Curriculum revision is the watch word for the UTHSC College of Medicine for the foreseeable future.  The COM is well into the process of planning, developing, and implementing a new curriculum with the entering class of 2011.  Our goal is to provide our students with a better grasp of the basic sciences as well as improving their clinical skills. This will mean more procedures, more responsibility, and distribution of basic sciences and clinical skills throughout the four years leading to physicians that are better prepared for the 21st century.

The introduction of new technologies in the past few years opens up new opportunities to link basic and clinical science instruction in ways that increase student learning.  Standardized patients, high-fidelity simulators, virtual simulations, simulation games, information-on-demand through the use of PDAs and medical databases, electronic medical records, podcasting, and other tools provide new and enhanced learning opportunities to our students.

The Physicians for the Future curriculum will feature:

• Multi-modal instruction that will balance didactic lectures and case-based, team-based, active-learning sessions.
• Clinically relevant instruction of basic science principles that will help students achieve recognized competencies.
• Reinforcement of basic science principles during clinical clerkships.
• Increased clinical exposure in the first two years of medical school.
• Increased research opportunities throughout all years of medical school.