Introduction to the Profession
Harvard Medical School has two programs -New Pathway (NP), with 120 students, and Health Sciences & Technology (HST), with 30 students. NP follows a Problem-Based Learning philosophy in which students learn primarily by analyzing clinical cases, discussion, and self-research. HST is a collaboration between Harvard and MIT, and it's much more focused on frontiers research and lecture-based learning.
For the first two years of medical school, we take no courses together except for Introduction to the Profession, starting today and lasting for two weeks. The purpose of the course is to provide a relaxed introduction to coursework during which we learn to take vital signs, take a basic patient history, shadow doctors, and talk to patients.
HMS is one of the few schools that has a dual program like this, and I think it reflects its dual commitment to patient care and research well.
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