Scholarly Concentrations: Year One

The Scholarly Concentration (SC) program is a faculty-mentored, scholarly experience for medical students. This required component of the M.D. curriculum provides the infrastructure and mentoring necessary for students to produce a scholarly project in an area of individual interest and encourages the acquisition of attitudes and skills for self-directed, lifelong learning and scholarship.

The Scholarly Concentration program offers the following five areas of study:

• Basic Science
• Clinical Research
• History of Medicine
• Medical Humanities, Bioethics and the Healing Arts
• Public Health and Community Service

Course Goals

The overall goals of the SC program are to promote intellectual curiosity, appreciation of scholarly inquiry, flexibility, passion for discovery, openness to new ideas and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. By the end of this course, the students will:

• Gain exposure to scholarship within their concentration.
• Be introduced to scholarly careers in medicine.
• Work closely with a mentor to formulate a research question or scholarly objective and to develop a plan that addresses the student’s research question with appropriate methods.
• Conduct a scholarly project.
• Develop skills in critical thinking, self-directed learning, written and oral communication.

Course Director

Mary Catherine Beach, M.D., M.P.H. Associate Professor of Medicine

Time Commitment and Course Length

The course comprises six modules that meet three afternoons a week during the TIME courses. Students choose an area of concentration by December of Year One. There are seven core assignments beginning with the project proposal and ending with the final project presentation in March of Year Two. Most students devote the summer after Year One to the scholarly project.

Typical schedule of Scholarly Concentrations in Year One:

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