Brown University (Brown Medical School)

Since granting its first MD degrees in 1975, Brown Medical School has become a national leader in medical education and biomedical research. By attracting first-class physicians and researchers to Rhode Island over the past three decades, the Medical School and its seven affiliated hospitals have radically improved the state's health care environment, from health care policy to patient care. The Medical School is home to Rhode Island's first and only master of public health degree program and to nine active, nationally renowned public-health research centers.

The Medical School awards approximately 90 Doctor of Medicine degrees each year. Students are admitted to the School through a variety of pathways: the standard route, open to all qualified graduates of any college or university; the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), an eight-year continuum that combines undergraduate study in any concentration at Brown with professional studies in medicine; the Early Identification Program, whereby promising sophomores from three Rhode Island colleges and Tougaloo College are offered admission to the Medical School; the MD/PhD program, for students who wish to pursue a career in academic medicine and biomedical research; and premedical postbaccalaureate programs with Goucher College, Bryn Mawr College, and Columbia University. This variety results in a student body of unusual diversity in terms of life experience, age, and ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic background.

Brown has created an administrative structure - the Division of Biology and Medicine - that promotes the intellectual integration of the biological and medical sciences and offers students opportunities to develop flexible, individualized studies. The basic science curriculum is taught on the University campus, while the majority of the clinical departments are housed in the seven affiliated hospitals; most clinical teaching is hospital- or community-based. The Division of Biology and Medicine comprises the Program in Biology (five basic science departments), the Medical School (14 clinical departments), and the Program in Public Health.

The Division and its affiliated hospitals are now ranked 40th among medical schools in NIH dollars; as of June 30, 2004, total funding was more then $150 million.

Brown Medical School is a community of scholars dedicated to the highest standards of excellence in education, research, and health care. Our mission is to educate physicians in the scientific, ethical, humanistic, and socially responsible dimensions of medicine and to advance the ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent human illness.

Brown Medical School has two major goals for its graduates: that they be broadly and liberally educated men and women, and that they view medicine as a socially responsible human service profession.

We seek students who regard medicine as a noble profession rather than a trade to be learned, as a humanitarian pursuit, as well as a scholarly discipline, and as a unique lifetime experience. Our graduates must be scientifically well-educated, and also capable of approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, drawing upon the methods of analysis of the humanist, the social scientist, and the behavioral scientist. We intend that our students follow in the altruistic tradition of medicine, placing the welfare of their patients and society above self-interest. We teach our students to view the boundaries of medicine to be wide, encompassing all of the factors that lead to human disease, including those of a social, cultural, and economic nature. We exhort our students to act upon these values by engaging themselves actively in the community, exerting leadership by responding to the needs of those they serve.

In pursuit of these goals, Brown has integrated premedical and medical education into an eight-year continuum to ensure that M.D. recipients from Brown will have been exposed to a wide, sensitizing view of the human condition from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The result is a "liberal" medical education supported by the entire faculty of a great University from which the Medical School derives its name.

These goals require significant departures from convention in both the process and anticipated outcome of medical education. Problem-solving experience based on real-world issues is an important pedagogical requirement; the social sciences and humanities assume greater importance; measures of outcome, including values and attitudes as well as knowledge and skill, become more relevant than conventional course requirements; and communication skills across cultures, ages and socioeconomic barriers must be honed. This is our educational mission. To that end we pledge those resources necessary for its attainment.

Brown Medical School's approach to teaching medicine begins with the end product: the successful MD graduate. That is why our innovative curriculum - emulated at numerous medical schools in the U.S. and abroad - has been thoughtfully designed to impart all the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and abilities students need to become competent physicians and scientists, while giving students meaningful feedback every step of the way.

Brown Medical School offers its students a wide variety of elective opportunities in clinical medicine, research, the liberal arts, and the basic sciences. These may be pursued at Brown or at other universities, in our member hospitals, in associated community institutions, or in approved, off-site preceptorships.

The Curriculum Committee of the Division of Biology and Medicine, which designed Brown's medical course of study, stated in its 1972 report: Traditionally, medical school curricula are largely prescribed, with little free time for students to explore their individual interests. Faced with the problem of fitting a vast amount of knowledge into a brief period of time and desirous of strengthening and equalizing the common-ground aspects of American medical education, curriculum planners tended to design an orderly program which occupied all of the students' time. It is increasingly recognized that the educational process requires both time for reflection and time for pursuit of special interests. Moreover, the University Curriculum Committee has prescribed that at least a fourth of student time during the post-baccalaureate years be allocated to this end. Thus, the course of study here presented is viewed by the Committee as a minimal framework within which students have the opportunity to both to devote themselves to elective pursuits in medical science and practice, and to continue other interests of their liberal education through their medical years. Accordingly the curricular pattern includes electives at every stage; and in the clinical years, almost as much time is given for elective experiences as for those which are mandatory.

Brown's MD2000 curriculum is designed to train students in the abilities widely considered essential to the practice of medicine in the 21st century. It was carefully developed by faculty, students, and deans who, in 1990, set out to paint a portrait of the ideal physician. After listing the characteristics of that ideal, the architects of MD2000 delineated the nine abilities expected of all Brown Medical School graduates.

These abilities encompass both the art and the science of medicine, ranging from traditional clinical skills to cultural awareness, ethics, and self-reflection. Each ability comes with a list of specific criteria that the student is expected to master at three different levels, depending on the student's stage of professional development (beginner during Year I; intermediate during Years II and III; advanced during Year IV). Students are evaluated primarily through performance-based methods, including the use of standardized patients, interactive computer instruction, videotapes, and community health projects.

In addition to the Nine Abilities, the faculty have defined a knowledge base that represents the core content of the medical curriculum. All students will possess this core of knowledge upon graduation in addition to the knowledge gained by pursuing their own interests and by being exposed to the wide variety of faculty interests. Taken together, the mission statement, the Nine Abilities, and the knowledge base comprise the Educational Blueprint for Brown Medical School, upon which our curriculum is built.

Students can plan their course of study to acquire all the components of the educational blueprint. They monitor their progress through Brown Medical School's computerized curriculum management tool, MedPlan, which can be downloaded by students. The staff in the Office of Curriculum Affairs also closely monitors student progress to be sure that students are meeting competency benchmarks at appropriate times.

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Brown Medical School Medical School Location

Brown Medical School Courses

YEAR 1 COURSES :

* Mammalian Physiology
* Human Morphology(Anatomy)
* Human Histology
* Doctoring

YEAR 2 COURSES :

* Molecular and Regulatory Biochemistry
* Medical Microbiology
* General Pathology
* Human Neurobiology
* Doctoring
* Brain and Behavior

YEAR 3 COURSES :

* Neurologic Pathophysiology
* Systemic Pathology
* Integrated Pathophysiology :
Pharmacology
Cardio/Nutrition
Pulmonary
Hematology
Renal/Nutrition
* Introduction to Clinical Medicine
* Systemic Pathology
* Integrated Pathophysiology:
Pharmacology
Infectious Diseases
HGRD/Nutrition
Endocrine/Nutrition
Supporting Structures
* Epidemiology for the Practice of Medicine

CLINICAL YEARS :

* Clerkship in Medicine
* Clerkship in Surgery
* Clerkship in Pediatrics
* Clerkship in Obstetrics/Gynecology
* Clerkship in Psychiatry
* Clerkship in Community Health
* Clerkship in Family Medicine
* Selectives
* Subinternships

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