Dr. Deepthiman Gowda

Course Director
Office: BB 15-1516
Phone: 212-305-2451
Email: dg381@columbia.edu

Dr. Mary Johanna Fink

Associate Course Director
Office: Farrell Clinic, 610 West 158th St.
Phone:  212-544-1880
Email:  mjf2103@columbia.edu

Foundations of Clinical Medicine was determined by asking the question, ‘what clinical skills and knowledge does the P&S student need to confidently enter the Major Clinical Year?' The course, which runs from October to May of the second year, will primarily be taught in Preceptor Groups comprised of four students and one faculty member. The first section of the courseis an intensive training inthenormal physical exam and will take place at Preceptor sites and at CUMC-based physical exam tutorials.

The student will thenwork with hospitalized patients at their Preceptor sites to learn to obtain both complete and hypothesis-driven medical histories and physical exams. The student will learn toorganize histories, physical exams, and laboratory and imaging data into effective write-ups and oral case presentations.  Students will also take turns leading cases in theirPreceptor Groups. Thecases, which will correlate with contentin the Pathophysiology course, will introduce students to clinical reasoning, hypothesis-driven history taking and physical examination, and an application of the concepts ofclinical epidemiology to decision-making.