HEALS - Phase 2
Core Clerkships
Elevating Medical Education Through Experience
Phase 2 offers students a transformative opportunity to put their learning into practice. Through clinical clerkships, continued scientific exploration, and focused intersessions, students advance their journey through a rigorous and immersive medical education. This stage of the medical school curriculum prepares them not only for Phase 3 but for a lifetime of compassionate, skilled patient care.
Clerkships Bridge Medical Curriculum & Experience In Patient Care
Phase 2 of the David Geffen School of Medicine’s medical school curriculum immerses students in hands-on clinical training through core clerkships, continued scientific learning, and emerging topics. This phase represents a critical step in a student’s medical education, bridging foundational knowledge from Phase 1 with real-world application in diverse healthcare settings.
In Phase 2, students begin Intersessions and eight required core clerkships that provide foundational knowledge and exposure to key areas of clinical medicine. These clerkships form the foundation of an integrated medical education, helping students refine diagnostic reasoning, clinical decision-making, and patient communication skills.
Core Clerkships Providing Foundational Knowledge & Experiences
| Clerkship | Duration | Clerkship Chairs |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency Medicine | 4 weeks | Max Berger, MD & Tiglath Ziyeh, MD |
| Family Medicine | 4 Weeks | Olivia Ishibashi, MD, MPH & Thalia Nguyen, MD |
| Medicine | 8 Weeks | Tyler Larsen, MD & Mark Munekata, MD |
| Neurology | 4 Weeks | Cara Siegel, MD |
| OB-GYN | 4 Weeks | Aparna Sridhar, MD, MPH |
| Pediatrics | 4 Weeks | Amanda Kosack, MD & Deborah Lehman, MD |
| Psychiatry | 4 Weeks | Brandon Ito, MD, MPH |
| Surgery | 8 Weeks | Ian MacQueen, MD & Justin Wagner, MD, FAAP |
Diverse Clerkship Training Sites
A rich network of educational experiences at affiliate hospitals, community clinics, and practices all over Southern California. These diverse training environments ensure that students are exposed to a wide range of experiences, enriching their medical education.
DGSOM-Affiliated Hospitals for Clerkships
Intersessions and VISTA+
Intersessions is a series of courses integrated throughout clerkship year that helps students strengthen their clinical knowledge and core clinical skills before they enter their clerkships. These mandatory curricular periods provide dedicated time to consolidate learning, integrate longitudinal themes of the curriculum, reflect and improve upon clinical practice, and explore opportunities for future scholarship and advocacy without disrupting clinical duties.
In addition, Intersession VISTA is a distinct course that examines the broader forces that shape clinical practice. Through the lens of their clerkship experiences, students in this course engage with topics including value-based healthcare, patient safety & quality improvement, interprofessional teamwork & communication, healthcare systems, healthcare technology (including artificial intelligence), and the arts & humanities in medicine.
Intersessions and VISTA Course Director: Antonio Pessegueiro, MD