The University of Illinois' medical school has a third-year program of weekly role-playing exercises focusing on management of acute medical problems. Students are responsible for creating the cases, complete with scenarios and treatment teams, simulating them, and successfully treating or reaching an impasse. Little teacher preparation time is…

In the University of South Dakota's medical school clerkship program, students may choose one of three ambulatory-care settings. In one, the curriculum is problem based and student centered to enhance student interest in primary care. The new program has been successful and well received and is being further developed. (MSE)

University of Hawaii medical school workshops retrain faculty for their roles as tutors in the newly adopted problem-based curriculum. Assessment of trainees' knowledge and skills before and after the sessions indicate the training was successful and also identified common problems faced by traditional teachers in the new role of facilitator.…

Harvard Medical School's integration of a curriculum on health promotion and disease prevention is described. The case method was used for all teaching in the curriculum. Students worked together in small groups, addressing the issues raised by each case under the direction of faculty preceptors. (Author/MLW)

The Parallel Curriculum, a problem-based curriculum at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is described through each year of study. The curriculum increases learning enjoyment by making medical students responsible for scholarly exploration and integration of knowledge and skills with faculty support. (Author/GLR)

Two charting strategies to help students organize patients' data are Weed's problem-oriented medical record and Russell's condition diagram. Students at the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio were divided into study groups. The condition diagram group format may be helpful for students with lower academic achievement. (Author/MLW)

As part of the Generalist Physician Initiative, the University of Massachusetts medical school developed the "standardized family" as a model for teaching essential elements of primary care in a core curriculum format outside the clinical setting. The hypothetical family unit serves as the focus for case-based clinical problem solving.…