Legacy Curriculum: Human Biology & Disease

Human Biology and Disease

The block-based medical school curriculum for years one and two have been designed to increase integration of normal human biology with disease processes and clinical skills from the first week of medical school onward. Basic science is taught in the context of its application with planned reiteration. Instruction is coordinated throughout sequentially taught blocks.

Characteristics of Human Biology and Disease

• Instruction is driven by cases explored via problem-based learning, laboratories, conferences, clinical skills workshops, and independent study accompanied by approximately 10 hours of lecture a week.
• Contact time is limited to 24 hours a week to allow time for independent study and electives.
• All but one of the thematic blocks are taught in two "passes". There is planned redundancy as well as progressive depth and expectations of competency. Most blocks are 9 weeks in length.
• Curricular Threads are woven into the fabric of each block and include:
  • Anatomy, Histopathology, and Embryology 
    • Chair: Elena Stark, MD, PhD, Pathology 
  • Biochemistry 
    • Chair: Esteban Dell'Angelica, PhD, Human Genetics 
  • Clinical Reasoning 
    • Chair: David Schriger, MD, Medicine/Emergency Medicine 
  • Doctoring
    • Year 1 Chair: Rachel Brook, MD, Medicine 
    • Year 1 Associate Chair: Grace Deukmedjian, MD, Medicine
    • Year 2 Chair: Arthur Gomez, MD, Medicine 
  • Clinical Skills
    • Year 1 Co-Chairs: 
      • Magdalena Ptaszny, MD, Medicine 
      • Tyler Larsen, MD, Medicine
      •  Michael Lazarus, MD, Medicine
    • Year 2 Chair: Robert Oye, MD, Medicine  
  • Genetics and Genomics 
    • Chair: Sulagna Saitta, MD
  • Ophthalmology
    • Chair: Gary Holland, MD, Medicine
  • Pharmacology
    • Chair: William Melega, PhD, Molecular & Medical Pharmacology 
  • Preceptorship
    • Year 2 Chair: Robert Oye, MD, Medicine 
  • Special issues are addressed across the medical school curriculum in all four years
    • Cancer prevention and survivorship
    • Complementary and alternative medicine
    • Cultural components of health and disease
    • Gender-specific health
    • Geriatrics
    • Nutrition
    • Professionalism
  • Progress through this curriculum is evaluated with computer based exams and clinical performance exams at the end of each block. Weekly self-assessment quizzes during each block allow students to track their understanding and adjust study practices or emphasis as indicated.

Year 1

Block 1: HB&D 401 Foundations of Medicine I (9 Weeks)

Pathologic processes, genetics, molecular and cellular biology, basic immunology, and critical appraisal.

Chairs:

• Chandra Smart, MD, Pathology 
• Bernard Ribalet, PhD, Physiology

Block 2: Cardiovascular, Renal, and Respiratory Medicine I (10 weeks)

Anatomy, histopathology, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, imaging, and selected pathophysiologic mechanisms plus clinical assessment of these systems.

Chairs:

• Christopher Cooper, MD, Medicine/Pulmonology 
• Holly Middlekauff, MD, Medicine/Cardiology

Block 3: Gastrointestinal, Endocrine, and Reproductive Medicine I (9 weeks)

Anatomy, histopathology, biochemistry, nutrition, genetics, and selected pathophysiologic mechanisms, coupled with clinical assessment of these systems.

Chairs: 

• Rashmi Mullur, MD, VAGLAHS Endocrinology
• Esteban Dell'Angelica, PhD, Human Genetics

Block 4: Musculoskeletal Medicine (6 weeks)

Anatomy, imaging, histopathology, pathophysiology and pharmacology related to this system with a focus on rheumatology and physical medicine.

Chairs:

• Quynh Pham, MD, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Madhuri Wadehra, PhD, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Block 5: Medical Neurosciences I (6 weeks)

Neuroanatomy, histopathology, neurobiology, neurology, imaging, pharmacology, pathophysiology, and clinical assessment of the neurological systems

Chairs:

• Carolyn Houser, PhD, Neurobiology 
• Chris DeGiorgio, MD, Neurology

Year 2 Courses

Block 6: Foundations of Medicine II (9 weeks)

Basic pharmacology; microbes, host defense, and immunity; immune disorders; clinical trials & epidemiology; infectious diseases, including classification of pathogens & therapeutics; cancer, including classification, causes & therapeutics of other blood disorders.

