Medical Students

Course Instructor: Joseph Fanning, PhD | Keith Meador, MD | Aly McCarthy, PhD

Student Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This course is designed as a capstone experience in ethics, building upon the ethics components in FMK and FCC. The core activity will be participation in the activities of the clinical ethics consultation service provided to Vanderbilt Medical Center by the faculty of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society. Activities during this 4-week ACE will include directed readings in areas related to the consult work, attendance at conferences, lectures, case reviews and additional work in ethics of special interest to the student's future residency training. The course will fulfill the immersion course requirement for the Certificate in Bioethics, although being a candidate in the Certificate Program is not a requirement for taking this course. Discussion with Dr. Joe Fanning, the Director of the Clinical Ethics Consult Service is strongly recommended prior to enrollment.

Course Instructor: Keith Meador, MD, ThM, MPH | Joe Fanning, PhD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This course examines a broad range of theological and philosophical methods for dealing with ethical questions as they arise in contemporary American healthcare. We will read influential texts from Protestant and Catholic Christianity, Jewish thought, contemporary Anglo-American philosophy, as well as classic texts from the virtue traditions. Our aim is to apply the teachings of these texts to a range of practical issues, including issues at the beginning and end of life, questions that arise in routine patient care, and major policy issues in health and health care. We will probe the dialectic between practice and theory, being attentive to their reciprocal influences. A major aim of the seminar is to gain critical purchase on the tools that various theological and philosophical traditions provide as guides to thinking and action, and to assess their uses and limits. A second major agenda is to become more critically aware of our own moral intuitions and assumptions.

Course Instructor:Derek Pae, MD | Natalie Lockney, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: The Career Exploration Advanced Elective is an interdisciplinary 4-week elective offered to immersion students. This elective is designed for students who remain undecided about their specialty after completing clerkships, with the goal of offering students additional exposure to various specialties and providing further insight into potential career paths. It can also be helpful for students who wish to experience specialties they are unlikely to encounter in their future. Students will rotate through 2-4 clinical settings of their preference, with each rotation lasting 1-2 weeks (e.g. four 1-week rotations, two 2-week rotations, or a combination of 1- and 2-week rotations). At the end of the elective, students will meet one-on-one with the Dean of Students to discuss their experiences on the elective, receive career advising, and review their CV and/or personal statement (see additional resources on the CiM website). Students will be asked to keep a log of their rotations (dates and supervising attendings and/or residents), write a reflection on their experiences, send at least one compass assessment per week, and complete brief pre- and post-elective surveys. Please note that this Advanced Elective will not count for clinical credit (recall that one of the "competency and interest-driven" rotations must be clinical for graduation).

Course Instructor: Derek Pae, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: Throughout this two-week elective, students will shadow attending and resident physicians in various specialties and subspecialties of their choosing. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to various fields of medicine in an effort to aid in their specialty selection in the fourth year of medical school. A list of various specialties will be provided by the Student Representatives of Careers in Medicine (CiM), who will then contact physicians and create the enrolled student's schedule for the two-week period shadowing experience. Shadowing of one physician is limited to a maximum of three days. Shadowing experiences with faculty members outside the CiM-provided list may be arranged with prior approval from the course director(s). At the end of the elective, students will have an individual exit counseling session with the Course Director(s) to discuss their clinical experiences, CV writing, and their progress towards choosing a specialty. At the conclusion of the two-week rotation, students will be familiar with the schedules, daily activities, patient populations, and consultations in several specialties. The shadowing experience and exit counseling session with the Course Director(s) will provide students with information that will aid their specialty selection and CV.

Course Instructor: Nanette Dendy, MD | Rachel Apple, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: FCC Launch Week is a week of highly relevant, clinically driven content designed to better prepare students for success in their clerkships by enhancing their practical clinical skills around the interface of laboratory-based medicine with patient care. This week serves as the transition from pre-clinical learning to the clinical environment for VUSM students. Designed to prepare students to be successful on the clerkships from the first day, the course will review the practical basics of the medical students' role in patient care. This will be achieved by balancing foundational clinical medical knowledge with practical, skill-based insights. Topics will vary from high yield radiology sessions to applicable laboratory sessions to student-to-student guidance to hands-on skills boot-camps to exciting case competitions. FCC Launch Week is an interactive, fast-paced curricular foundation that will set medical students on the pathway to clinical success.

Course Instructor: Kurt Smith, MD | Ryan Buckley, MD 

Year: Y1

Course Description: FHD2 is a clinical systems of care course designed to introduce students to the larger health care system. Students will engage in didactics and experiential learning to develop a deeper understanding of the systems involved in practicing within a mesosystem and macrosystem. For second-year medical students.

Course Instructor: Heather Ridinger, MD, MHPE | Kurt Smith, MD | Ryan Buckley, MD | John Graves, PhD

Year: Y4

Course Description: This intersession introduces students to the concepts of health care economics and policy issues pertinent to caring for patients in a large macrosystem, including details about the Affordable Care Act and payers such as Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance.

Course Instructor: Heather Ridinger, MD, MHPE | Kurt Smith, MD | Ryan Buckley, MD | John Graves, PhD

Year: Y3

Course Description: Health Care Delivery Immersion I serves as an introduction to the Immersion Phase and teaches students details about population and community health, chronic disease management and prevention in addition to skills for addressing communication barriers in complex patient care interactions.

Course Instructor: Heather Ridinger, MD, MHPE | Kurt Smith, MD | Ryan Buckley, MD | John Graves, PhD

Year: Y3

Course Description: This intersession builds on student experience in the Immersion Phase by preparing students for working in an interprofessional health care team and practicing advanced communication skills to deal with difficult patient conversations.

