Why a System-based Curriculum?

In response to several national trends in medical education and healthcare as well as the research, recommendations, and subsequent discussions of the Curriculum 2020, Education Task Force, and Working Group on Clinical Skills Education, the School of Medicine is creating a system-based curriculum that is more content-integrated, learner-centered, and clinical performance-oriented. Specific reasons for this change include:
  1. Scientific (i.e. evidence-based) teaching and learning decisions create learner-centered classrooms and more significant learning experiences which, in turn, lead to better academic outcomes.

  2. Cognitive psychology has demonstrated that teaching, practicing, and assessing knowledge and skills in the context in which they will be used leads to better recall and application. The learning of medicine then should occur within a clinical context or framework to energize students and improve retention of knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

  3. The USMLE Gateway Format will result in a more integrative and competency based licensure examination program. The USMLE redesign will lead to a substantial increase in and emphasis on fundamental medical science in clinical contexts as well as clinical decision making based "on the doctor's ability to access relevant information, evaluate its quality, and apply it to solving clinical problems" (see Comprehensive Review of USMLE and USMLE Moves to Next Step in Design Review).

  4. The Curriculum 2020, Education Task Force, and Working Group on Clinical Skills have uniformly called for a content-integrated and learner-centered curriculum that develops the competencies required of a contemporary physcian.

  5. The LCME expects an integrated, outcome-based medical education curricula comprised of well-defined learning objectives and active learning activities and appropriate assessments of students' clinical competencies. Medical school applicants have similar expectations.

     
  6. The shift to an integrated, systems-based medical curriculum represents a national trend and is certainly not unique to the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Scores of medical schools have already or are currently creating system-based system curricula and/or incorporating active learning into each phase of medical education. Visit the Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, University of Pittsburgh, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, University of Vermont, and Yale University websites to read about a few of them.