Overview

The program is based on the highest standards of modern medical education, aiming to develop a new generation of physicians who will not only excel in clinical knowledge and skills, but also in professionalism, ethics, research, and social commitment, while respecting the culture and needs of their communities. To achieve this mission, four areas are identified as the program’s structure:

• Medical Sciences (basic and clinic)
• Scientific Method Applied To Biomedical & Bio-Psychosocial Sciences (basic and clinical research, as well as health-system analysis)
• Patient-Centered Medical Attention (individual, team-oriented, healthcare system-oriented)
• Physician’s Professional Development (individual, team-oriented, healthcare system-oriented, community-oriented)

O&Med’s fully integrated curriculum includes early exposure and longitudinal emphasis on basic sciences, epidemiology, and public health (including management), medical research, information technology, community engagement, bioethics, and doctor-patient relationship.

The innovative curriculum developed by O&Med in association with Partners Harvard Medical International (PHMI) and fully certified by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology of the Dominican Republic is focused on:

• Promoting active learning, interpersonal communication and team work skills
• Providing early exposure to community health challenges, epidemiology and public health advances
• Encouraging progressive autonomy in medical decision-making, leadership skills, and the development of effective and efficient health care practices
• Establishing a basis for a life-long learning process, critical thinking, and clinical judgment in medical problem solving

The O&Med curriculum is integrated both vertically, by bringing together basic and clinical sciences, public health topics, professional development and scientific tools and methods through explicit connections and interrelationships between the areas addressed in each academic term, as well as horizontally, by relating disciplines and subjects over different modules and years. This strategy overcomes the traditional discipline-based discreet segmentation in medical education, and breaks down the barriers between subject areas in order to provide better learning opportunities by promoting knowledge that is relevant and meaningful to clinical practice, while being easily retrievable and amenable to alteration and further development as a part of lifelong learning process.

The curriculum is designed to be instructed predominantly in English (85%) and in Spanish (15%) over a six-year period, divided in three academic cycles of two years each. These cycles are: (1) Pre-medical/Basic Sciences, (2) Basic Sciences Applied to Clinical Sciences, and (3) Clinical Sciences. Across the cycles, the entire curricular content is integrated both vertically and horizontally, supported by four axes: (1) Science (basic & clinical), (2) Health Systems and Integration, (3) Professional Development, and (4) Scientific Tools and Methods. These four axes are bound together through explicit connections and interrelationships between the areas addressed in each academic term, and by relating disciplines and subject over different modules and years.

The Academic Term: A Closer Look of How the Integration Works

The academic cycle consists of six (6) academic terms of sixteen (16) weeks each. For the first five years, each academic term is composed of two vertically and horizontally integrated blocks which in turn comprises both vertically-integrated subjects grouped in a module of 8 weeks, and horizontally-integrated subjects of 8 weeks (for a single block) and 16 weeks (for an entire academic term).

Premedical Studies (Pre-medical/Basic sciences): the contents of this academic cycle are aimed to further strengthen students’ general knowledge, exposing them to foundations of life sciences related to normal structure and function of the human body, with a total of 151 credits delivered over the first six academic terms (curriculum years’ one and two). According to the current regulations of the Ministry of Higher Education, students are required to successfully complete the total of Premedical Studies credits, with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.5, in order to be promoted to the Basic Sciences (Basic Sciences Applied to Clinical Sciences) academic cycle.

Basic Sciences (Basic Sciences Applied to Clinical Sciences): this academic cycle involves a total of 120 credits, delivered over the second six academic terms (curriculum years’ three and four), and includes contents of sciences that will familiarize students with foundations of normal and abnormal structure and function of the human body, as well as introduce them to differential diagnosis and basic treatment of different pathologies, preparing them for the final years of the Medical School curriculum.

Clinical Sciences: this academic cycle students are introduced to knowledge, management and solution of different problems encountered in the general practice of medical sciences, including direct supervised experiences with patient care. This cycle is distributed between pre-internship (70 credits) and internship year (86), with a total of 156 credits. The internship and all clinical rotations at O&Med, including entry requirements, procedures, rights, duties and assessment, are based on formal agreements with the selected local and international health establishments and guided by the corresponding academic regulations. During the entire period of internship and rotations, students will be required to conduct and/or participate on research projects that should be presented at the end of that period and prior to the graduation. The protocol of such project should be submitted by the students no later than the second Academic Term of the fifth year.

The curriculum is delivered through a combination of innovative teaching and learning methodologies that seeks to enhance active knowledge construction via the stimulation of the students’ different learning, and adjusting to their different learning styles. Because of this, the teaching and learning process is heavily concentrated on the students, who have to engage into intensive and active roles in their learning processes. The professors are seen more as instructors that serve as guides for the student to assist them during their knowledge building process.

Because the modern medical education tendencies points towards a balance between basic sciences and clinical sciences, this approach is implemented throughout the six year curriculum, favoring more basic sciences than clinical ones during the first academic cycle, and the opposite during the third academic cycle.

To achieve this result, an O&Med student studies both the deceased and healthy body, the different organ systems and their diseases but also the study of the person, without fragmentation between physical, psychic and social, and should foster the capacity to serve healthy and sick people, integrated into their family, their community and their social environment, establishing an ongoing relationship that goes beyond the contractual one. The student receives a deep formation in chronic problems, in prevalent problems and psychosocial ones, as well as the integration of health promotion and prevention in curative and palliative care. Learning the art of healing but also of comforting, counseling and caring is essential. The student must learn to relate to and communicate with the patient in order to negotiate their health objectives. Techniques to prevent burnout and maintain the taste for the profession of doctor throughout the years will be promoted.

Current-situation analysis is also an important aspect of our methodology, where the student debates and reflects on the predominant health problems in Dominican Republic, Dominican Health System structure and sustainability, as well as the legislations that support them.

The following methodologies are part of the teaching-learning strategies implemented in this school:

• The problem-based learning (PBL) methodology is the core teaching and assessment approach within O&Med’s educational strategy. PBL promotes active learning driven by challenging, carefully selected real life health problems and situations. Students will work in small collaborative groups, guided by teachers in the role of instructors of the learning process. Through PBL, our students have the opportunity of approaching theoretical concepts by directly applying them in real-life situations and problem solving, as a basis for active acquisition of meaningful knowledge.
• Independent study is an essential part of our teaching-learning process. The students must engage into an active process of knowledge acquirement supported on the instructions by the professor, which role will be more of a guide that direct student to find pertinent information about the important concepts that are being discussed, and its application.
• Lecture presentations of core curriculum contents are complemented through discussion teaching to apply biomedical principles in context problem-solving processes, seminars, workshops, labs, independent projects and research.
• Clinical skills are promoted by work in a simulation lab that allows monitored practice with feedback prior to interacting with actual patients.
• Reflective writing and portfolios will be used to promote critical thinking and writing skills, as crucial components of longitudinal courses of doctor-patient relationship, community project and research methods.
• Active application of the concepts learned in the classroom will be applied in the Laboratory settings and the Simulation Center setting.
• Other methodologies include: individual and group presentations, round tables, debates, resolution of collective problems, lecture reports, guided studies, surveys, research work, collaborative learning, demonstrations, tutorials, work in the community, use of research technology to support learning, field-trips.