M.D. Curriculum Year-By-Year

The first year of SLU SOM’s curriculum starts with the foundations phase and begins building your core medical knowledge. Coursework in the foundations phase of your training is designed to provide you with the fundamentals of biomedical sciences necessary for medical practice. 

It includes the following courses:

• EPI 100: Epidemiology and Biostatistics
• HCE 101: Foundations in Health Care Ethics
• MD 100: Professional and Personal Development I
• MED 100: Molecular Foundations in Medicine
• MED 101: Clinical Interviewing
• MED 102: Clinical Diagnosis
• MED 103: Leadership in the Business of Medicine
• MED 104: Medicine & Society
• MED 105: Foundations of Patient Safety
• MED 110: NSF-Musculoskeletal
• MED 120: NSF-Thorax & Head
• MED 130: NSF-Abdomen & Pelvis
• MED 140: Introduction to Pathology
• MED 150: Principles of Immunology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics
• MED 160: Brain & Behavior
• MED 170: Cardiovascular System
• MED 200: Hematology
• MED 210: Respiratory System
• MIM 100: Introduction to Medical Information Management 
• RMED 101: Bench to Bedside

In addition to these courses, you will have the opportunity to explore your specific interests through opportunities and exposure to basic science research, clinical research, shadowing physicians, or other activities.

SLU SOM’s second-year curriculum continues the core knowledge, focusing on organ systems in health and disease for the first six months. Year Two also expands your training in the skills of medical history taking, physical diagnosis, and introduces you to more aspects of the broader environment in which medicine is practiced.

The core knowledge phase continues in Year Two with the following courses:

• HCE 201: Clinical Reasoning in Health Care Ethics
• MD 200: Special Study for Exams
• MD 202: Professional and Personal Development II
• MED 202: Clinical Diagnosis
• MED 203: Leadership in the Business of Medicine
• MED 204: Medicine & Society
• MED 205: Fundamentals of Quality Improvement
• MED 220: Renal-Urinary System
• MED 230: Gastrointestinal System
• MED 240: Endocrine and Reproductive System
• MED 250: Skin, Bone and Joint Module

To prepare students for the USMLE Step 1 exam, SLU SOM invests in testing students with NBME-customized exams for each of the organ modules.

Students must take and successfully pass USMLE Step 1 prior to progressing to the Clerkship Phase.

The clerkship phase marks the beginning of your full-time clinical experience. SLU SOM designed its clerkship phase curriculum to include seven core clerkships with an associated NBME shelf exam. In addition, there are two two-week career exploration electives. Career exploration fields are fields that are not covered in the seven core clerkships. They include but are not limited to anesthesiology, dermatology, diagnostic radiology, emergency medicine, radiation oncology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, etc. Research is also accepted as career exploration.

The order of your core clerkships and career exploration fields will be determined by lottery, but every student will complete the following courses as part of the core clerkship phase. The core clerkships and the required weeks for those clerkships are listed below.

• MD 301: Clerkship Orientation (one week)
• FCM 301: Family and Community Medicine (six weeks)
• IM 301: Internal Medicine (eight weeks)
• N 301: Neurology (four weeks)
• OB 301: Obstetrics and Gynecology (six weeks)
• PED 301: Pediatrics (six weeks)
• PS 301: Psychiatry (four weeks)
• S 301: Surgery (eight weeks)

All students must complete all seven Core Clerkships, including the NBME shelf exam associated with the clerkship, the two Career Exploration electives, and the longitudinal classes listed below to fulfill the Clerkship phase requirements: 

1. MD-301 Introduction to Core Clerkships (Orientation Week)
2. MIM-301: Medical Information Management Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)
3. MD-303: Personal and Professional Development III

Clerkships

The first day of each clerkship includes an orientation to the course. Each clerkship has an education coordinator, who will manage your schedule while in their clerkship, assign faculty and residents to evaluate your performance, and will serve as your primary contact for all administrative issues related to the clerkship.

Detailed Clerkship Information

The pre-residency phase, which begins at the end of the seven required clerkships, is where you will begin to explore areas of specialization in medicine, through electives, sub-internships, ambulatory medicine and emergency medicine rotations.

Required coursework for Year Four includes

USMLE Step 2 CK

The first post-clerkship requirement is the successful completion of USMLE Step 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge).

Acting Internship

Students are expected to "act" or serve the departmental teams as if they were interns in the department. They have the admission requirements, ward duties, transfer of care responsibilities, and consultation follow-up duties of an intern. It is a time of great growth and is highly regarded. Many of our students take more than one acting internship in preparation for their graduate medical education.

Ambulatory Medicine Clerkship

The majority of the post-clerkship phase is academic hospital-based. Students are reminded of the reality that much of medicine is practiced in an outpatient setting. Students can choose to complete the Ambulatory Medicine Clerkship either in Internal Medicine or Pediatrics. 

Emergency Medicine Clerkship

Although Emergency Medicine is offered as a Career Exploration option, Emergency Medicine has been intentionally placed in the post clerkship phase, after the core clerkships have been completed, due to the unique pedagogical nature of the Emergency Medicine environment. Students are required to have one month of completing histories and physicals of “anything that comes through the door,” fashioning prioritized differential diagnoses and ordering lab tests to quickly rule in or rule out particularly life-threatening diagnoses.

Required Electives (36-weeks)

The post-clerkship phase is primarily directed at refining the clinical skills needed for future graduate medical education (residency and fellowship), as well as the specialization of a student's career development in a particular field. For this reason, the post-clerkship phase has the most freedom for elective choices (9 of the 18 months, or 36 weeks).

There are two types of electives:

• Direct patient care electives, where the primary goal of the elective is the delivery of care in a specific clinical environment, which requires hands-on, on-the-ground engagement from the student.
• Non-direct patient care electives, where the primary goal of the elective is an educational opportunity that does not require specific clinical responsibilities. It is often asynchronous education or research.

To fulfill curricular requirements, students must complete a minimum of 24-weeks of Direct Patient Care Electives (6 months), and a maximum of 12-weeks of Non-Direct Patient Care Electives (3 months), for a total of 36-weeks (9 months). Students may complete all their electives as Direct Patient Care electives. Research electives require oversight and approval by the Primary Investigator. 

Many students will complete elective opportunities in a non-SLU clinical environment due to fields that encourage AWAY (extramural) rotations, or if a student is interested in exploring other academic environments in a field. These electives are primarily offered through the AAMC's VSLO (Visiting Student Learning Opportunities) system. Most AWAY electives are completed at domestic, academic hospital settings.

Two scholarships are offered for fourth-year medical students considering an international elective: Dr. Tom Dooley Memorial International Elective Scholarship Program and the Everett M. Sugarbaker School of Medicine Scholarship Program. The application process begins with the post-clerkship phase. Awards are distributed upon completion of the elective. 

Capstone

SLUSOM has developed—and continues to refine—a focused post‑clerkship curriculum designed to integrate core basic and clinical science knowledge with associated clinical skills cultivated over the four years of medical education, reinforcing the competencies required for graduate medical education.