Intersession

Our third year is interspersed with four weeks of "intersession" when the whole class gets back together in between rotations. The objective is to teach us clinically important concepts that are rarely formally addressed like ethics, health policy, translational science, and epidemiology. In practice, it's a somewhat relaxing classroom week that allows us to catch up with friends, finish errands, and recuperate. Our last intersession focused heavily on epidemiology, evidence based medicine, and the role of research in medicine. Notable lectures include Don Ganem describing the scientific thinking about HIV in the early stages of the AIDS epidemic. We had small groups discussing meta-analysis and in depth basic science papers. There was a "master clinician" rounds discussing a case of recurrent headache as well as an FPC session. That was good; we debriefed on trying episodes that occurred during our first rotation as well as our growth and learning on the wards.