Course Instructor: Natalie McCall, MD | Jennifer Hunt | Ryan Buckley, MD | Kurt Smith, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: FHD IMM IPE2 is a course designed for communication with other professionals about the care of a mutual patient and together developing a collaborative care plan. Students also learn how to describe the impact that an interprofessional care plan can have on a patient or family.

Course Instructor: Martha Presley, MD | Brian Bales | Ryan Buckley, MD | Kurt Smith, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: FHD IMM Patient Safety is designed to provide students with opportunities to engage in the evaluation and improvement of the quality of healthcare activities of various healthcare organizations for the purpose of developing their analytical skills and crititcal thinking in evaluating the quality, processes, costs, or necessity of healthcare services by performing certain functions.

Course Instructor: Martha Presley, MD | Brian Bales | Ryan Buckley, MD | Kurt Smith, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: FHD IMM Quality Improvement is a systematic designed course where data-guided activities are carried out by a team (or individual student) to bring about continious, measurable improvement in healthcare delivery in a specific population or environment.

Course Instructor: Charlotte Brown | Calvin Gruss | Kurt Smith | Ryan Buckley, MD | John Graves | Rachel Apple, MD, MPH | Anju Patel | Beth Ann Yakes, MD

Year: Y1

Course Description: In this longitudinal integrated curriculum that was designed to promote a holistic approach to the study and practice of medicine. FPR is a "doctoring" program that encompasses four core responsibilities necessary for physicians: responsibility for self-development, responsibility for the care of patients and families, responsibility for team collaboration, and responsibility for engaging in and improving and the healthcare system.

Course Instructor: Heather Ridinger, MD | Charlotte Brown

Year: Y1

Course Description: The overarching goal of this course is to help students develop an understanding of the fundamental obligations of the profession of medicine and to understand the systems that are required for us to meet those obligations.

Course Instructor: David Meoli, MD | Jonathan Douds, MD

Year: Y1

Course Description: This course is designed to teach students the normal anatomic, molecular, biochemical, and physiologic features of the cardiovascular, pulmonary, and blood systems. Course content will provide a framework for an understanding of the pathology and pathophysiology of diseases that affect these homeostatic systems as well as their diagnosis (laboratory and imaging), and therapy (pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic). A multidisciplinary approach will allow integration of pathobiology, clinical manifestations, and therapy in a comprehensive manner. The course will utilize a variety of teaching modalities that include case-based learning, team-based learning, lectures, laboratory sessions focused on the gross and microscopic anatomy and pathology, and technology-based modalities and simulations. Learning will be in the context of clinical medicine in order to prepare students for the next phase of their education in the clinical setting. The course will be integrated with all other learning activities in the Foundations of Medical Knowledge Phase.

Course Instructor: Bhavish Manwani, MD | James Powers, MD | Miklos Kertai, MD, PhD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: The cost of healthcare is an issue that affects everyone on both a population as well as individual level. Additionally, despite spending far more money in the United States on healthcare, our health outcomes are often no better and, in many cases, worse that other industrialized countries. This has led to an increased interest in high value care and its role in our healthcare system. This course aims to increase understanding and application of value metrics in health care, with a special emphasis on integrating value into clinical decision-making. Students will study value-based care through both a general medical lens as well as from the ethics, administrative, and health policy perspectives. At the end of this course, students will have a deeper understanding of how value is quantified in medicine and will have honed the crucial skill of incorporating value information and pretest probabilities into their diagnostic workups. Students will also be better prepared to act as high-value care change makers as they enter residency, having studied value-based care hospital practices as well as through interactions with utilization management and complex care teams.

Course Instructor: Cody Chastain, MD | Chase Webber, DO FACP

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Clinical reasoning is essential to effectively apply basic, translational, and clinical scientific evidence to patient care. Principles taught and interwoven in this course include:

1. Application of clinical reasoning to diagnostic testing and therapeutic interventions
2. Identification and avoidance of cognitive biases
3. Interpretation of diagnostic tests and test characteristics
4. Medical epistemology

Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to apply what they learn in the clinical environment (i.e., internal medicine, pediatrics, and/or emergency medicine) and reflect on how clinical reasoning may be used in clinical medicine. Foundational sciences addressed within the course include behavioral psychology, biostatistics, epidemiology, epistemology, ethics, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. This course is designed to be a space that supports growth and reflection. The diagnostic process requires an appreciation for uncertainty, which is upheld in the philosophy of the course's educational and assessment methods. Faculty will work to provide a "safe space" where students can build both skill and confidence. Faculty will serve as hands-on mentors, modeling their own practices and coaching students to build confidence in their own cognition and reasoning.

Course Instructor: Beth Ann Yakes, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: The LC FCC course seeks to mazimize medical student learning related to student professional identity formation. Helping students build an appropriate image of the medical profession and skill set related to functioning within the healthcare environment are the essential foundation for the future success.

Course Instructor: Beth Ann Yakes, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: The LC IMM course seeks to mazimize medical student learning related to professional identity formation. Helping students solidify an appropriate image of the medical profession and skill set related to functioning within the healthcare environment are the essential foundation for future success.

Course Instructor: Ban Allos, MD | Aaron Shaver, MD, PhD

Year: Y1

Course Description: This course familiarizes students with the etiology, risk factors, epidemiology, diagnosis, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, prevention and treatment of common microbial and immune diseases. The course content includes a discussion of the soluble factors and cells that make up the immune system and how these different components contribute to health and disease in a variety of situations. It also provides an overview of the pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa and parasites. Finally, the course includes several topics that prepare students for the Homeostasis class of the Foundations in Medical Knowledge Phase. The course consists of lectures, case-based small group discussions, case-based intermediate size group discussions, laboratory sessions, and optional problem and review sessions.

