Now well into the second year, the Pre-medical Program at WCMC-Q comprises a specially designed series of courses intended to prepare students for the Medical Program that follows.
The two Programs form an integrated whole, although there is a separate admission process for each one. The Pre-medical Program is unusual for being just two years long, rather than the four years more normally associated with undergraduate level studies in North America.
The focus in the first year curriculum is on the sciences basic to medicine - biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics.
In the second year, however, there is a shift of emphasis towards subjects that are more obviously close to medicine, including biochemistry, neuroscience, psychology, human genetics and society, and immunology.
Unusually for an undergraduate program of study, there are also seminar courses in medical ethics, and in clinical correlates, where the relation between science and medicine is explored further. Here, the connection between the pre-medical curriculum and that of the four-year Medical Program is even closer, and teaching is by faculty who also teach courses in the Medical Program.
Indeed, the Pre-medical Program was designed in consultation with department Chairs at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said Dr. David Robertshaw, Associate Dean for Pre-medical Education and professor of physiology. He explained: "it?s important here because we only have two years (for the Pre-medical Program), and therefore we have selected courses with a very specific goal."
Although they give students a very good grounding in areas of science that are particularly important in modern medicine – for example, molecular biology and genetics – the courses do not duplicate material that will be covered in the medical curriculum, Dr. Robertshaw said.
During the fall semester 2003, Dr. Pablo Rodriguez del Pozo, assistant professor of medical ethics at WCMC–Q, conducted a seminar series in medical ethics and the humanities. Covering a range of subjects from the nature of scientific and medical knowledge and the interpersonal dimensions of medicine, to concepts of health and disease, and aspects of resource allocation in healthcare, it was intended to give 2nd year students an introduction to the humanistic component of medicine, and to prepare them to take full advantage of the ethics courses that are part of the medical curriculum, he explained.
The course, which was designed specifically for the Pre–medical Program at WCMC-Q, also aims to develop students’ capacity for rational discussion, to work as part of a team, and to write effectively – qualities that are essential for medical practitioners, Dr. Rodriguez del Pozo commented.
He noted that the seminars complement the psychology course that 2nd year students take during the same semester: "there are synergies between the two courses. I can see that in the students’writing – they draw from the psychology course, and they use some of this material in the ethics course. I hope it works the other way too."
During the spring semester 2004, Dr. Suresh Tate, professor of biochemistry, will teach two related courses that, once again, bring the students close to the study and practice of medicine.
The ‘principles of biochemistry’ lecture course looks at the chemistry of life: molecules, their structure and chemical nature, and how they are related to biological functions. It will be complemented by seminars in clinical correlates, in which he will discuss the relation between the biochemistry covered in the lectures and a number of diseases.
Dr. Tate explained that topics for discussion may include sickle cell anemia, in which one single mutation in a protein causes øa whole cascade of abnormal reactions;Ó glucose-6-phosphate deficiency, in which a defective enzyme leads to significant clinical symptoms; diabetes, where the regulation of an enzyme is defective; and other diseases such as cystic fibrosis, where he will discuss the possibilities for gene therapy.
The clinical correlates seminars are ølargely our own design,Ó he commented; although they will be more science-based than clinical in approach, the seminars are expressly designed to ease the pre-medical students into the Medical Program, paving the way for what lies ahead.
