School Notes: School of Medicine
November/December 2015

School rolls out new curriculum

As the new academic year began, the School of Medicine celebrated the implementation of a new medical curriculum for students. This achievement marks the culmination of years of intensive self-study and planning. In 2008 the school embarked on an education strategic planning process. The final report of the Strategic Planning Committee for Medical Education, published in 2010, called for the medical school to “rebuild the curriculum from the ground up.” Some hallmarks of the new curriculum, which preserves the unique “Yale System” of medical education, include integration of basic and clinical sciences; longitudinal clinical experiences; integrated formative assessment that provides students with actionable feedback; a robust program evaluation; a new clerkship model that begins earlier in the curriculum and integrates across disciplines; and the inclusion of such contemporary topics as health disparities, social justice, quality and safety, and interprofessional education.

US surgeon general, a medical school alum, returns to campus

On September 16, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy ’03MD, ’03MBA, returned to his alma mater for a round of talks taking place at the Schools of Public Health, Management, and Medicine, as well as at Gateway Community College. During his talk for the YSM community titled “The Role of Physicians and Care Providers in Advancing the Nation’s Public Health” (which can be viewed on the Yale YouTube channel), Murthy told students and faculty that the nation is entering a golden age of medicine in which “good health is in the reach of every person [and] physicians are moral leaders who alleviate suffering not only by healing the sick but also by working to prevent illness in their clinics and their communities.” He urged listeners to get involved in bettering the health of our communities through preventative measures as well as on clinical, research, and governmental levels. “If we don’t have health,” he said, “we don’t have anything else.” Murthy was sworn in as the nation’s 19th surgeon general in April 2015, four months after his nomination was approved, making him the youngest person and the first of Indian descent in that role.