º£½ÇÂ×ÂÒ

Long School of Medicine

Preclinical Curriculum

Undergraduate Medical Education

Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)

students watching a demonstration from faculty

Foundational modules

The 20-month preclinical curriculum begins with three foundational modules, Molecules to Medicine, Attack and Defense and Language of Medicine. Within each module, there is a progression of knowledge in a systematic fashion and weekly thematic content synthesized via a small group interactive patient case.

Longitudinal modules

There are two longitudinal modules threaded throughout the preclinical curriculum: Medicine, Behavior, and Society (MBS) and Clinical Skills. MBS explores the areas of history, law, ethics, clinical, social and cultural contexts of medicine as well as human behavior & development over the lifespan (cognitive, social and emotional development from infancy to death). In Clinical Skills students learn medical history taking and physical exam techniques using standardized and real patients.

The preclinical phase of the curriculum concludes with students taking the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE) and meeting established score benchmarks in order to progress to the clinical phase of the curriculum.

Organ-system modules

There are eight sequential organ-system modules throughout the preclinical curriculum. The organ-system modules integrate anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology (pathology, histology), pharmacology and clinical skills instruction for a comprehensive, cohesive curriculum that develop students’ ability “to think like a doctorâ€.