Chairs: 

• Omai Garner, PhD, Pathology  
• Tara Vijayan, MD, Medicine/Infectious Diseases

Block 7: Medical Neurosciences II (6 weeks)

Neuroanatomy, neurobiology, psychopathology, neurology, and psycho pharmacology.

Chair: Misty C. Richards, MD, Psychiatry

Block 8: Gastrointestinal, Endocrine, & Reproductive Medicine II (8 weeks)

Endocrinology; reproductive health & disease; breast; GI diseases; gender-specific diseases; skin diseases; common infectious diseases; therapeutics; and prevention, including nutrition.

Chairs:

• Jane Weinreb, MD, Medicine/Endocrinology 
• Catia Sternini, MD, Medicine/ Digestive Disease/ Gastroenterology

Block 9: Cardiovascular, Renal & Respiratory Medicine II (8 weeks)

Pathology & pathophysiology of these systems; including hypertension, developmental disorders; therapeutics - pharmaceuticals and other treatments; clinical trials & epidemiology; prevention; common infectious agents.

Chairs:

• Jason Napolitano, MD, Medicine/General Internal Medicine 
• Michael Sopher, MD, Anesthesiology

Core Clinical Clerkships

Grading is a 4-tier system: Honors- High Pass- Pass- Fail in the clinical medical school curriculum effective with students who matriculated in Fall 2014.

Transition to Clerkships

The third year begins with a two-week foundations course, Transition to Clerkships (formerly known as Clinical Foundations), is designed to provide students the key elements for success in the clinical clerkships. Course lectures, simulation, and skill building help students bridge previous knowledge and skills with new concepts, practices, expectations, and attitudes that they will encounter on their upcoming clinical rotations. 

Chairs:

• Areti Tillou, MD
• Antonio Pessegueiro, MD

Core Clinical Clerkships

Transition to Clerkships is followed by 48 weeks of core clerkships, each of which includes an orientation period to prepare students with the clinical skills needed in the specific rotation. Click on the Clerkship to learn more about their sites, leadership, and their educational course objectives.

• Clerkship Directors and Coordinators (Excel)
• Clerkship Required Clinical Experiences

Clerkship sites, leadership, and educational course objectives.

• Ambulatory Internal Medicine Clerkship  
• Emergency Medicine 
• Family Medicine
• Inpatient Internal Medicine
• Neurology
• Obstetrics and Gynecology 
• Pediatrics 
• Psychiatry
• Surgery 

Three longitudinal courses continue throughout the year:

Longitudinal Preceptorship - Students spend two afternoons a month with a community-based outpatient preceptor to improve skills in clinical assessment and explore possible career choices.

Chair: Tahlia Spector, MD

Longitudinal Radiology - Core topics in radiology are included in the didactic sessions for each of the clerkships and include an emphasis on the use of imaging as diagnostic and treatment modalities.

Chair: Theodore R. Hall, MD

Systems Based Health Care (SBHC) - Small groups of students meet twice a month to develop an understanding of the dimensions of the health care system and implications for patient care, access to care, and interprofessional collaborative practice.

Chair: Margaret Stuber, MD

If needed, please use the policies and procedures outlined in this document to request an alternative site/team: 

Clinical Performance Examination (CPX)

Phase II ends with a required Clinical Performance Examination (CPX). All students are required to complete and pass the examination which consists of eight clinical cases which are decided on by the California Consortium for the Assessment of Clinical Competence, CCACC. 

Each case is portrayed by standardized patients and requires a focused work up and is followed by a written exercise. Individual feedback is provided for purposes of improving history taking, physical examination, information sharing, and patient/doctor relationship skills. 

Chairs:

• Estebes Hernandez, MD
• Daniel Kahn, MD

 

4th Year Colleges

Faculty members and students interested in common career activities are grouped into academic colleges based on differing approaches to clinical reasoning and diagnostic approaches.

The Colleges

Students must successfully complete Phase II Curriculum before proceeding to Phase III.