Course Instructor: Ryan Buckley, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: In this course, students will work closely with other Vanderbilt departments, labs, centers, and groups to connect with the best entrepreneurship programming across the University, and beyond when appropriate. Special attention will be given to industry level innovation activities to encourage a diffusion of the culture of design thinking, integrating the needs of people, the possibilities of technology. This course is a compliment to the MIDP Idea Lab clinical capstone course allowing for the continued stage gating of testing model, communication of design, and business planning. 

Course Instructor: Ryan Buckley, MD

Year: Y3

Course Instructor: Ryan Buckley, MD

Year: Y4

Course Description: Industry immersion experience will offer fourth-year MIDP students the opportunity to be exposed to innovation within the non-academic health care industry. Students will understand the environmental pressures industry faces regarding a more immediate product and process-associated time horizon. MIDP students will experience first-hand knowledge of company cultures and will turn new contacts into mutually beneficial long-term relationships. Problem solving within industry will help develop their mindset for and experience in design thinking.

Course Instructor: Todd Rice, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This course is a four-week experience in multidisciplinary critical care medicine from the perspective of internal medicine. The student will be expected to fulfill much of the role of a junior level house officer, but will be closely supervised by interns, residents, and a senior critical care fellow, as well as a critical care attending. The unit is a very active critical care facility which manages a wide variety of medical emergencies using extensive monitoring and support equipment. The emphasis is on pulmonary disease, infection, and renal dysfunction, but covers all aspects of critical illness, including endocrinology, nutritional support, cost containment, and ethical issues. Teaching rounds are given daily, and these are supplemented with didactic lecture-discussions several days each week. Fulfills the acute care course requirement.

Course Instructor: Todd Rice, MD, MSCI

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This course consists of seeing all pulmonary consultations at VU Hospital, presenting the cases to conferences and rounds, participating in pulmonary laboratory testing, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, and cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and attending joint pulmonary conferences. Case mix includes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary renal syndromes, vasculitis, sleep apnea, pulmonary nodules, infectious and non-infectious pulmonary infiltrates.

Course Instructor: Dave Meoli, MD, PhD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This acting internship in the MICU/CCU at the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital is intended to expose medical students to a variety of important diagnostic and management issues in critical care medicine. The student should have prior general ward experience in medicine and surgery. The student will function in the combined MICU/CCU as an acting intern under the supervision of a medical resident, pulmonary/critical care fellow and attending, and cardiology fellow and attending. The student will actively participate in both general medical intensive care and cardiac intensive care rounds. The student will follow the same schedule as interns in the ICU, alternating a week of days and a week of nights with one day off per week. Students will take primary responsibility for patient assessment, documentation and order entry. Students may have a higher patient census than in prior ICU rotations and will assume increasing responsibility for patient care as the month progresses. During the rotation, the student will learn how to evaluate complex critically ill patients and formulate diagnostic and therapeutic plans. The student will become familiar with the principles and techniques of invasive and non-invasive monitoring. Major areas which are stressed include cardiopulmonary pathophysiology, crisis management, ICU and CCU pharmacology, airway management and mechanical ventilation, fluid/electrolytes management, nutritional intervention, and ICU ethics. By the end of the rotation, the student should be comfortable in the initial assessment and treatment and ongoing care of the most common ICU/CCU admitting problems and will be prepared for residency ICU rotations.

Course Instructor: Todd Rice, MD, MSc

Year: Y1

Course Description: The research curriculum is a four-year thread. Students will be introduced to a career as a physician-researcher and receive training and hands-on experience in several critical areas of importance to success in research. This will be accomplished through a series of didactic lectures focused on introduction to important skills and traits of physician-researchers, shadowing and interviewing physician-researchers and processing the information to tell a story through a film documentary and related curriculum.

Course Instructor:  Grace Koo, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: Allergy/immunology is an evergrowing field in medicine with limited opportunities for exposure to trainees. This course is designed to give medical students an overview of the allergy/immunology specialty. Students will spend time in allergy/immunology clinics, working with attendings and fellows to evaluate both adult and pediatric patients. Students will obtain hands-on experience with allergy testing and procedures. This elective is for any student interested in learning about allergic and immunologic diseases while experiencing the interplay between clinical medicine and basic science. Given that many attendings subspecialize within the field, there is opportunity to tailor the experience based on the interest of the student.

Course Instructor: Jennifer King, MD | Katie McPherson, MD | Jeremy Walco, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Regardless of a student's individual specialty choice, each will be called upon to provide competent care for critically ill patients during their residency training. The successful management of critically ill or injured patients requires a thorough understanding of physiology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. By combining targeted teaching with hands-on experiences in different ICUs across the medical center, Critical Illness will deepen knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, imaging, biostatistics, ethics, microbiology, neuroscience, nutrition science, pharmacology, and behavioral medicine inherent in critically ill patients. In the first week, all students will be immersed in Critical Care Skills Week, a highly regarded simulation-based learning experience that prepares students to understand the basic principles of recognition and early treatment of the critically ill patient. All students will spend a week caring for patients in one of the following ICUs: Medical, Surgical, Burn, Neurologic, Cardiovascular, or Pediatric ICU. The other 2 weeks will be spent in learner-focused case-based education facilitated by ICU faculty, ICU radiology and palliative care sessions, additional patient-centered experiential learning opportunities and hands-on workshops in ICU-specific technical skills such as airway management, ventilator manipulation, and chest tube placement.

