The program for the first year is spread over three quarters, starting in the fall. Students are also introduced to the behavioral aspects of medicine, art of communicating with patients, normal physical exam, and initial components of emergency medicine. Each quarter is eleven weeks long, with weeks five and eleven as periods for examinations and study time. The second year extends over four quarters, with summer and spring quarters abbreviated to six weeks. The summer quarter starts the transition between the preclinical and clinical sciences with the presentation of general and systemic pathology, courses on dermatology and reproductive biology, and the extension of the physical diagnosis practicum, which now emphasizes pathophysiology.
Students continue their training in physical diagnosis throughout the next two quarters.
In the fall, winter and spring quarters, the students complete their training in the basic sciences of pharmacology, microbiology and epidemiology. Then, using an organ systems approach, the emphasis switches increasingly to the pathophysiological basis of disease as the clinical faculty present separate courses on the musculoskeletal and hematopoietic-lymphoreticular, cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems, clinical neurosciences, nephrology, nutrition, and clinical endocrinology. Separate courses are also presented in psychopathology and human sexuality. The Primary Care Plus Clerkships include, in addition to four weeks at a Family Practice setting, the key primary care components of orthopedic medicine and urology. In the fourth year of the M.D. curriculum, flexibility is built in to allow students to begin to individualize their medical careers.