About the Curriculum

Housestaff learn to assess and manage common ambulatory problems through their office experiences under the supervision and guidance of their faculty preceptors. To enhance this clinical experience, we have developed a literature-based syllabus that covers a wide span of primary care topics, known as the Yale Office-based Medicine Curriculum. The curriculum provides an evidence-based approach for what we clinically practice and supplements practical experience with a didactic foundation, particularly in the case of unusual conditions that a housestaff might encounter only rarely, and provides updates when new developments occur in therapy or standards of care.

Currently in its Tenth Edition, the curriculum includes two complementary syllabi:

• A Housestaff Guide composed of topical cases, questions, and bibliography of key references;
• A Faculty Guide, which also includes suggested teaching points and answers to the questions.

At our institution, the curriculum is used in our internal medicine and medicine/pediatrics residencies. Each semester, housestaff receive a six-month syllabus covering 24 cases with related questions, and one or more high quality, peer-reviewed articles. Over three years of training, housestaff will be exposed to a compendium of 144 different topics as part of the rotating syllabus of six volumes, one per semester. The cornerstones of this curriculum are the realistic, challenging cases and related questions prepared by Yale faculty, which emphasize practical aspects of diagnosis or management. These exercises prompt not only information recall, but also higher order cognitive skills, such as solving problems, evaluating new information, and making judgments. Topics range from "bread and butter" internal medicine - such as chronic management of diabetes, hypertension, and prevention - to subspecialty areas, such as orthopedics, rheumatology, and dermatology. Each semester includes chapters relevant to current practice, such as coding, ethics and professionalism, or economic aspects of medicine. Each volume also includes recent therapeutic advances and, if relevant, areas of new controversy.

This curriculum is actively updated every six months (in late June and late December) when a new volume is released. We welcome all suggestions, questions, and corrections.

If you are looking for the pediatric version of this educational program, visit the Yale Primary Care Pediatrics Curriculum.

Housestaff and faculty are expected to read the primary references for each module prior to clinic attendance each week. Faculty are also encouraged to review the “answer key” contained in the moderator’s version, which contains suggested answers to all questions posed, teaching pearls, and suggestions for group exercises to reinforce key points. Advance preparation will minimize the amount of didactic information to be covered during conference and encourage more in-depth discussion of the questions posed in the cases. The Preceptor version “answer key” is not available to housestaff. The goals of the moderator should be to initiate lively discussion of the questions posed, eliciting input from all participants.

Faculty or designated housestaff will moderate discussion during each conference session. When pre-assigned to moderate the discussion, housestaff will have obtained a copy of the moderator’s version via email or from the Chief Residents or clinic faculty. Sessions are designed to fit into a 30-minute block. Housestaff moderators are encouraged to speak to clinic faculty in advance of each session, and/or seek feedback afterward, to review effective techniques for small group teaching.

Questions or comments about the curriculum in general should be sent via email to seonaid.hay@va.gov .

Housestaff are expected to read the Recommended References for each module prior to clinic attendance each week. Advance preparation will minimize the amount of didactic information to be covered during conference and encourage more in-depth discussion of the questions posed in the cases. Bound-paper copies of all materials will be available in the conference room for reference.

Designated housestaff or faculty will moderate discussion during each conference session. When pre-assigned to moderate the discussion, housestaff should obtain a copy of the moderator’s version which contains suggested answers to all questions posed, teaching pearls, and suggestions for group exercises to reinforce key points. A copy of the moderator’s version will be sent to moderators via email, but can also be obtained from the Chief Residents or clinic faculty. Sessions are designed to fit into a 30-minute block. Housestaff moderators are encouraged to speak to clinic faculty in advance of each session, and/or seek feedback afterwards, to review effective techniques for small group teaching.

Note that in the housestaff version of the curriculum, resource links at the end of each article link into the library database, and in order to access the files you will have to connect through VPN or on a proxy server.

Questions or comments about the curriculum in general should be sent via email to seonaid.hay@va.gov

Yale Office-based Medicine Curriculum
Eleventh Edition, Volume 4

Published by Yale University School of Medicine.
All original modules © 2022 Yale University Department of Medicine.
All rights reserved.

Bound edition printed by Yale Printing and Publishing, New Haven, CT.

Any use of the Yale Office-based Medicine Curriculum content or works derived from them should be attributed to the original Yale faculty member and Yale University.

For Attribution, please use the following format:

(Author), 2022. (chapter title). In Yale Office-based Medicine Curriculum, eds. Seonaid F. Hay, Laura M. Whitman, Katherine Gielissen, Benjamin Gallagher, 11th edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University. https://medicine.yale.edu/intmed/obm/

Example:

Holt, Stephen, 2022. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. In Yale Office-based Medicine Curriculum, eds. Seonaid F. Hay, Laura M. Whitman, Katherine Gielissen, Benjamin Gallagher, 11th edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University. https://medicine.yale.edu/intmed/obm/

Please review the following legal documents before using the online curriculum:

• Licensing Agreement
• Course License Agreement
• Terms of Use