Course Instructor: Jeff Dendy, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This course will emphasize the development of skills in EKG interpretation and cardiovascular physical diagnosis. In addition, students will become familiar with the full spectrum of cardiovascular imaging modalities. The aim will be to appreciate their relative strengths and weaknesses as well as indications, techniques, and interpretation. The student will see patients in consultation with cardiology faculty at Vanderbilt and the Nashville VA Medical Center. Regular bedside physical diagnosis rounds will be held with senior Vanderbilt faculty. The student will also be instructed in the use of a heart sound simulator which has been demonstrated to improve diagnostic skills. There will be didactic sessions on EKG interpretation and cardiovascular imaging (including stress testing, nuclear cardiology, echocardiography, coronary angiography, and cardiovascular MR). Finally, weekly conferences to attend include: Clinical Cardiology (2), Echocardiography, Nuclear Medicine, and Cardiology Grand Rounds.

Course Instructor: Lynn Punnoose, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: During the acting internship in Critical Care Cardiology, students will actively participate in the management of patients hospitalized in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. Duties will include the management of patients with:

1. Cardiogenic shock and acute heart failure
2. Complicated myocardial infarction
3. Complex percutaneous coronary and valvular intervention
4. Pulmonary arterial catheters and continuous hemodynamic monitoring
5. Ventricular support devices
6. Mechanical ventilation
7. Cardiac arrhythmias

The student will work closely with the on-call medical resident and CVICU fellow and be expected to write admission and daily progress notes and present patients followed on daily work rounds to the entire team. The rotation will provide a significant "hands-on opportunity" for medical students to participate in the management of critically ill patients. Students will be expected to assume the role of the intern, carrying multiple patients and accepting increased responsibility for their care in order to prepare them for residency. This will be a more robust experience than prior critical care rotations.

Course Instructor: Lynn Punnoose, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: A student may serve as an acting intern on the Vanderbilt inpatient cardiology services, with direct supervision by an attending and upper level resident. Acting interns may carry up to 6 patients and may perform up to 3 admissions and 2 ICU transfers daily. Patients assigned will be selected for their teaching value, and the student will be expected to function as a member of the team at a supervised intern level for patient management and communication with other healthcare providers. This will include preparing the admission history and physical examination, entering orders, writing daily progress notes, presenting patients on daily work rounds, caring for a near intern-level patient census and coordinating discharge planning. This format provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate and manage patients with a wide variety of interesting disease processes and allows the acting intern to take more responsibility in the care of his/her patients in preparation for intern year.

Course Instructor: Kathryn Lindley, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: The cardio-obstetrics elective rotation is a two-week, combined inpatient and outpatient rotation aimed at developing basic knowledge of the care of reproductive aged women with acquired and congenital cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular risk factors. The rotation will include attendance in outpatient multidisciplinary cardio-obstetrics clinics, inpatient rounding with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine service, exposure to obstetric anesthesia care, and inpatient rounding on pregnant and postpartum patients with cardiovascular conditions.

Course Instructor: David Meoli, MD, PhD | Tania Ruiz, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: The course will expose the student to a broad range of cardiovascular diseases, focusing on foundational science as well as clinical topics that are applicable to students going into any specialty in which they will care for patients with cardiovascular diseases. Foundational science topics will include cardiovascular physiology and hemodynamics, electrophysiology, anatomy, histology, and pharmacology. All students will participate in a core series of didactics and workshops, but will be allowed to choose clinical experiences in cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery, and cardiothoracic anesthesia. Clinical care will occur in a variety of settings including the wards, intensive care unit, operating room, outpatient clinics, and diagnostic laboratories. The course will provide flexibility to allow the interested student to have experiences in at least two clinical specialties. In addition, the curriculum is designed to encourage teamwork and knowledge sharing through interactive conferences and work groups.

Course Instructor: MacRae F. Linton, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: This two-week elective will cover the outpatient management of cardiovascular risk, ranging from diagnosis and appropriate control of co-morbidities such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes, to the appropriate risk assessment strategy including non-invasive vascular evaluations, to tailored interventions addressing lifestyle and medications. At the conclusion of the two weeks, students will be able to appropriately identify and diagnose cardiovascular risk factors and co-morbidities and determine the strategy for full cardiovascular risk assessment, including performing non-invasive imaging tests, positioning the patient in a definite ten-year and lifetime cardiovascular risk category, and developing a management plan including proper lifestyle and pharmacologic interventions based on guidelines, evidence, and standard of care approaches.

Course Instructor: Marissa Kopatic, MD | Rebecca Bruccoleri, MD | Saralyn Williams, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: Introduction to Toxicology is a lecture-based elective rotation designed to introduce medical students to the field of Medical Toxicology. The rotation includes didactic learning sessions, Poison Center rounds, in-patient consultations, and participation in Toxicology clinic. The focus on pharmacology and the acute management of the poisoned patient is relevant for students interested in pursuing a wide range of specialties.

Course Instructor: Leslee Matheny, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This course is designed to give our medical students exposure to the myriad of endocrine disorders seen by the faculty in the Vanderbilt Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. It is intended to give medical students the opportunity to evaluate patients with different endocrine disorders, with a focus on physical exam findings, laboratory data, and radiological data. In addition, medical and surgical management of these disorders will be taught. Didactics will supplement the clinical experience and include pathophysiology of these disorders. Both diabetes mellitus and non-diabetes endocrinopathies, including thyroid, pituitary, bone, calcium metabolism and adrenal disorders, will be incorporated into this course.

