Master & Longitudinal Course Update
Populations & Methods
- Preparatory materials are available for the Populations & Methods qualifier, which opens on Wednesday, May 24th. There will be 50 multiple choice questions, approximately a third of which will focus on public health, the balance of which cover methods topics (epidemiology and biostatistics), including interpretation of SPSS software output.
- There will be two practice quizzes posted (10 questions each). Quiz 1 covers sessions 1-5, and it is available now. Quiz 2, which covers the balance of the sessions, will be available by the end of next week. The Biostatistics Problem Sets, focusing on the latter topics, are available now at: Biostatistics Problem Sets - Populations & Methods (Requires VPN). Answer keys to all sessions will be posted prior to the qualifier.
- The remaining sessions explore public health dimensions of sexually transmitted infections (May 17th) and the impact of climate change on public health and medicine (May 24th). The associated methods topics are statistical power, correlation, and regression. There is an SPSS Lab with each session that takes up the week’s statistical subject matter. As previously, the labs are framed as quantitative health equity exercises, developed in partnership with the Health Equity Thread.
Energy & Metabolism
You are now in the endocrinology portion of the course. The course will hold a simulation session on Tuesday, May 23rd. The course will conclude on Friday, June 2nd, with an Advisory Group meeting that day. The qualifier opens Friday, June 2nd and closes Tuesday, June 6th.
Career Lunches
A Family Medicine Career Lunch will be held on May 18th.
An Energy & Metabolism Career Lunch will be held on June 1st.
Pre-Clerkship Questions
If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about the Pre-Clerkship curriculum, please contact the Pre-Clerkship Co-Directors Dr. Pete Takizawa and Dr. Michael DiGiovanna, or the Manager of the Pre-Clerkship period, Marion Miller.
Clinical Skills Course - MS1s
You’ve spent the last many weeks of class discussing how to apply and adapt your general H&P skills to specific populations. Some of these sessions came with a lot of reading! We recognize that you may have skipped some of the pre-class preparation due to competing demands (other courses, P-OSCE studying, etc.). This is a tension that will never go away – there is always more to read and study in medicine! If you missed a reading assignment, take note of it, and carve out time to catch up when other things slow down. Reading after a patient experience (real or simulated) is just as important as reading beforehand. Your next patient will be thankful for the knowledge you’ve gained.
The focus of class on May 18th and May 25th will shift back to hands-on physical exam practice, layering in clinical reasoning and point-of-care ultrasound. You are all facile with the head-toe-physical because of your P-OSCE preparation, and these sessions will add some more advanced PE content. In small groups with your classmates, you will work through cases, decide which maneuvers are most relevant, and practice those maneuvers with ultrasound on hand to highlight the anatomy and physiology. Refer to BlueDogs for specifics about timing, attire, and equipment. Ultrasound gel is easy to get out of clothing, but whether you are scanning or being scanned, you may be more comfortable with clothing that can get gel on it. Scrubs are perfect!
You’ll wrap up year 1 in CS with a Self-Directed Learning exercise on either May 25th or May 30th. Refer to the description of this activity in the P-OSCE handbook and in BlueDogs. During this session, you will get feedback on a skill that you will use every day during clerkships. The discussion will only work if you have done the pre-work and brought your answers with you!
If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about the CS curriculum please contact Dr. Jaideep Talwalkar or Tracy Yale or any of your CS faculty.