Phase 3: DMS Years 3 and 4 for the M.D.-Ph.D. Student

DMS Year 3

The M.D.-Ph.D. student will typically complete all required clinical clerkships in the DMS3 year. The exception is the student returning in September, who may complete five of the six clerkships, with the sixth to be completed in DMS4. Required clerkships are:

• Internal Medicine
• Surgery
• Family Medicine
• Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women's Health
• Psychiatry
• Pediatrics

DMS Year 4

The curriculum for the DMS4 M.D.-Ph.D. student includes the remainder of the required clinical clerkships, as well as a new required clerkship in the Clinical Investigation Course.

• Any of the six DMS3 clerkships that may have not been completed yet
• The two additional required DMS4 clerkships
• Subinternship
• The Feb-March block on
  • Health Society and Physician
  • Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
  • Advanced Medical Sciences
  • Cardiac Life Support

Clinical Investigation Course

Dartmouth Medical School is developing a new educational program at Dartmouth, called here the Clinical Investigation Course (CIC) clerkship. This will be a new clerkship to last four weeks, to take place in DMS4. The CIC clerkship is expected to be a culminating experience for the DMS M.D.-Ph.D. student, allowing him/her to synthesize experience, knowledge, and skills gained in the three prior phases of the DMS M.D.-Ph.D. Program: basic biomedical sciences, intensive research, and clinical acumen. The clerkship will be required for all M.D.-Ph.D. students at the DMS4 level. The precise nature and details of the clerkship need to be worked out, but it will include both practical and theoretical (didactic) education in the following:

• Outcomes-based research
• The design, implementation, and interpretation of clinical trials (with actual involvement in one or more ongoing clinical trials at DHMC/DMS)
• Practical aspects of research involving human subjects (e.g. IRB)
• Advanced biostatistics
• Research career development
• Bioethics