Course Instructor: Omolola Olajide, MD | Tiffanie Marksbury, APN

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Diabetes mellitus is a worldwide pandemic. One in twelve United States adults now suffers from the disease, and in the near future this number will likely increase to one in ten. Physicians in any specialty/subspecialty can expect to care for patients with diabetes, especially because patients with diabetes have higher rates of hospitalization, surgical complications, cardiovascular disease, infection and other morbidities. Therefore most, if not all, physicians in training should be competent in basic treatment of diabetes in the inpatient and outpatient settings and understand the current and future areas of research and medical practice as related to diabetes. This course is designed to teach our medical students how to care for the patient with diabetes mellitus, regardless of their specialty of choice, as well as to understand the basic science, social effects, bearing on public health, and human impact of this disease. Additionally, biomedical research in diabetes involves many fields of research such as cardiovascular disease, physiology, molecular biology, genetic medicine, cell biology, and neuroendocrinology. As a medical center whose goal is to train future researchers and leaders in medicine, Vanderbilt must offer experiences in diabetes patient care and research to its students. This immersion will include components of clinical training as well as an academic project exploring the limits of current scientific knowledge about diabetes care and treatment.

Course Instructor: B. Gisella Carranza Leon, MD | C. Robb Flynn, PhD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Rates of obesity are rising all around the world and, as physicians we confront it daily regardless of our specialty. Whether clinicians or surgeons, general practitioners or specialists, pediatricians or internists, researchers, educators, administrators, public health professionals and even in our own families and circles of friends, the issue of obesity will be a near daily encounter. For most of us, obesity management will not be the primary focus of our job, but we can still play a key role in the prevention and care of unhealthy weight and its comorbidities. This course is designed for 3rd and 4th year medical students in an immersion format, combining mentored clinical experiences with additional organized learning opportunities. It is four weeks in length, offered at 6 points during the academic year, and incorporates up to five students in each offering. In this course students will have the opportunity to prepare for how they can effectively address obesity in their anticipated area of practice. They will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of interdisciplinary patient care settings, which range from general to subspecialty, from medical to surgical, and from clinical to research to community. Through these clinical experiences and additional learning activities, students reinforce their knowledge of this disease, build skills in its management, and contribute to the prevention and treatment of obesity..

Course Instructor: Andrea Utz, MD | Reena Singh, MD

Year: Y1

Course Description: This course is designed to familiarize students with the normal anatomic, molecular, biochemical, and physiologic features of the endocrine and reproductive systems. Course content will provide a framework for an understanding of the pathology and pathophysiology of diseases that affect these systems as well as their diagnosis (laboratory and imaging) and therapy (pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic). Pregnancy from implantation to delivery as well as its complications will also be learned. A multidisciplinary approach will allow integration of pathobiology, clinical manifestations, and therapy in a comprehensive manner. The course will utilize a variety of teaching modalities that include case-based learning, team-based learning, patient interviews, lectures, laboratory sessions focused on the gross and microscopic anatomy and pathology, and technology-based modalities. Clinical context will be emphasized in order to prepare students for the next phase of their education in the clinical setting. The course will be integrated with all other learning activities in the Foundations of Medical Knowledge Phase.

Course Instructor: Shabnam Sarker, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: The adult gastroenterology rotation offers a broad experience in the evaluation and management of adult patients with gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, gastrointestinal bleeding, pancreatitis, jaundice, abdominal pain, the use of enteral feeding, and swallowing abnormalities. The rotation would include evaluation of hospitalized adult patients and rounds with the inpatient gastroenterology consultation service at Vanderbilt Medical Center. Students would function as a gastrointestinal consultant, participate actively in inpatient rounds, and participate in teaching conferences sponsored by the division. There would also be exposure to gastrointestinal endoscopic techniques throughout this rotation.

Course Instructor: Rishi Naik, MD | Gautam Bhave, MD | Agnes Fogo, MD

Year: Y1

Course Description: This course is designed to familiarize students with the normal anatomic, molecular, biochemical, and physiologic features of the renal, gastrointestinal and hepatic (digestive) systems. Course content will provide a framework for an understanding of the pathology and pathophysiology of diseases that affect these systems as well as their diagnosis (laboratory and imaging) and therapy (pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic). A multidisciplinary approach will allow integration of pathobiology, clinical manifestations, and therapy in a comprehensive manner. The course will utilize a variety of teaching modalities that include case-based learning, team-based learning, patient interviews, lectures, laboratory sessions focused on the gross and microscopic anatomy and pathology of both organ systems. Clinical context will be emphasized in order to prepare students for the next phase of their education in the clinical setting. The course will be integrated with all other learning activities in the Foundations of Medical Knowledge Phase.

Course Instructor: Maie El-Sourady, MD | Matt Peachey, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Students will rotate through VUMC, the VA Hospital, and community hospice agencies under the supervision of palliative care specialists. Students will follow their own patients and work with an interdisciplinary team (IDT). This opportunity will allow students to learn and apply the fundamentals in pain and symptom management, how to communicate at the end of life, care of the dying patient, and hospice criteria. Students will spend roughly two weeks with the VUMC consult service, one week at the VUMC Palliative Care Unit, and one week at the VA. They will also work several days with community hospice members, child life specialists, chaplains, case managers, social workers, and nurses. At VUMC and the VA Hospital, students will work with the inpatient consultative team and see patients throughout the hospital from all disciplines of medicine assisting in symptom management, advanced care planning, and hospice information. During their time with hospice, they will accompany members of the IDT on home visits and learn more about their various roles in end of life care. The palliative care physicians and nurse practitioners will supervise and evaluate the students on the basis of the six clinical core competencies as delineated by the ACGME. Creative structuring will allow students to make modifications to the rotation to meet individual needs. VA system access is required. Students cannot take this course if they have not received VA access at least 2 weeks before the course starts.

