culture influence health care delivery
  • develop a professional identity and demeanor
  • recognize and accept ambiguity and uncertainty in clinical situations and medical decision making

Medicine, Patients, and Society I Modules

The course consists of several modules listed below. Module leaders are in italics. The Medical Encounter module runs through the entire first year and is divided into 3 parts.

The Medical Encounter
Dr. Lyuba Konopasek

Biostatistics/Epidemiology
Dr. Madelon Finkel

EBM
Dr. Madelon Finkel

Nutrition
Dr. Jonathan Waitman

 
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