Undergraduate Curriculum

Phase One

The first year introduces you to the building blocks of medicine--the basic sciences. This phase establishes a framework of skills, scientific, clinical and societal – a chassis on which to build the practice of medicine. Apollo pares these subjects down to the essentials you'll need in medical practice. The basic science content begins with an introduction to cells and tissues and then proceeds into organ-based blocks with a focus on normal processes.

During the second year, medical students revisit the major organ systems with a focus on abnormal processes. The Year 2 program is primarily devoted to understanding the effect of disease processes on organ structure and function and the actions of drugs. In the course of achieving this objective, the curriculum is designed to help the student prepare for their role as a problem solver. This will involve acquiring basic information, but, more importantly, it will also involve understanding concepts and relationships.

An introduction to early patient contact in the second year, woven throughout the preclinical stage, allows you to combine concepts learned in the classroom and laboratory with bedside learning experiences. You learn core clinical skills that serve as the foundation for your clerkships, medical training, and practice beyond. Students are also assigned to a mentor for the entire academic year.

These foundational sciences include not only the traditional basic biomedical sciences (i.e., anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, histology, pharmacology) but also the social and behavioral sciences. The first two years are organized into core themes of biochemistry, histology and cell biology, embryology, physiology, gross anatomy, neurobiology and normal behavior integrated together. The overarching theme is normal human biology.

Phase Two:

The principles learned in the first year basic science courses will come to life in year 3 and 4. They will be continually reinforced as you work with a variety of patients during the clinical clerkships.

Students are equipped with skills to cope with the challenges of medicine, both technical and humanistic. Each student examines a carefully planned series of cases, each designed to highlight principles and issues in health and disease. Early patient contact and clinical reasoning are incorporated to develop high levels of clinical skills and medical knowledge. Multidisciplinary clinically driven learning and Immersion in department-based clinical care teams on core clinical rotations. Students interview and examine patients, integrating their understanding of mechanisms and pathology as they implement clinical reasoning to produce effective written and oral case presentations. In both lectures and seminars, students learn clinical epidemiology and focus on the skills and attitudes important to care for patients in particularly challenging environments.

Throughout the course, students are expected to provide constructive feedback to and receive constructive feedback from their colleagues as part of the teaching and teamwork that are fundamental to effective clinical care and to sustained satisfaction within the profession of medicine.

In preparation, each clerkship begins with speciality-specific foundational science, consisting of purposeful reiteration and expansion of prior material (helical learning) and new material. This material will be taught in a “signs and symptoms” framework to facilitate core knowledge transfer to clinical reasoning. During clinical immersion, the student joins the patient care teams with more engagement in advanced clinical work than Phase One.

We have also brought in a wealth of knowledge in the social and behavioral sciences as well as public health and policy content, with an aim toward improving societal health outcomes. We place great emphasis on treating the patient, not just the disease. You will gain a longitudinal perspective on patient care from wellness to illness to death, learn how a patient lives with diseases from hospital to community and be trained to provide the right level of care needed.

Phase Three:

In this phase, our curricular design allows students to take a step back from their clerkships and process their experiences, exploring aspects of medicine and health care that run across the different clerkships, such as understanding the patient-physician relationship as well as using medical literature. This results in a well-rounded, comprehensive learning experience for students which is the cumulative experience of the internship. This phase is designated for 11 clinical specialities, providing you with the invaluable opportunity to explore an array of medical disciplines.

You are assigned to a speciality care unit and become an active member of the care team. You rotate between various specialities every four or eight weeks. Responsibilities include daily teaching rounds and following, assessing, and treating critically ill patients. include taking overnight calls, admitting patients, and entering orders.

While exploring various specialities students will integrate by bringing together the educational themes that are important to their professional identity. You will rotate in your teams over the course of 12 months, fully prepared with a robust skillset and ready to hit the ground running.