Mount Sinai School of Medicine 2008 - 2009

The educational program at Mount Sinai promotes student-centered active learning and utilizes a variety of teaching modalities to support the learning styles of our diverse student population. Students receive an outstanding foundation in the basic and social sciences, with an emphasis on the development of critical thinking and life-long, self-directed learning skills. Our didactic sessions include lectures, labs, small group discussions, and a variety of clinical encounters (patient presentations, panel discussions, etc). Students are trained to formulate hypotheses that generate relevant questions, to gather data/evidence that addresses their questions, and to problem-solve. Small groups are facilitated by clinical preceptors using case-based clinical scenarios to illustrate and reinforce the science underlying patients’ chief complaints and medical problems.

Students meet their first patients in Year 1, providing longitudinal clinical experiences that reinforce integration of our science and clinical skills curriculum. Core themes that are essential to the practice of medicine (ethics, communication, cultural competency, EBM, etc) are horizontally and vertically integrated into the curriculum across all four years (under the auspices of Courses Without Walls).

The pre-clerkship curriculum also fosters teaching skills and provides students with formal preparation for peer-teaching and opportunities to apprentice as medical educators. Teaching assistant and peer-mentoring programs help students develop essential skills throughout their four years that will benefit their patients and colleagues. Our ultimate goal is to produce outstanding physicians with emotional intelligence who are reflective practitioners of evidence-based bio-psycho-social medicine. Students graduate our program as knowledgeable and informed patient advocates and health care activists, motivated and capable of helping patients and promoting change.