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9th Annual Meeting 
of the 
International Association of Medical Science Educators 

July 14-19, 2005
 

Abstract Category: Curriculum

Poster ID: C9

HOW AACHEN UNIVERSITY ’S MEDICAL SCHOOL INTEGRATES BASIC SCIENCES IN ITS “MODEL CURRICULUM MEDICINE”

Jerome Rotgans, Ph.D., D.D.S., M.D., M.H.P.E., Aachen University , Medical Faculty, Universitaetsklinikum, 52057 Aachen/Germany

Typical for the German situation is that all 36 medical schools have to implement the federal prescribed curriculum. Even its recent amendment is so far behind modern educational concepts that it continues to discriminate between a preclinical and clinical phase. However, it allows – by special application procedure and under special supervision – to implement so-called “Model Curricula”. One of the schools with such a curriculum is the Medical School of Aachen University; it is in the process of implementation since winter semester 2003/2004.

The “Model Curriculum Medicine Aachen” is conceptionalized as a Learning Spiral resulting in fourfold repetition of each organ system at increasingly demanding levels: (1) propaedeutic introduction, (2) systematic interdisciplinary work-out, (3) clinical introduction, and (4) real practice.

In the first phase, the 1^st year, homogenisation of students’ knowledge in (natural) basic sciences occurs and an introduction into cell biology and medical basic sciences is given. In the second phase, the 2^nd and 3^rd year, education is organised by theoretical and clinical disciplines interdisciplinary with focus on the organ systems. In the third phase, the 4^th and 5^th year, education is focussed on teaching practical, diagnostic and therapeutic knowledge and skills at bedside. By rotation, block practical training courses are accompanied by symptom-, diagnose- and therapy-oriented lectures. In the final, practical year, the 6^th year, training (as traditional clerkship) is divided into four 12-week terms in Surgery, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and one or two electives.

Besides this program, as a parallel lane, increasingly more time is available in the curriculum to develop an individual qualification profile, not in terms of medical specialisation but for personal development, based on electives.

Characteristic for the 1st phase is curriculum compatibility with other/new biomedical/biotechnical curricula offered by Aachen University (an original technical university) offering, for example, drop-outs easy change without loosing valuable life-time.

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