Graduate Medicine

Modules shown are for the current academic year, and are subject to change depending on your year of entry.

Students are not permitted to progress to the next year of the course unless satisfactory attendance and academic performance is maintained. Further details of progression rules can be found under procedures and regulations.

During the first two weeks you will undertake an introduction and orientation to the undergraduate medical course and to the School of Medicine.

Following the introductory sessions you will begin an integrated programme consisting of themes covering the main elements of the core course: Scientific Basis of Medicine and Clinical Experience.

• Molecules, Cells and Disease includes molecular and cell biology, genetics, blood and blood-forming tissues, metabolism, infection, immunity, cell pathology, and cancer
• Life Support Systems includes the skin, cardiovascular, respiratory, alimentary and urinary systems, and the anatomy of the thorax, abdomen, pelvis and perineum
• Life Cycle And Regulatory Systems includes human life cycle, neuroscience and mental health, the endocrine and musculoskeletal systems, the anatomy of the head, neck, spine and limbs, as well as pharmacology and therapeutics. Foundations of Clinical Practice includes communication skills, Society and Health Medical ethics and Law, epidemiology in practice, and Digital Literacy The initial element of clinical experience (the Patient Contact course) is also managed as part of this theme
• Science and the Patient includes problem-based learning and personal and professional development and is taught in small groups throughout the first and second years

Teaching comprises lectures, clinical demonstrations, tutorials, seminars, computer workshops, laboratory practical and clinical skills classes, and some problem-based learning.

Graduate Medicine students will be cohorted together for small group teaching sessions as much as possible. Lecture programme attendance will be tailored to individual needs after discussion with the Head of Graduate Medicine.

Clinical experience in the first year is provided by the Patient Contact module. During the module, you will pay a number of visits to a patient or a family in their home environment and in a clinic setting, in order to explore the module topics: illness, health and disease; the experience of health and social care; and living with a long term condition.

Patient visits are supplemented by small group work with practising GPs or hospital consultants.

In the second year you progress to your first hospital-based clinical attachment where you begin to apply your knowledge and skills to the care of patients.

In addition to the core learning associated with Years 1 and 2, you will be offered learning opportunities generated specifically to meet a key aim of the Imperial Graduate Medicine MBBS programme – to identify and train the academic clinicians of tomorrow.

During Year 1, research supervisors will be assigned. You will be able to undertake these research projects during free time across Years 1 and 2, although a specific eight-week block will be assigned for completion of these projects during Year 2 as part of the Science and Patient Course.

During Year 1, you will receive specific teaching on ‘how students learn’ and ‘appropriate methods for teaching, learning and assessing in medicine’.

During Year 2, you will have the opportunity to act as Graduate Teaching Assistants within the Undergraduate Medical programme.

Those students wishing to obtain the Higher Education Academy Associate Fellowship will need to produce an Account of Professional Practice (APP) for submission to the HEA.

This year consists of three 10-week clinical placements, which may be at any of the hospitals associated with the School.

You also continue to study the systems and topics component of the programme, begun in the first and second years, via a programme of live lectures and interactive online learning delivered alongside the clinical attachments.

The emphasis throughout is on the acquisition of core skills and knowledge in general medicine (including cardiovascular, renal, respiratory, neurology, oncology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, haematology, rheumatology and medicine for the elderly), general surgery (including gastrointestinal, breast and vascular surgery, and urology), anaesthetics, and clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.

• Medical or surgical takes
• GP teaching: basic clinical skills/methods in general practice
• Patient clerking: to clerk (take the history and examine) at least two patients each week and write up these case histories – students are assessed on two of these written clerkings during each attachment, separate from the case project
• Consultant teaching: key cases relating to the attachment – you will be expected to present patients during these sessions and this forms part of your assessment Problem-based learning
• Lecture module: a continuation of systems and topics teaching
• Other teaching: this will depend on the nature of the clinical attachment, but should include outpatient clinic teaching, theatre sessions, endoscopy sessions, and anaesthetics sessions
• Reading and electronic resources
• You will also undertake the three-week Background to Clinical Specialties module, which acts as an introduction to many different clinical specialties

There is a dedicated Pathology module at the start of the fourth year, which covers essential clinical pathology followed by 10 clinical specialties:

• Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Paediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Oncology and Palliative Care
• General Practice and Primary Health Care
• Radiology
• Infectious Diseases/GUM/HIV
• Dermatology
• Rheumatology
• Orthopaedics/Musculoskeletal Medicine
• Critical care
• Teaching skills

The final year consists of:

Seven three-week clinical attachments in:

• Emergency Medicine
• General Practice Student Assistantship
• Cardiology
• Neurology
• Ears, Nose and Throat
• Ophthalmology
• Renal Medicine

• Two senior placements (one in medicine and one in surgery)
• One specialty choice module
• An eight-week elective period which may be spent in the UK or overseas
• An integrated module in Medicine, Surgery and Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• A revision module for the finals examinations
• A transition to Foundation module