University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (School of Medicine)

Our mission is to improve the health of North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We will accomplish this by achieving excellence and providing leadership in the interrelated areas of patient care, education, and research.

Patient Care : As a key component of the UNC Health Care System, the School of Medicine will provide superb care to North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We will maintain our strong tradition of reaching underserved populations. Excellence in education and research will enhance our delivery of the very best medical care, which will be presented in an environment that is exceptionally welcoming, collegial, and supportive both for those receiving and those providing the care.

Education : We will achieve excellence in educating tomorrow’s health care professionals and biomedical researchers by providing exceptional support for outstanding teaching and research faculty. We will offer an innovative and integrated curriculum in state-of-the-art facilities. The School will attract the very best students and trainees from highly diverse backgrounds.

Research : We will achieve excellence in research and in its translation to patient care by developing and supporting a rich array of outstanding research programs, centers, and resources. Proximity to the clinical programs of UNC Hospitals, to UNC-Chapel Hill’s other premier health affairs Schools (Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health) and the other departments, schools, and programs on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus affords an exceptional opportunity for innovative, world-class research collaborations.

In all of these missions, we will strive to meet the needs of our local, state, national, and global communities.

The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine has a special opportunity and responsibility to educate physicians who can help meet the health care needs of the state and the nation. Because the size of entering classes is fixed, not all worthy applicants can be admitted. The Admissions Committee, acting for the dean and the faculty, selects students who in its judgment best provide excellence and diversity in the student body.

Our school makes a sincere effort to graduate every matriculated student, and a variety of academic & social support services enhance the overall experience of medical education. Although competition for admission is keen, we encourage a collegial attitude among enrolled students.

The Medical Education Development (MED) Program was established in 1974 to increase opportunities in the health professions for minority and disadvantaged students. It is sponsored by the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, Health Careers Opportunities Programs (Division of Disadvantaged Assistance, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources Administration) and the State of North Carolina. The program offers a structured summer curriculum at the level of professional education to increase the ability of advanced pre-professional candidates, especially those who are disadvantaged, to compete successfully for admission to health professional schools.

The “Department of Medical Allied Health Professions” (DMAHP) was formally established as an academic department of the UNC School of Medicine in 1970.
The seven Divisions that are housed in the Department of Allied Health Sciences represent seven distinct Allied Health disciplines: Clinical Laboratory Science, Cytotechnology, Occupational Science, Physical Therapy, Radiologic Science, Rehabilitation Counseling & Psychology, and Speech and Hearing Sciences. In addition, the DAHS is home for several specialized programs, projects, and labs. These include the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies, and the Center for Human Movement Science. Educational programs include entry level professional certificates, as well as professional degrees at the bachelors, masters and doctoral levels. In addition, the department offers three PhD programs.

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School of Medicine Medical School Location

School of Medicine Courses

FIRST YEAR COURSES

* The Human Body: Molecules to Cells (Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Preclinical Informatics) : Medical diagnosis and treatment relies largely on synthesis of knowledge from diverse scientific fields. Despite this, medical science has traditionally been taught as discrete disciplines such as biochemistry, genetics, and cell and molecular biology. The objective of this course is to integrate these fields into a cohesive approach to learning the cellular and sub-cellular structures and processes which impact health and disease.
The goal of the course is to teach students facts and concepts of medicine that will form a basis for continuing professional life, with an emphasis on the use of electronic resources to access and interpret the latest scientific advances impacting medical practice.
The course will include lectures which address major concepts. The small group active learning sessions will often focus directly on the application of scientific concepts to clinical scenarios. Knowledge and skills taught in this course are selected to provide a
foundation and will be revisited during subsequent blocks of the first year and beyond. Each block will build on the previous just as medical knowledge builds on itself over a lifetime of practice and learning.

* The Human Body: Structure & Development (Anatomy, Embryology, Radiology) : Knowledge of the anatomical structure and embryonic development of the human body provides a foundation for subsequent basic science courses, clinical rotations, and a career as a physician. Through lectures, dissection laboratories, radiology sessions, and clinical correlates, this course
will regionally demonstrate key concepts of the complex gross structural organization of the human body to enable further study of normal function as well as disease.

* The Human Body: Integrative Function & Its Cellular Basis (Physiology, Neurobiology, Histology) :

* The Human Body: Host Defense & Microbial Pathogens
(Microbiology, Virology, Immunology Pathology)

* Introduction to Clinical Medicine

SECOND YEAR COURSES

* Hematology/Oncology : This course is designed to give an overview of hematology and oncology at the level of the second year medical student. Lecture material will cover aspects of hematology and oncology, including
1. Anemias, with an emphasis on iron deficiency,
B12/folate deficiency, hemolytic anemia, and sickle
cell disease.
2. Hemostasis and thrombosis, including normal
hemostasis, and disorders of abnormal bleeding and
clotting.
3. Disorders of platelet number and function
4. Leukocyte biology
5. Acute and chronic leukemias, with an emphasis on
molecular pathophysiology.
6. Lymphomas and plasma cell dyscrasias

Topics covered in the oncology section of this course include:
1. General principles of oncology
2. Breast cancer
3. Lung cancer
4. Prostate cancer
5. Pediatric tumors
6. Colorectal cancer
7. Melanoma
Laboratory sessions will cover histology and pathology of erythrocytes and leukocytes. Case problems dealing with disorders of hematology and oncology will be discussed.
The final examination will consist of multiple choice and matching type questions. Material tested will be derived from the lectures, syllabus, and laboratory sessions.

