Physiology at Paul L. Foster School of Medicine: Typical content in an extended, clinically associated presentation

The Paul L. Foster School of Medicine matriculated its first class in the fall of 2009. The curriculum follows a clinical presentation based design. The units are organ based and separated into 4 major units in each of the first two years. Year one contains 76 hours of the curriculum presentation and year 2 contains 51 ½ hours of presentation. This represents a total of 115 ½ hours in Physiology and 12 hours of Neurophysiology. At the unit level of organization the curriculum follows a pattern that is typical in many medical school curricula, but the hours of presentation are spread out over a two year time frame. Within each unit the order of presentation of material is tied to clinical presentations. In some units, such as the gastrointestinal unit, this follows a standard order of progression. In some units like the cardiovascular unit, the order of presentation follows a less traditional pattern. Students have commented that “they are continually jumping from section to section in any text they use in a very random illogical pattern”. In the presentation of material the faculty must make sure all background material for a topic has been covered or they must cover that material during the associated class time. Given the results of our first comprehensive end of year exam, Physiology ranks second only to Immunology among disciplines in the performance of our students. The students scored a 77.5 average on the 51 physiology questions on the exam.