David Geffen School of Medicine

37-120 Center for Health Sciences
Box 951736
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1736

Medicine
310-825-6058

Alan M. Fogelman, MD, Executive Chair

Jose Escarce, MD, PhD, Executive Vice Chair, Academic Affairs

Robert K. Oye, MD, Executive Vice Chair, Clinical Services

Dennis J. Slamon, MD, Executive Vice Chair, Research

The principal goal of the Department of Medicine is to educate students in the expert diagnosis and compassionate management of human illness. Building on the biochemical, physiological, and behavioral foundations of the preclinical experience, students are taught information acquisition through history taking, physical examination, and laboratory evaluation; information synthesis through achieving a differential diagnosis and evaluative plan; and medical decision making for continued evaluation and therapy. Students are encouraged and guided in developing a caring physician/patient relationship.

Instruction in the department is provided in all four years of medical school, with the third and fourth years constituting a continuum of clinical experience. Students become integrated into a ward team and have significant ambulatory care experiences. They apply and extend their clinical skills, medical knowledge, and judgment in the care of patients assigned to them under the immediate supervision of house officers and attending staff.

The department offers a broad range of advanced clinical clerkships in general and subspecialty ambulatory and hospital-based internal medicine at all the major affiliated centers.

For more details on the Department of Medicine and courses offered, see the department website.

Medicine faculty information is available from the department.