MD/PhD-specific Enrichment Programs

• The Clinicopathological Conference (CPC) is a program developed specifically for MD-PhD students. The goal of the CPC series is to teach the students how to arrive at a diagnosis of a patient presented at the CPC session. The CPC cases are based off selected cases described in the Massachusetts General Hospital Weekly Case Records published in the New England Journal of Medicine). The students will learn to use the information extracted from the chief complaint of the patient, history, physical findings, and the results of the laboratory and radiological workup to develop a differential diagnosis list and to arrive at a diagnosis. The speakers of this series are drawn from within NJMS as well as clinicians outside of our institution.

• The Summer Series, as described above, aims to teach the students the approach and interpretation of a clinical case to arrive at a diagnosis of the patient being discussed. This series, in conjunction with various clinical activities described below, keeps our students that are in the research phase abreast with clinical medicine and prepare them for their subsequent return to the ward during the M3-M4 years. The Summer Series also features selected senior students to present their thesis work and to provide advice to their junior peers. At the end of the student sessions, faculty members will depart so that the Q&A can be conducted freely among the participating students.

• The Career Development Series A major component of the NJMS MD-PhD program is career development. The Program strives to ensure that the students receive the proper career counseling to prepare them for an academic career. To this end, we have in place the Career Development Seminar Series, led by invited speakers who are physician scientists with a range of clinical specialties and research interests from across the countries (e.g., New York University, Columbia University, Cornell Weill-Hospital of Special Surgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Stanford, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Johns Hopkins, Feinstein Institute, Rutgers, etc) to inform students about research and clinical opportunities in various disciplines. The speakers’ subspecialties cover a broad range of clinical domains (e.g., Oncology, Gastroenterology, Allergy & Immunology, Orthopedic surgery, Infectious Diseases, Neurosurgery, Dermatology, Anesthesiology, Radiation oncology, Rheumatology, Pharmaceutical Industry, Psychiatry & Neurosciences, etc). The students often inform the Program about subspecialties in which they are interested, this is an important factor determining the source of our speakers for this series. Virtually all our speakers are willing to further connect with our students to guide their career development after they have met at the seminars.