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College of Human Medicine

Shared Discovery Curriculum

The College of Human Medicine’s Shared Discovery Curriculum is designed to be responsive to the health care needs of Michigan, the country, and in the educational best interests of diverse learners.

The design of the curriculum is based on a set of core principles that are envisioned as the foundation to all learning within the curriculum.

  • Core Principles
    1. The Virtuous Professional
      1. Competence, Compassion, Honesty, Social Responsibility, Professional Responsibility, Respect for Others
      2. Acting with Courage, Humility, Mercy
      3. Professional Growth (Dialogue, Reflection, Practice)

    2. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
      1. Building a sense of belonging in and amongst students, staff, and faculty
      2. Addressing health disparities
      3. A focus on community

    3. Competence and Mastery
      1. Supporting and achieving competence
      2. Supporting and recognizing excellence/mastery

    4. Lifelong Learning for students, faculty, and staff

    5. Rational design and implementation
      1. Scaffolded learning
      2. Decision-making based in educational theory or data
      3. Helping students become master adaptive learners
      4. Alignment of objectives, instruction, and assessment leading to curricular coherence
      5. Longitudinal integration of basic, clinical, and social science themes

    6. Authenticity
      1. Experiential learning
      2. Authentic assessments

    7. Collaboration
      1. Among faculty, staff, and students
      2. Within the profession
      3. With allied professionals
      4. With patients
  • Learning Societies

    Students at the College of Human Medicine are assigned to one of four learning societies, each named after an historical figure who represents the values of the college. Within each learning society students develop a longitudinal relationship with a group of faculty. Over the first two years, these faculty will serve as coaches, advisors and mentors. Students meet regularly over the first two years within smaller units called scholar groups. Within the scholar groups, students develop collaborative problem-solving skills, reflect on their experiences and learning through debriefing and creation of ongoing learning plans, integrate their clinical experiences with underlying necessary science, and develop an identity within the profession of medicine.

    The college’s curriculum is organized around a core group of competencies based on residency competencies: Service, Care of Patients, Rationality, Integration, Professionalism, and Transformation. The acronym is SCRIPT, and these are, with the exception of service, based on residency competencies adopted by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

  • Educational Program Objectives

    The college's curriculum is created around core educational program objectives that are organized into six groupings:

    Serving the People
    Care of Patients
    Reflective and Rational Approach to Learning
    Integrating into Systems
    Professionalism
    Transforming Knowledge

Major Curricular Phases

Students engage in clinical experiences in each phase of the curriculum. The first two semesters comprise the M1 phase, and includes an early clinical experience. The next semesters comprise the M2 phase, including a middle clinical experience. Following this phase, students complete their USMLE Step 1 licensing exam. Students then transition to their M3/M4 community campus for their late clinical experience, where they complete their clinical clerkships in their M3 year, and then focus on electives, selectives, and remaining requirements during their M4 year. They complete their USMLE Step 2 licensing exam prior to graduation.

  • M1 Phase, including the Early Clinical Experience

    The M1 (1 year student) curriculum intentionally integrates a strong foundation of necessary basicand social sciences with clinical skills and patient and health care team interactions. Students learnskills of patient-centered interviewing, core physical exam, clinical reasoning, and a variety ofpatient care skills.

    The weekly activities for an M1 student includes scholar group (learning society) sessions, basicscience sessions, anatomy and integrative biomedical laboratory sessions, and clinical simulationeach week. In addition, students regularly engage in assessment activities to assess theirunderstanding and skill development, as well as sessions focused on topics such as careeradvising, health and wellness, and optimizing academic skills.

    For the Early Clinical Experience, students engage in a focused clinical block where they participate as part of the team at a primary care clinic.

  • M2 Phase, including the Middle Clinical Experience

    The M2 (2 year student) curriculum further integrates clinical and necessary basic science and social sciences. Students continue to meet with their learning society small groups and engage in clinical simulation and basic science-focused large group sessions.

    The Middle Clinical Experience as a part of the M2 curriculum includes multiple clinical rotations. Each of these rotations have their own goals and objectives, supported by a weekly rotation-based small group session precepted by faculty.

    In addition, the M2 curriculum has six non-clinical rotations, where students learn in classroom, lab, and clinical simulation settings, and engage with patient's stories while learning the underlying basic, social, and clinical sciences.

  • M3 and M4 Phases, which constitute the Late Clinical Experience

    At the start of the M3 phase, students complete a Transition to Clerkships course as they prepare to enter their clerkships. The M3 year of the Late Clinical Experience provides disciplinary clerkships to prepare students for residency and a career of learning in the specialty of their interest. The major disciplines are included through rotations in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery. A two-semester course series, Advanced Skills and Knowledge, occurs during the M3 year.

    During the M4 year of the Late Clinical Experience, students complete a required selective in critical care, as well as a Transition to Residency course and remaining electives.

  • Electives

    Before graduation, students are required to complete 28 weeks (42 credits) of approved electives. At least 4 weeks must be clinical electives completed in the community to which the student is assigned for M3/M4. At least 16 weeks (24 credits) must be clinical electives involving direct patient care, and at least 4 weeks (6 credits) of clinical electives must be completed during the final two semesters of medical school. One 4-week (6 credits) clinical elective must specifically engage in the care of medically underserved patients, and the student must obtain approval and submit reflective work associated with this experience to be approved for graduation. Students are encouraged to study broadly and/or to pursue intensively their special interests through elective programs. Varied elective courses are offered, and may include research projects, courses on varied topics, and placements in clinical settings. Students may also take elective courses at other medical schools or be placed in clinical settings other than those associated with Michigan State University.

Progress Assessment

From the first semester of the curriculum, and at regular intervals throughout the curriculum, a suite of progress assessments enable students and their faculty to verify learners’ achievement of competence and readiness to advance. Progress testing is a longitudinal competency assessment that facilitates adult lifelong learning and represents the College of Human Medicine’s graduation test for the M.D. degree. Students are evaluated on these end-competency assessments many times in their College of Human Medicine career, and must pass these assessments in order to advance through the curriculum.

The curriculum utilizes a group of assessments that include the nationally-normed multiple choice examinations associated with a professional education but do not stop at the determination of simply what our learners “know.” A core assessment is the Progress Clinical Skills Examination assessing actual performance with standardized patients. Other assessments include multi-source feedback by their faculty, peers, and health care team members which indicates what our College of Human Medicine students “do.” Portfolios of evidence containing essays, multimedia, reflections, scholarly products and projects are regularly reviewed by faculty to assure that acquisition of the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes is taking place, and that learners can receive anticipatory guidance to achieve not only competence, but excellence. Ongoing data flow from these multiple types of assessments assures that students, faculty, staff, and administration are engaging in continuous quality improvement. Students are guided to focus on particular areas of challenge and opportunity.

a group of incoming medical students.



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