The material is taught using a combination of lectures, small group discussions, case study presentations and individual learning activities. Students experience routine microbiology laboratories. This is the largest block in the second year of the curriculum. Topics are organized as nine organ system units. Within each unit, there is a consideration of the relevant physiology, pharmacology and pathology for that system.
Students receive cases which are closely linked to the subject matter.
Students spend about one week working independently on the cases, determining the salient features and developing hypotheses pertaining to the mechanisms underlying the selected disease processes. Meeting in groups of seven to 10, students discuss their findings in the presence of a faculty facilitator in a weekly two-hour session. In the next week, students meet with the facilitator to discuss their findings, bring the case to closure and receive the next case. The preceptors are community office-based generalists. Students also meet on a regular basis with their preceptor for small group discussions of patients seen in the office.