Faculty members and students interested in common career activities are grouped into academic colleges based on differing approaches to clinical reasoning and diagnostic approaches. Medical students select one of five colleges during the latter part of their third year based on career interest or enrollment in special programs. The colleges are designed to:

• strengthen career advising
• improve the quality and selection of electives
• provide a means of honing clinical skills
• stimulate discussion of new findings in the basic, social, and clinical sciences relevant to the future practice of medicine

College activities include an introductory course focused on advanced clinical skills and decision making, a monthly series of evening seminars, a longitudinal academic activity that can be either teaching or scholarship, and regular advisory meetings.

Acute Care College

The mission of the Acute Care College is to provide mentorship, foster time-based decision-making, broaden the clinical correlation of Physiology, Anatomy and Pharmacology to Acute Care, and probe ethical and psychosocial aspects of crisis management.

The medical school curriculum consists of the week-long Foundations Course at the beginning of the senior year and a series of monthly meetings that address:

• didactic sessions focusing on acute management
• career preparation seminars
• physician well-being and life strategies after medical school.

Typical careers represented by the Acute Care College:

• Anesthesiology
• Emergency Medicine
• Adult Critical Care (Cardiology, Pulmonary Medicine and Hospitalist)
• Pediatric Critical Care (Cardiology and Neonatology).

Co-Chairs: Ed Ha, MD and Tomer Begaz, MD

Vice Chairs: Jaime Jordan, MD, Alexandra Glaeser, MD and Jennifer Nguyen-Lee, MD

Applied Anatomy College 

The mission of the Applied Anatomy College is to develop the knowledge and skills to support a career choice in those specialties in which expertise in anatomy is critical. The typical careers in the College of Applied Anatomy are Surgery and the Surgical Subspecialties (i.e. General, Gynecology, Head & Neck, Neurosurgery, Oncology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Plastics, Thoracic, Urology and Vascular); Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and Pathology. The unifying theme is anatomical implications in medical practice. The faculty and students of the College of Applied Anatomy are committed to the development of knowledge and skills that will support the choice of a career in those specialties in which expertise in anatomy is critical to competency. Through organized activities, including personal advising and counseling, the college will create a meaningful adjunctive program for the medical school for its fourth-year students.

Co-Chairs: Formosa Chen, MD and Christian de Virgilio, MD

Vice Chairs:  Devon Jeffcoat, MD and Aparna Sridhar, MD

Academic Medicine College 

The mission of the Academic Medicine College is to develop an individualized educational pathway for those students who are considering a career in subspecialty Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, or Pathology; or for students who have remained actively engaged in research, enjoyed their STTP summer research project but have not had a chance to continue, or who are considering some type of academic career involving research and teaching. Members of this college include all specialties, including surgical specialties, with a focus on academics. 

Co-Chairs: Rachel Brook, MD and Marmar Vaseghi, MD

Vice Chair: John Lee, MD

Primary Care College

Primary care is the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community.   The Primary Care College’s mission is to train students to continue to attain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to become excellent generalists who are committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of medicine including an emphasis on patient-centered care; wellness, and preventive care; the provision of timely and high-quality medical care; delivering cost-effective health care; promoting health education; delivery of innovative healthcare;  and striving for high levels of patient satisfaction. Members of the Primary Care College include, but are not limited to, those with interests in General Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Psychiatry.  As a part of the College, the faculty provide intensive mentoring for students applying for their residency positions, opportunities in the community and service-learning activities, exposure to public health and public policy, and mentoring on research and other scholarly projects during the fourth year to prepare for Senior Scholarship Day.

Chair: Allison Diamant, MD

Vice Chairs: Rebecca Dudovitz, MD and Daniel T. Lee, MD

Drew Urban Underserved College

Students enrolled in the Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program have selected the Urban/Underserved College at the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science for their fourth year. The Urban/Underserved College is committed to providing excellent didactic and practical training, and career counseling for individuals interested in serving urban, underserved populations. Students enrolled in the College also complete a longitudinal research thesis project. While the overall theme of the thesis project is to eliminate health care disparities, students have wide latitude to choose research projects and mentors across a spectrum of specialties with application to underserved communities. The fourth-year medical students present their research thesis results at the Annual Medical Student Research Colloquium. The Chair of the Urban/Underserved College is charged with planning scholarly and mentorship activities and career counseling. College activities include clinical skills workshops, mentorship support program, dinner seminars, and community service.

