Medical Student Education

Ambulatory Care Clerkship

The Ambulatory Care Clerkship is a general internist-run “New York Primary Care” experience which all Weill Cornell Medicine students experience as a core clerkship during their second or third year of medical school. Students see patients with a diverse group of academic and voluntary faculty community-based internists, geriatricians, pediatricians, gynecologists, urgent care physicians, dermatologists, and surgical subspecialists. Students receive clinical mentorship and grow their clinical skills in patient interviewing and motivational counseling, physical examination, patient presentations, and differential diagnosis and management; their clinical evaluations focus on assessments of these skills. General internists in our division lead a didactic curriculum and run small tutor group sessions where students present cases to each other that fit primary care themes; these sessions utilize an innovative approach where students receive case presentations from their peers and have to each formulate their own assessments and care plans, leading to high level discussions of evaluation and management in the context of evidence-based medicine. This clerkship offers two clinical tracks: the main Weill Cornell Medicine campus and the NYP/Brooklyn Methodist campus. The clerkship is under the direction of Brian Eiss, M.D.

Medicine Clerkship

The Medicine Clerkship is an active learning experience in which students learn clinical medicine by engaging in the care of patients. The goal of the clerkship is for each student to develop the knowledge, skills, and professional attributes essential to the practice of internal medicine. By the end of the course, the student should be able to perform a complete history and physical examination: write orders and notes; develop the problem list, differential diagnosis, diagnostic strategy, and management plan for common medical problems; and interact as a professional with the patient, family, and members of the medical team. The clerkship is an eight-week course taken starting in the second half of the second year of medical school. Students are assigned to inpatient medical services at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell, NYP/Queens, NYP/Brooklyn Methodist, Houston Methodist Hospital, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Clerkship students attend regular, small group tutorials and tutor groups, as well as teaching rounds, grand rounds, and an interprofessionalism day with other house staff. Under the direction of Bryan Leppert, M.D., Aram Annie Kim, M.D., both faculty in the Section of Hospital Medicine, and Stephen Andrew McCullough, M.D., faculty in the Division of Cardiology, the Medicine Clerkship leadership is committed to fostering the development of each medical student and ensuring that learners achieve their goals while growing as physicians in a supportive learning environment.

Internal Medicine Sub-Internship

The Internal Medicine Sub-Internship, led by Anthony Ogedegbe, M.D., is a four week rotation where fourth-year medical students who have completed the medicine clerkships are entrusted with many roles and responsibilities of a first-year, internal medicine resident.

Patient-Centered Care and Health Equity Area of Concentration (AOC)

The AOC on Patient-Centered Care and Health Equity focuses on helping to prepare medical students to become future clinicians, researchers, educators, and advocates who wish to build careers in advancing patient-centered care and health equity across a variety of disciplines. How these activities can advance through influencing health policy is another important focus of this AOC. Students will identify a mentor to develop a unique scholarly project that will focus on improving health disparities through one of several potential frameworks and approaches including (although not limited to): 1) innovations in patient engagement, education, and communication, 2) health and human rights, 3) health care disparities research, 4) health care policy and advocacy, and 5) social sciences.

To learn more about our AOC, view the flyer or contact Martin Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. and Christopher Gonzalez, M.D., M.Sc.

Weill Cornell Community Clinic (WCCC)

The Weill Cornell Community Clinic is a student-led initiative aimed at providing high-quality and equitable health care to uninsured individuals in New York City. Under the supervision of an attending physician, the clinic offers comprehensive primary healthcare services at low-or no cost to adults, including preventive care, treatment for acute and chronic conditions, and referrals to appropriate and affordable specialty services. WCCC aims to extend healthcare access to underprivileged populations while encouraging volunteerism and philanthropy, and welcomes all students to participate in the clinical, research, and organizational opportunities that are available.

Advanced Clinical Reasoning Elective

The purpose of this elective is to provide students with valuable clinical reasoning knowledge and skills that will aid their transition to the next steps of medical training. Core concepts of diagnostic reasoning and management reasoning are reviewed, including the problem representation, illness scripts, management scripts, testing and treatment threshold concepts, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, and probabilistic reasoning. Students learn theories and advanced concepts such as dual process theory, situativity theory, and adaptive expertise applied to clinical practice and personal development. Finally, frameworks for understanding, identifying, and potentially mitigating cognitive biases and error are discussed. Sessions include case-based scenarios, reflective practice, and direct observation. This elective is under the direction of Justin Choi, M.D.

Advanced Hospital Medicine Elective

The Advanced Hospital Medicine Elective is a two-week long rotation on the "non-teaching" General Medicine Service offered to fourth-year Weill Cornell medical students. The elective takes advantage of a diverse population of patients admitted to the General Medicine service usually covered by physician assistants. The absence of a traditional resident-student team structure allows for direct observation by a hospitalist physician, as well as a greater degree of responsibility. The assessment of students will focus on the clinical competencies outlined by the ACGME and the CDIM, and include the following areas:

1. Patient Care
2. Medical Knowledge
3. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
4. Communication Skills
5. Professionalism
6. Systems-Based Practice

This elective is under the direction of Joshua Heisler, M.D.

Point of Care Ultrasound Elective

This elective is an introductory course to the use and understanding of point-of-care ultrasound in the care of hospitalized patients. By the end of this elective, the student will be able to:

1. Understand the basic physics behind ultrasound
2. Acquire and interpret ultrasound images in the follow areas: cardiac, pulmonary, abdominal, vasculature, soft tissue
3. Interpret pathology seen in the above areas

This elective is under the direction of Tanping Wong, M.D.

To explore other mentorship opportunities from a general internist as a medical student, contact Kathryn Zhu, M.P.A., with questions.