Course Instructor: Joe Gigante, MD | Rachel Wolf, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: All immersion phase students will have a required four-week unit in an ambulatory primary care setting, and this course fulfills that requirement. Students will choose an experience in outpatient pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, or internal medicine/pediatrics. Practice sites include ambulatory clinics at Vanderbilt or within the Nashville-area community. Assistance with placement is provided.

Course Instructor: Eleanor Weaver, MD

Student Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: A student on this rotation is expected to serve as an acting intern with direct supervision from a hospitalist. The acting intern is expected to carry up to 6-8 patients at a time by the end of the rotation (they should start the rotation with a lower census). They may admit up to 3 patients per day and accept up to 2 ICU transfers per day. Students are expected to have the experience of caring for hospitalized internal medicine patients with high quality, efficient care. Student will practice taking a history, presenting patients to their attending, responding to urgent issues, entering orders, communicating with patients and consultants, and planning for discharge. This experience will allow students to have more autonomy, take more responsibility for their patients and prepare for intern year. This rotation will require students to be able to function well with a high level of autonomy. In order to apply, students should be proficient in history taking, generating differential diagnosis and plans.

Course Instructor: Ian Campbell, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This Acting Internship on the Veterans Administration Hospital medical wards allows students to work in concert with the house staff team (assistant resident, intern, and one or two third-year medical students). The acting intern will be assigned new patients each admitting day and will be responsible for their care under the direction of the assistant resident. The acting intern's patients will not be worked up by the regular intern. The student will be expected to attend all of the functions and keep the same hours as the house staff. This should provide an intensive experience in ward medicine.

Course Instructor: Eleanor Weaver, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: A student may serve as an acting intern on the Vanderbilt general medicine service, with direct supervision by an attending and upper level resident. Acting interns may carry up to 6 patients and may perform up to 3 admissions and 2 ICU transfers daily. Patients assigned will be selected for their teaching value, and the student will be expected to function as a member of the team at a supervised intern level for patient management and communication with other healthcare providers. This will include preparing the admission history and physical examination, entering orders, writing daily progress notes, presenting patients on daily work rounds, caring for a near intern-level patient census and coordinating discharge planning. This format provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate and manage patients with a wide variety of interesting disease processes and allows the acting intern to take more responsibility in the care of his/her patients in preparation for intern year.

Course Instructor: Nanette Dendy, MD | Heather Ridinger, MD, MPHE | Reed Sparta

Year: Y2

Course Description: The Internal Medicine Clerkship serves as a focal point of the second-year core clerkship education. It serves as a foundation in training in medicine and one of the most intensive learning experinces offered in the Department. During this foundational clinical experonces, students will evaluate patients with a broad range of medical diseases across both general and sub-specialty services at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the VA Tensessee Valley Healthcare Services (TVHS)- Nashville Campus. Students will learn both the science and the art of medicine and how the two complement each other.

Course Instructor: Lynn Holliday, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: This family medicine elective is provided to 2nd-year students through the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center Family Medicine Residency Program in Murfreesboro. This elective is available during the Foundations of Clinical Care (FCC) Phase and will provide a two-week snapshot of the family medicine specialty. Students will work alongside family medicine faculty and residents at a community hospital that provides full-spectrum training in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Students will spend one week on inpatient family medicine wards and actively participate in the initial evaluation, management, and follow-up of patients. They will work with family medicine residents and faculty for at least one day on labor and delivery with optional C-section experiences. One week will be spent in the outpatient setting for continuity of care and urgent care visits. Students will be exposed to the wide variety of outpatient procedures performed in clinic. Students will attend weekly didactics with residents. Students can request additional time on wards or clinic depending on their preference. By the end of this elective, students should be able to appreciate the broad scope of family medicine practice in caring for patients of all ages in all stages of life. Students approved for enrollment will be instructed on additional mandatory steps toward onboarding at the placement site, including submission of documentation through the Association of American Medical College's (AAMC) Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) application portal and payment of a $15 fee to the AAMC.

Course Instructor: Bhavish Manwani, MD | Ryan Buckley, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: Hospital Medicine is a rapidly expanding field that has become an integral part of inpatient care. At Vanderbilt, not only do hospitalists provide high-quality patient care but many also occupy key leadership roles while also engaging in various scholarly endeavors focused on quality improvement, medical education, transitions of care and health systems research. This clinical elective course aims to introduce students to the hospitalist role in a quaternary academic medical center. Within this two-week period, students will learn to provide high quality evidence-based care for complex patients in an interdisciplinary care team in conjunction with pharmacists, case workers, social workers, and other allied health professionals. They will have the opportunity to admit patients, create an organized plan of care, and perform inpatient procedures commonly performed by hospitalists with direct guidance and supervision from an attending. They will also be able to participate in the daily interprofessional huddle to understand transitions-of-care models and determine the most appropriate post-discharge placement for patients and causes of ineffective transitions. This course will be tailorable and can be designed based on each individual student’s preference to pique their interest in hospital medicine. Other possible clinical opportunities would include conducting home health visits with APPs as part of our hospital-at-home program and caring for unique patient populations served by our medicine consult service, Stallworth Rehab consult, and our geriatrics and Vanderbilt Interdisciplinary Care Program. In addition to learning how to provide comprehensive clinical care, students will also experience the extra-clinical leadership roles that VUMC (Vanderbilt University Medical Center) hospitalists serve. From clinical operations, to research, to medical education, students will see exemplars of careers in hospital medicine they might not otherwise be exposed to for several years. By the end of the course, students will have developed the skills needed to be an effective member of an interdisciplinary care team and provide comprehensive high-quality care to complex hospitalized patients. They will also be acquainted with the scholarly endeavors and key leadership opportunities in hospital medicine.

