Didactic Phase

Curriculum

PISCE – Principles Integrating Science, Clinical Medicine and Equity

PISCEs is a longitudinal integrated set of seven courses during the didactic phase of the curriculum that prepares students with the medical knowledge needed to care for patients. It integrates foundational science, pathophysiology and disease management. The course is broken into 3 foundational modules followed by 8 systems-based (e.g., cardiovascular, neurology/psychiatry) modules. Woven into each of these modules are longitudinal threads which include oncology, infectious disease, anatomy, microbiology, pharmacology and pathology, as well as health equity curricular themes.   PISCE 7 is the last 10 weeks of the didactic curriculum contains Integration Weeks which focus on integrated cases based on the BUSM Core patient presentations that revisits prior foundational, clinical, and social science content in patient cases to help students consolidate and integrate the material. In PISCES 7,  students are immersed each week in patient cases that begin with a patient presentation to a clinic or ED and then evolve over a week where students navigate patient signs, symptoms, labs and imaging to again connect foundational science to patient data they will see in the clinical phase.  These cases also have a goal of introducing students to patient cases that are representative of our patient population at Boston Medical Center, our primary teaching hospital.

SCORE – Social Concentration and Outreach Research Experience

The SCORE courses further develop the health equity themes from PISCEs and provide the framework and curriculum to prepare students for caring for a wide variety of students including vulnerable populations.

PA Specific Courses

PA Program will continue to have the following courses in the didactic phase – GMS PS 742 & 743 Clinical Practicum 1 & 2, GMS PS 745 Preventive Medicine, GMS PS 703 Introduction to Research, GMS PS 704 Introduction to Clinical Medicine and GMS PS 800 Advanced Clinical Medicine to provide PA students with PA specific education and professional identity, and to meet PA specific educational requirements.

Highlights

• All cases are based on real patient cases and integrate teaching about our unique populations highlighting knowledge and skills needed to address our curricular key themes and populations.
• Students collaborate in small groups to solve clinical problems, simulating the “clinical team” in medical practice.
• The PISCEs curriculum uses multiple instructional design strategies to support active learning, peer learning and team development.
• Patient cases which emphasize foundational science concepts presented in prior weeks to help students re-integrate content from multiple systems previously presented.
• Health equity is a key theme throughout the curriculum in both PISCES and SCORE.

Assessment

Mastery of medical knowledge and development of clinical reasoning are assessed using multiple choice exams, journal club assignments, and preceptor evaluations. Clinical competencies such as history taking, physical examination, oral presentation, professionalism, and medical record writing are assessed using preceptor and faculty observation and written assignments.