OFFICE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY MEDICAL EDUCATION

The Office of Interdisciplinary Medical Education (OIME) is home to some of the most advanced educational offerings available to students of the health professions. OIME coordinates two unique and core components of the GW medical education program: Practice of Medicine (POM) and Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM). Designed to train students to become the best clinicians possible, these OIME programs integrate classroom learning and practical experience from the earliest stages of the education process.

Practice of Medicine (POM) Program

In 1993, an innovative change was introduced to the MD curriculum that has significantly enhanced medical education. A major part of this change involved the creation of a new course, the “Practice of Medicine (POM).” In the POM Program, the conventional division of the curriculum into two years of basic sciences followed by two years of patient care has been replaced by a longitudinal course that integrates the building blocks of a traditional medical education—a strong foundation of basic and clinical sciences—by interweaving them throughout the four-year curriculum.

Today, all medical students are introduced to the clinical setting in the first two years while learning the basic sciences. In the final two years, they “revisit” the basic sciences as they progress through their clinical experiences. The POM course enables and encourages the students to integrate basic science and clinical knowledge while developing their skills in scientific and clinical reasoning.

The POM course spans all four years of the MD curriculum and provides medical students with both early exposure to patients and the means to develop outstanding clinical thinking, interpersonal and technical skills, and professionalism. During the first two years, POM involves three parts:

1. Doctor, Patient and Society (DPS): Consists of small group sessions, comprised of eight students and two faculty mentors. These sessions focus on communication skills, patient interviewing and physical diagnosis. In the third year, the DPS small groups continue to meet. In addition, students are required to complete a year-long scholarly project resulting in a written report suitable for publishing.
2. Clinical Apprenticeship Program (CAP): This two-year continuity experience exposes students to the world of the practicing physician.
3. Small Group Problem-Onentea Case-Based Learning (PCL): This module offers case-based tutorials in a small group format.

Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) is a one-year integrated, organ-based course for medical, physician assistant and nurse practitioner students. The clinical lectures and small-group discussions are coordinated to give an integrated picture of pathophysiology and the natural history of various diseases as they relate to the organ system. ICM emphasizes physical diagnosis and integrates child health and development, clinical problem solving, Dermatology, Gynecology, Internal Medicine and medical subspecialties, Neurology, Obstetrics, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Radiology and Urology. ICM also includes practical experience in hospital-based physical diagnosis.