Course Instructor: Maie El-Sourady, MD | Matthew Peachey, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: Students interested in this elective must get VA access 1 month prior to the start of the rotation. (https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/ume/va-rotations) Students will rotate through Vanderbilt Medical Center under the supervision of palliative care specialists. Students will work with the entire multidisciplinary team during this rotation with the goals of learning to apply the fundamentals in pain and symptom management, communication at the end of life, care of the dying patient, and basics of hospice care. Students will rotate on the consultative services and the palliative care unit during the two-week block. Students will gain exposure to patients throughout the hospital from all disciplines of medicine assisting in symptom management, advanced care planning, and hospice. The medical director for palliative care at Vanderbilt University will supervise and evaluate the students on the basis of the six clinical core competencies as delineated by the ACGME. Creative structuring will allow students to make modifications to the rotation to meet individual needs. At the conclusion of the elective, students will be able to gather data as it relates to palliative care; demonstrate use of an interdisciplinary team to optimize patient care; evaluate and manage common symptoms in palliative care; identify goals of care through communication with families and patients in order to develop a plan of care that includes the patient's wishes, medical situation, and code status; recognize signs and symptoms of impending death; and identify different aspects of suffering in palliative care patients.

Course Instructor: Federica Angel, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: Psychiatry for the non-Psychiatrist is meant to be an introductory course to common mental health disorders seen in the outpatient non-psychiatry clinic setting. Students will have group discussion and written patient case-based learning for group feedback and engagement. Case based learning will include standardized didactics and as well as hands on clinical exposure when possible. Cases will be reviewed with the attending and mechanisms for patient care will be discussed, including basics of pharmacology and motivational patient interviewing techniques. Discussion of physiology and exam at presentation will be included.

Course Instructor: James Powers, MD

Student Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: The intent of this course is to provide students with an advanced educational experience in geriatric medicine. Students will gain familiarity with multiple geriatric syndromes: polypharmacy, gait instability, dementia, fragility, pain management, pressure sores, incontinence, osteoporosis; appreciation for continuity of care across different levels of care; and the ability to differentiate between normal aging and disease processes. Students' knowledge of ethical issues will also be enhanced including patient autonomy, driving, elder abuse, and advance care planning. Students will also be able to identify and use community resources effectively, assess and treat multiple geriatric syndromes, organize management of multiple acute and chronic diseases simultaneously, and communicate sensitively and effectively with older persons and caregivers. VA system access is required. Students cannot take this course if they have not received VA access at least 2 weeks before the course starts.

Course Instructor: Rachel Petry, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: A third of patients admitted to the hospital are > 65 years-old. Older adults are complex due to physiologic changes of aging, multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and goals which often value function and independence over longevity. This AI immerses students on the Acute Care for the Elderly Unit on 7-round wing to learn how to provide age-friendly healthcare. Age-friendly healthcare is guided by an essential set of evidence-based practices utilizing the 4Ms framework-mobility, medications, mentation, and what matters most. Students will work closely with an attending geriatrician, housestaff, the geriatric pharmacist, and the interdisciplinary team to master the 4Ms and develop an effective and efficient approach to caring for older adults.

Course Instructor: Anne Gifford, MD | Kimberly Beiting, MD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Regardless of specialty choice, all physicians will encounter aging and death among their patients, family members, and selves. In the Healthy Aging and Quality Dying ISC, students will take care of both aging and dying patients in a variety of settings ranging from inpatient geriatric wards, outpatient geriatrics primary care clinics, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and selected subspecialty settings. Didactics will delve into the foundational sciences of the epidemiology of aging, the physiology of aging and its clinical implications (e.g. falls, delirium and cognitive impairment, immune senescence, drug selection/dosing), communication skills, ethics at the end of life, systems-based care, and behavioral sciences in order to answer meaningful clinical questions. By expanding knowledge in these foundational sciences through small group discussions, case studies, and simulation exercises, students will be better equipped to slow down the aging process of their patients, prevent iatrogenic events in older adults, and improve quality of life based on what is most important to their patients.

Course Instructor: James Powers, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: In this two-week elective, students will join a team of attending, resident, and interdisciplinary team members on the Vanderbilt Acute Care for Elderly (ACE) Unit in the mornings. Experiences will include diagnosis and management of geriatric syndromes including falls, delirium, dementia, and transitions of care. Students will become acquainted with several patients and present them on rounds. Afternoons will consist of geriatric primary care and consult clinics with exposure to geriatric medication management, chronic illness, and home and community-based services. In the second week students will round mornings with the VA Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit Team, following and presenting selected patients and contrasting VA with Medicare resources. Afternoons will consist of VA Geriatric Consult and Primary Care Clinics, including a new Patient-Centered Aligned Care Team with a patient-centered medical home model. Relevant handouts and orientation materials will be provided, and students will participate in the ongoing Geriatrics and Palliative Care didactic series with rotating residents. At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to perform a functional assessment, contribute to an interdisciplinary team meeting, appreciate the clinical decision tree concept while managing patients with multi-morbidity states, and have an awareness of the array of community and institutional resources required to successfully manage transitions of care for frail elderly.

Course Instructor: Megan Dupuis, MD, PhD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This advanced clinical experience will provide the student with a broad overview of inpatient clinical oncology. Inpatient exposure will be centered at Vanderbilt Hospital, where the student will assist in the evaluation of new oncology service admissions and new consultations. The student will make morning rounds and present new cases to the oncology attending.

