The purpose of undergraduate medical education is to create new doctors-young women and men who are superbly qualified, professional and compassionate. Medical student education is one of our core missions. In this endeavor, the department plays a major role in the Medical School's student education programs; our faculty members teach more than one-quarter of the entire four-year medical school curriculum, and our faculty occupy key leadership positions in all of the programs.

Our curriculum director for first and second year medical students is Roger Grekin, MD. Our students benefit from two programs during these years that cut across the curriculum. The first is called The Family-Centered Experience, directed by Arno Kumagai, MD. This program, done in a small group setting, helps students understand illness and health care from the patient's perspective. They're taught to view illness and its treatment from a psychosocial and cultural context, to explore the impact of illness on the individual's sense of beliefs, family and environment.

The second program is called Clinical Foundations of Medicine, directed by Robert Lash, MD. This course gives students knowledge and skills to make them ready for the clinical years. It teaches them how to take a medical history and perform a physical exam. Students develop an understanding of health disparities, appreciate the philosophic issues underlying medical ethics, see the relationship between medicine and society, learn the basics of health economics and health insurance and search the literature to help patients.

Many of the curriculum sequences for second-year students are headed or co-headed by our own internal medicine faculty, a fact that demonstrates the enormous leadership contributions of our department. The cardiovascular sequence gets assistance from Rajesh Mangrulkar, MD, and Peter Hagan, MD; respiratory is directed by Paul Christensen, MD, and Tom Sisson, MD; renal is co-headed by Joel Weinberg, MD; musculoskeletal is directed by Seetha Monrad, MD; hematology/oncology is co-directed by Paula Bockenstedt, MD; gastrointestinal is co-headed by Rebecca Van Dyke, MD; endocrine is co-directed by Dr. Kumagai.

During the third and fourth years, students gain knowledge, skills and professional attributes by working side-by-side with faculty and house-staff providing care for our patients. We believe students learn best while assisting in the care of patients. In the fourth year, we offer sub-internships in medicine and in the intensive care units, an experience run by Robert Sitrin, MD. Students spend one or two months performing the role of an intern while under supervision. One of the best compliments we get is when students tell us their internships are just like their fourth year.

This year we again offered an online course that allows students to learn while they're traveling and interviewing for internships without missing class time. This year the course was coordinated by Sandro Cinti, MD.

The quality of our education, of course, benefits from the caliber and quality of our students. For that we must thank Steven Gay, MD, assistant dean for admissions, also known as our "admissions czar."

The William Dodd Robinson Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine is presented each year in recognition of a graduating senior student's superb academic performance in the junior medicine clerkship and senior electives in internal medicine. In 2008, Kristen Adams was the recipient of this auspicious honor, a tradition that extends back more than three decades and honors William Dodd Robinson, chair of the Internal Medicine Department from 1958 to 1975.

We were also proud to recognize the two recipients of our 2008 senior scholarship awards; Kristen Adams and Timothy Bodnar. These scholarships, funded by contributions from donors including alumni and faculty of the Department of Internal Medicine, are awarded to medical students who exemplify the highest standards of academic excellence. The scholarships assist with tuition for the students' final year of medical school, allowing them to begin their careers with fewer financial constraints.

The Eli G. Rochelson Memorial Award was given this year to Katherine Kleaveland. This honor is given each year by the Pulmonary & Critical Care faculty to the graduating senior they believe best exemplifies excellence in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

The students awarded Bronze Beepers in recognition for excellence in medical student education were Thomas Boyden, MD, Sameer Gafoor, MD, Terry Platchek, MD and Mark Zaros, MD.

The Golden Beeper, given by the Galens Medical Society to the best resident across all disciplines, for excellence in medical student education, was received by Geoffrey Barnes, MD, who was also a Bronze Beeper recipient.

Rebecca Van Dyke, MD, was presented with the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. Dr. Van Dyke is also the recipient of the Kaiser Permanente Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Medical School's highest award for teaching.

At the department level, Rebecca Van Dyke, MD, received the Richard D. Judge Award for Excellence in Medical Student Teaching. Liselle Douyon, MD received the Special Recognition for Contributions to the Medical Student Program Award.