Medicine

Faculty members of the Department of Medicine have major responsibilities for teaching throughout the medical school curriculum. Departmental faculty direct and teach several courses in the first two years.

For third year students, the department provides a 12-week clerkship in medicine, which includes inpatient experience and four weeks of ambulatory general medicine. The student participates in this required clerkship at one of eight Tufts-affiliated sites spread throughout Eastern Massachusetts. The teaching is coordinated through the study of patients cared for both in hospital and in private practice settings, an extensive set of standard problem-based cases, and a standard didactic curriculum coordinated across all sites. Students interact with both a local clerkship director and the clinical faculty who serve as the attending physicians for each rotation. During the twelve-week clerkship, each student is assigned to several different attending physicians.

For fourth year students, the department offers one-month sub-internships in ward medicine and electives in ambulatory general internal medicine. In addition, more than 100 electives in medical subspecialties are offered in the Tufts-affiliated hospitals, including both ward and consultation experiences. Each of the Departments of Medicine in the affiliated hospitals has a postgraduate training program in internal medicine and numerous fellowship programs in the medical subspecialties.

The research activities of the department are internationally respected and wide-ranging, from basic science through clinical, health services and outcomes research, to a vast array of clinical trials. Research opportunities under the tutelage of senior faculty are available to medical students in a wide variety of disciplines, including allergy, clinical and molecular cardiology, clinical decision making/medical informatics, community medicine, endocrinology, gastroenterology, geographic medicine/tropical diseases, inflammation, medical economics, molecular biology, nephrology, outcomes research, primary care, pulmonary diseases, rheumatic diseases and women's health. Students participating in the research programs interact directly with the extensive faculty of the department.