Course Instructor: Vivek Patel, MD | Olalekan Oluwole, MD, MPH

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: The goal of this course is to introduce students to the core concepts of classical (benign) and malignant hematology, how they are applied to patient care in the inpatient and outpatient settings, and how various components including clinical hematology, hematopathology, transfusion medicine, and coagulation medicine interplay to provide comprehensive hematologic care. Students will have 2 weeks of hands on experience in the management of hematologic disorders in the inpatient setting. The remaining 2 weeks will be spent in the ambulatory clinic setting, inpatient consults, virtual meetings and laboratory exposure.

Course Instructor: Kimberly Dahlman, PhD | Vicki Keedy, MD, MCSI

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. The World Health Organization estimates that the number of new cancer cases and cancer deaths will increase by 50% and 60%, respectively, within the next 20 years. Although in the United States, the overall cancer death rate has declined, the number of cancer survivors has increased and is expected to rise to 19 million people by 2024. Physicians practicing in any specialty can expect to care for patients, with significant co-morbidities, who have cancer or are cancer survivors. As a result, all medical students should understand the basic mechanisms driving the most common cancers, relevant treatment strategies, treatment toxicities, and outcomes. This course will provide a unique educational opportunity where medical and graduate students work together to explore the foundational principles of cancer biology and how that information is leveraged for personalized patient care. Foundational science topics are broad and include anatomy, physiology, histology, biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, molecular biology, immunology, pathology, radiobiology, and toxicology. Students will actively participate in the multidisciplinary approach necessary for the optimal care of cancer patients through clinical experiences and tumor board meetings. The small class size allows us to tailor integrated clinical experiences with students' professional preferences and/or goals. Students will also gain an understanding of patients' expectations and the importance of a broad fund of knowledge in addressing complex clinical problems.

Course Instructor: Olalekan Oluwole, MBBS, MD

Year: Y2

Course Description: This two-week elective will offer students an introduction to some unique problems that are often encountered in hematology and the principles of how they are managed. The list includes bone marrow failure states, thrombotic and hemorrhagic conditions, transfusion medicine, and hematologic neoplasms including lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma. Students will spend one week on the malignant hematology inpatient service during which they will be given patients to follow and present during rounds. They will participate in formulating a plan of care emphasizing hematologic issues including transfusion needs, antibiotics, therapeutic options, prognosis survivorship, end of life care and the role of palliation and hospice. Didactics will focus on the diagnosis and management of patients with hematologic cancers. Students will also have the opportunity to spend time in Hematopathology, blood bank, and hematology subspecialty clinics of their choice ranging from benign to malignant hematology and stem cell transplant. At the conclusion of the two-week elective, students will have a basic understanding of some of the unique questions often asked in hematology. They will also have a better understanding of what is involved in devising and recommending a therapeutic plan from the hematology perspective.

Course Instructor: Christina Fiske, MD | Walter Dehority, MD | Casey Smiley, MD | David Gaston, MD, PhD

Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: "A WHO report warns that infectious diseases are spreading more rapidly than ever before and that new infectious diseases are being discovered at a higher rate than at any time in history. This elective is for students with an interest in learning more about how to diagnose and treat patients with infectious disease. Students will also learn how to use antibiotics appropriately and manage the complications of HIV and other chronic infections. The varied patient population will afford the student a breadth of experience in evaluating and managing patients with infectious diseases. In this clinic-driven experience, students are placed in clinical experiences in various settings including inpatient, outpatient and laboratory medicine and are introduced to key topics and concepts in infectious diseases including symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, vaccines, and antibiotic stewardship. Methods to establish an etiologic diagnosis and rational use of antibiotics are emphasized. Foundational science topics include Epidemiology, Immunology, Microbiology, Virology, Pathology and Pathophysiology. The course is taught through online modules, lectures, clinic exposures to patients, team-based learning, and case presentations.

Course Instructor: Anna Burgner, MD | Saed Shawar, MBBS

Student Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: This experience is designed to give the immersion phase student significant experience in practical clinical nephrology and prepare him or her for future house staff training. Students will participate in daily rounds on either the Vanderbilt Nephrology Service, ESRD service, transplant service, or the VA nephrology service. Students will also have the option of spending time in the nephrology and dialysis clinics to gain more experience. Patients with various clinical disorders including fluid and electrolyte abnormalities, acid-base disturbances, glomerular diseases, and disturbances of kidney function, including acute and chronic kidney failure, will be seen and discussed. Students will have the opportunity to perform kidney consults and present patients to the rest of the rounding team. Frequently, the nephrology service is requested to perform emergency consultation which requires acute hemodialysis or acute plasmapheresis. Students may participate in these acute consultations, assist with acute dialysis catheter placement, and develop an understanding of kidney emergencies and their treatment.

Course Instructor: Sallaya Chinratanalab, MD

Student Year: Y3, Y4

Course Description: Time will be spent primarily in the rheumatology clinic at the Vanderbilt clinic and involved in the consultation from the hospital with the rheumatology team at VUMC. the VA Hospital (VAH). Students will have an opportunity to be involved in the clinic and consultation from the hospital with the rheumatology team at VAH. Upon request, students may have an opportunity to expose to pediatric rheumatology. Students will work in several clinics with different rheumatologists each day, and they will observe patient evaluations and treatments. Materials for study will be given. There will be an expectation from a student to perform patient assessment especially in history taking and physical examination focusing on rheumatology. Students will have an opportunity to attend all rheumatology conferences, in both clinical and research meetings.