Home > Medical Education > Medical Education by Department > Medicine > Medical Student Education

Medical Student Education

The Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center leads Harvard Medical School in medical student education, both in the number of leadership positions and in overall faculty participation.

The best testimonial to the accomplishments of the departmental faculty is to be found in the list of Harvard Medical School faculty teaching awards, more of which have gone to this department than to any other.

Four Academic Societies

Of the four Academic Societies at Harvard Medical School, three have leadership from our department:

Gordon Strewler, MD, is Master of the Walter B. Cannon Society.
William Taylor, MD, is Associate Master of the William B. Castle Society.
Helen Shields, MD, and Joyce Sackey, MD are Associate Masters of the Oliver W. Holmes Society.

Faculty

The faculty of the Department of Medicine are active as lecturers, tutors, and small group leaders. They serve as directors of many elective courses.

Among the prominent course leaders is Richard Schwartzstein, MD, Course Director for the Integrated Human Physiology Course.
Richard Schwartzstein, MD, is also Vice President for Education of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Faculty Associate Dean.
Ronald Silvestri, MD, directs Patient-Doctor 2, the second year physical diagnosis course at Harvard Medical School.
Robert Stanton, MD, is the Course Director of the Human Systems pathophysiology course.
David Roberts, MD, is the Director of the Pulmonary Block of the course.
Rob Shmerling, MD, is the Co-Director of the Musculoskeletal Block.
Melanie Hoenig, MD, is the Director of the Renal Block.
Helen Shields, MD, directs the Gastroenterology Block.
Clyde Crumpacker, MD, directs the Mechanisms of Microbial Pathogenesis course in the Health Sciences and Technology Program.

Patient-Doctor Program

Interviewing Skills and Physical Diagnosis

Patient-Doctor I and Patient-Doctor II teach students interviewing skills and physical diagnosis. Both are year-long courses.

Patient-Doctor I

Year-long program
Site Coordinator: Joyce Sackey, MD

Patient-Doctor II

Year-long program
Overall Course Director: Ronald Silvestri, MD
The BIDMC site is the second largest in the course, teaching 38 students in 2007-2008 and is under the able direction of Amy Ship, MD, and Ronald Silvestri, MD.
More than 150 faculty members participated in Patient-Doctor II this year.

Medicine Clerkships

Approximately one-third of Harvard Medical Students complete their third-year Medicine Clerkship at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. They spend two months on inpatient medical service and one month on Ambulatory medicine.

Clerkship Director: Sara Fazio, MD
Associate Director: John Danziger, MD

Subinternship

This month-long inpatient experience for fourth-year students prepares them for internship. This is a valued experience that is highly rated by Harvard medical students. We recently restructured the Subinternship by creating a Subintern-Resident Service (SIRS) and other changes to improve the teaching of fourth-year students.

Co-directors: Pamela Hartzband, MD, and Alexander Carbo, MD