Integrated Basic Science-Clinical Experiences

Most students engage in research during their years at MCOM. This can be arranged as a mentored summer research project during the summer between year one and two, during elective time in the third and fourth years, or as part of a structured curriculum in the Scholarly Concentrations Program.

The small group Doctoring class teaches advanced communication skills and closely integrates with the ongoing basic science courses. In addition, year 1 courses do not stick to traditional “normal human” emphasis, but actively explore disease models as they teach normal processes.

Engaged Learning

MCOM faculty are devoted to teaching as their primary activity. The traditional lectures of the past are being replaced by engaged learning sessions where students engage with instructors in problem solving, questions, reflection on home study, and other techniques designed to improve knowledge application and retention. 

Early Clinical Experience

The Doctoring Clinical Experience program pairs first and second year medical students with medical faculty and private preceptors for one half day of the week. Over the course of two years, each medical student works with two different preceptors in primary and specialty practice areas.

To prepare for clinical practice, students practice their skills in a safe, controlled environment in the Center for Advanced Medical Learning & Simulation (CAMLS), a state-of-the art venue for teaching and testing clinical skills to medical students. The Center uses innovative technology as well as actor or “standardized” patients to simulate actual patient care experiences. This allows medical students to learn necessary skills and participate in objective, standardized clinical exams. The Center improves the quality of healthcare for our community by standardizing and improving physicians’ interactions with patients and by training competent, caring medical professionals.

In addition, the last two years of the curriculum are devoted to clinical experience through clerkships and clinical electives. These offer an integrated clinical leaning experience that exposes students to common disorders representative of those seen the clinical practice.

Community Outreach Programs

Community service and outreach initiatives have long been a tradition at the College. We are committed to providing leadership in dealing with the quality of health and life issues that affect our community and abroad. Our community outreach programs take healthcare outside of the classroom and hospital walls, thus giving our medical students the opportunity to provide appropriate healthcare to people in need. Our medical students have the chance to participate in a wide-variety of community outreach initiatives. The following is a list of programs that are offered to our medical students.

• Project World Health
• International Health Service Corps (IHSC)
• BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic
• International Medicine Scholarly Concentration

Research

Most students engage in research during their years at MCOM. This can be arranged as a mentored summer research project after year 1 or during the fourth year, or as part a structured program in the Scholarly Concentration programs.

For example, the Scholarly Concentration in Biomedical Research provides interested medical students with the opportunity to engage their scientific curiosity in basic and clinical science within their four year medical curriculum, and begin to develop their potential as physician scientists.

Students will acquire tools essential to undertake, and critically evaluate, clinical and basic science research.

For more information about our students and their research successes, visit the Student Research site.

Top Notch Clinical Faculty

USF Health boasts the area’s largest medical practice, with more than 400 physicians treating this region’s residents. They see more than 500,000 patients each year in dozens of medical facilities – large and small – along the Florida Gulfcoast. In the Tampa Bay area, 42 percent of the physicians who made the 2010 Best Doctors in America list work at USF Health.

State-of-the-Art Facilities

Our medical students have the opportunity to learn at an extraordinary range of hospitals and teaching centers—among the busiest in the nation. Tampa General Hospital, a private, non-profit, 1,010-bed facility, and the area’s only Level 1 Trauma and Burn Unit, is the primary clinical training site for the College of Medicine. In addition, the James Haley VA Hospital, Moffitt Cancer Center and All Children’s Hospital also provide core education, training and research programs used in our required clerkships.

The Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) is a new center in downtown Tampa. It is used by students, residents, and faculty for advanced training in communication, surgical skill acquisition, and development of medical devices and sessions there are required parts of our clerkships.