* Cardiovascular : This course is a systematic review of the cardiovascular system emphasizing the functional mechanisms especially relevant to the practice of medicine. Course content will be oriented towards the clinical presentation of cardiac disease, emphasizing general principles of cardiovascular pathophysiology, deductive reasoning and decision-making.

* Respiratory System : The Respiratory Course in the second year Mechanisms of Disease Course covers all aspects of respiratory pathophysiology as it relates to human disease. The course begins with a review of how physiologic abnormalities of the respiratory system are measured. This includes a laboratory where students practice performing and interpreting spirometry. The pathophysiology of different categories of respiratory diseases are then reviewed including obstructive diseases of the lung—asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease; restrictive diseases of the lung—pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis; water exchange—pulmonary edema; pulmonary circulation—pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary emboli, lung defense and infection—pneumonia; pleural diseases; control of respiration—sleep apnea and respiratory failure; and lung neoplasms; and prevention—smoking cessation. The course includes 4 Case Seminars illustrating the relevance of these pathophysiologic principles to patient evaluation and management. The course instructors include faculty in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, each with special expertise in the subjects of their lectures. Students will interact with each of these instructors again during their clinical rotations while applying the principles of this course at patients’ bedsides.

* Gastrointestinal System : What happens when you burp? What should I tell my aunt to do when she has gallstones? These questions and more are addressed annually in the GI Mechanisms of Disease course. Thrill to the computer-based endoscopy movies! Become engrossed in the clinical manifestations of celiac sprue! By the end of the course, you will have a well-rounded understanding of all clinically relevant gastrointestinal pathophysiology, as well as some other material that demonstrates principles of gastrointestinal function and dysfunction. Additionally, we have integrated this course with the GI segment of the Pathology course, and there are multiple shared laboratory meetings, so that elements of liver disease and gastrointestinal pathophysiology can be taught by concurrently by both clinicians and pathologists. Required texts? You don't need no stinkin' required texts! Just the syllabus and the warm glow of the concerned faculty. Come to class - this is not a course that is well-taken as a correspondence course. Those under 16 years of age require adult supervision.

* Renal / Urinary System : A series of nine lectures and seven small group sessions have been developed. The lectures will initially focus on pathophysiologic principles essential for understanding major disorders of fluids and electrolytes. The final several lectures will be devoted to major clinical syndromes associated with kidney disease. The small group sessions emphasize problem-based learning of renal pathophysiology based on clinical syndromes commonly encountered by all physicians involved in the direct care of patients. You will be expected to understand and apply the principles of renal physiology that have been previously covered in the Spring Medical Physiology course during your first year.

* Neurology and Special Senses : The Neurology and Special Senses Course presents the pathophysiology of conditions that commonly afflict the nervous system and structures of the head and neck. Members of the teaching faculty come from the Departments of Neurology, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. The Neurology section of the course focuses on predisposing factors and mechanisms of disorders of the nervous system such as stroke, headache, multiple sclerosis, dementia, AIDs, seizures, movement disorders, inflammatory conditions, disorders of sleep, coma, pain, brain edema and diseases of muscle and peripheral nerve. Information is presented on antecedent causes, active pathology, presenting symptoms, neurological signs found on examination, typical progression of illness and treatments including those that address underlying mechanisms of disease. Adult and pediatric aspects of neurological conditions are presented.

* Endocrine System : The Endocrine System: Mechanisms of Disease. The objectives in this course are to learn about the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders of the endocrine system. An emphasis will be placed on areas of basic endocrinology that are most essential to the practice of medicine. Topics covered include diseases of the pituitary, adrenal, thyroid, and parathyroid glands, as well as disorders of glucose homeostasis, lipid metabolism, and bone metabolism. Instruction in the course includes lectures, patient management problems, and case presentations.

* Genetics : The Medical Genetics Course teaches the basic principles of human genetics by using the genetic alterations leading to disease and disability as examples. Topics include single gene inheritance, pedigree analysis, chromosome abnormalities, atypical patterns of inheritance, the molecular basis and diagnosis of genetic diseases, the genetics of cancer and other common diseases of adulthood, clinical genetics, and the ethical and social issues that arise in the practice of medical genetics. The lectures and small group sessions (case conferences) are closely interrelated. The general principles of human genetics are taught in lecture using clinical examples while the small group conferences give students an opportunity to apply these principles to clinical case scenarios using a series of problem-based exercises. There is one, take-home, multiple-choice examination that is distributed midway through the course and one final comprehensive multiple-choice examination at the end of the course.