Chair: Cesar Barba, MD 

College Requirements

College Evening Seminars

The colleges will be holding a series of evening seminars addressing multiple topics throughout the senior year. They will focus on a number of subjects, ranging from preparation for the residency application process, to the development of advanced clinical skills to the discussion of issues related, to career development and health policy, to name just a few. All senior students must attend 6 total evening seminars throughout the year. This is a graduation requirement and students will be asked to document the evening seminars that they attended.

Individual College Requirements

In addition to the aforementioned requirements, each college has specific requirements as well. These are covered during the Intro to Colleges mandatory class meeting in the third-year.

College Requirements

Senior Scholarship

All senior students are required to submit an abstract and present a poster based on individual scholarly work for Senior Scholarship Day (point to new Senior Scholarship Day page). This may be ongoing work that the student has done or a new project. In addition to traditional clinical and basic science research, scholarly work can include quality improvement or medical education projects, case reports, or other scholarly work done with a faculty mentor. Any questions regarding the selection of an appropriate scholarly project can be reviewed with the College Chairs. The College Chairs will also work with those students who want to develop a new project for the year and will provide guidance on preparing for a presentation on Senior Scholarship Day.

Senior Scholarship Day

Foundations for Fourth Year

As a required foundations course, all senior students must successfully complete this one-week course to graduate and enroll in 300- and 400-level coursework. This course is the first week of the MS4 curriculum and focuses on the development and reinforcement of core clinical skills that will be used in sub-internship rotations. The attendance policy for this course can be found in the Medical Student Handbook.

Elective Coursework

The required number of weeks required of MS4 electives will depend on the length of core clerkships that you have completed.  The total number of core clerkship weeks plus electives should equal 78 weeks (for example, if you completed 48 weeks of core clerkships, then you need 30 weeks of electives). You can review your progress towards meeting degree requirements in MyCourses.

• 12 weeks must be sub-internship coursework; 300 and 400 level UCLA electives listed in MyCourses of which:

• 3 weeks must be a 300 level clerkship of consecutive weeks
• 3 weeks must be a 400 level clerkship of consecutive weeks
• 3 weeks can be either a 300 or 400 level clerkship of consecutive weeks
• 3 consecutive weeks of a College Approved ICU Elective & ICU Exam. All senior students are required to complete a three-week, 400-level Intensive Care Unit rotation from a list of approved rotations. To pass the ICU rotation, students must successfully complete a simulation and written exam on the final day of the ICU rotation. Students may not request an excused absence for the day of the ICU examination.
• 6 of the 30 weeks may be non-clinical coursework (i.e. 100 level coursework or research, 600 level)

Elective Designations 

 4th-year elective designations (PDF) 

Elective Proposals

Please submit the 4th Year Elective proposal form through Qualtrics.

New elective proposals will be sent to the appropriate Director of 4th Year Medical Education for review and approval then reviewed and approved by the Medical Education Committee (MEC) semiannually. We recommend that all new elective submissions are submitted by the October 1st deadline to have the approved electives listed and scheduled for the following academic year’s Course Catalog. The courses approved in April will be announced to the students via email as this is a late add.

For example, if an elective proposal was submitted on October 1st, 2021 and is approved, this course will be added to the 2022-2023 Course Catalog, where students will select the courses in December 2021 before the lottery.

If an elective proposal was submitted on April 1st, 2022, and is approved, this course will be announced to the current MS4 for the manual enrollment process.

Submission Deadline

Review Month

Approved Course Added

October 1st

October MEC Meeting

Following academic year

April 1st

April MEC Meeting

Current academic year

4th Year Elective proposal Form

Assessment for Internship

DGSOM's capstone foundation course. This week-long course is designed to assess proficiency in key skills and activities that will be vital to functioning as a resident physician from the first day of internship. All students must complete this course to graduate. The Clerkship Attendance Policy for this course can be found in the Medical Student Handbook.