* MSK/ Skin : The faculty and residents of the Department of Dermatology provide the second year medical students a four-day introduction to the field of dermatology. Topics covered include: skin structure and function, acne, melanocytic disorders, benign and malignant neoplasms, cutaneous infections, cutaneous signs of systemic disease, hypersensitivity reactions, papulosquamous disorders, blistering diseases, and hair disorders.
After morning lectures, daily Kodachrome sessions in the student labs will review common cutaneous diagnoses. The last day of coursework involves seeing volunteer patients with the guidance of dermatology residents at the Ambulatory Care Center to illustrate common skin findings and diagnoses.

* Pathology : Pathology is the study of the etiology and pathogenesis of disease. Pathology 222 will concentrate on how agents and mechanisms of disease express themselves in individual organ systems. The expression of disease will be studied much as in your introductory course using gross organ specimens, histopathology, and biochemical / molecular biological analyses. You have learned the synoptic hallmarks of a variety of pathogenetic processes. You should now learn how these same processes are expressed in particular organ systems. During this course, you will not only acquire considerable factual knowledge about various diseases, but you will also develop some basic skills of clinical investigation. These skills include the recognition of the clinical, gross and microscopic laboratory features of many diseases and the ability to analyze or explain these data in terms of the natural history of the disease. You will have an opportunity to develop these clinical skills by studying a number of unknown cases in the laboratory as the problem-oriented self-instruction part of our course. Photographic slides of most of the histopathology and selected case material will be available during most laboratory sessions and will be reviewed by students at the end of the laboratory. This material is also available from the check-out room for your review. Microscopes with cameras that can provide a projected image will also be available in each labs. We hope you will use them for group learning.

* Introduction to Clinical Medicine 2 : Over the upcoming year, this course will continue to give you an introduction to the clinical skills needed to effectively work with individual patients, with teams in medical practices, with the communities in which physicians practice, and last but not least with yourself as a medical provider. The course involves learning basic concepts that underlie these skills, but for the most part this will not be information that you acquire in lectures or by memorizing lists.

THIRD YEAR COURSES

* Family medicine : During the Family Medicine clerkship each student will work on a one-to-one basis with a primary care physician, seeing patients in that community, and learning about the factors within the community that affect the health of patients and their families.

* Psych / Neuro

* OB/GYN

* Internal Medicine : The majority of students in the Medicine Clerkship will spend one month doing a community-based, primary care internal medicine rotation and two months on inpatient services (at least one at UNC-CH); all students will learn and practice clinical reasoning and decision-making skills.

* Surgery : The Surgery Clerkship is eight weeks, and will target surgical problems encountered and treated by generalists, and common medical illnesses with surgical indications; the focus will be on the basic surgical skills that all students should learn in preparation for their future careers.

* Pediatrics : Four weeks of the Pediatric Clerkship focus on pediatric health care in ambulatory and primary care settings.

* Fundamentals of Acute Care : Fundamentals of Acute Care (FAC) is a five-day required course in the third year taught by members of the Department of Anesthesiology faculty. The primary goal of the course is to introduce the student to the principles and practices of emergency and critical care. Major topics include: airway management; respiratory failure, including respiratory monitoring and the basics of mechanical ventilation; intravenous access and fluid management; recognition and management of dysrhythmias, circulatory failure and shock; and neurologic critical care.

FOURTH YEAR COURSES

*Acting Internship Selectives : The acting internship selectives for senior students provide "off-campus" experiences of direct and continuing care of patients in community hospitals. The objectives of this program are to provide:
1. direct and continuing patient care responsibilities beyond the level experienced asthird year students. Every effort will be made to have students function, within the limits of their abilities, as an integral part of the health care team.
2. familiarity with a community hospital, its role as a health resource to a region,its relationship to the physicians in a community and the diversity of its constituencies.
3. knowledge of the variety of patients served by a community hospital documented in the student log.
4. improvement of clinical skills assessed by mid-rotation feedback and final evaluation.
5. a transitional experience between medical student and house officer responsibilities.

* Ambulatory Care : The Ambulatory Care Selective (ACS) is only open to fourth-year students. The ACS is designed to help you further develop your clinical and related, non-clinical health care skills and knowledge that is useful in the ambulatory care setting. During the month, you will spend approximately 70% of your time (13 days) working to improve your clinical skills, and 30% of your time (6 days) working to improve your related health care skills. The proportion of time that you spend working to improve your clinical and non-clinical skills may vary during the different weeks; we ask that you negotiate your schedule with your preceptor on the first or second day of the selective.

* Critical Care : Fourth year medical students are required to take a one-month selective in the Department of Surgery. To satisfy the selective requirements, students may choose an elective from the course list (see below) and will also be required to attend a one-hour weekly seminar on critical care/acute care during the month of the selective (or complete an equivalent educational activity approved by the course director).

* Neurosciences : The principal goal of the Clinical Neuroscience Selective is to improve the clinical skills of the fourth year student in the assessment and management of common neurological disorders under the guidance of an experienced teacher. The selective, in particular, will expose you to the principals of clinical neuroscience, which pertain to priority health care issues, and thus contribute to general medical education regardless of the specialty ultimately to be pursued. Medical Allied Health Professions disciplines will be integrated.

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