Medical Biochemistry
     Competencies/Objectives		 View All Competencies/Objectives  Close this window
I. Patient Care

Students must be prepared to provide patient care that is compassionate, appropriate, and effective.

  • Communicate effectively and demonstrate caring and respectful behaviors when interacting with patients and their families.
  • Gather essential and accurate information about their patients.
  • Make informed decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic interventions based on patient information and preference, up-to-date scientific evidence, and clinical judgment.
  • Counsel and educate patients and their families.
  • Use information technology to support patient care decisions and patient education.
  • Perform required clinical procedures.
  • Work with patients in preventing health problems or maintaining health.
  • Work as members of multi-disciplinary health care teams to provide patient-focused care.
  • Utilize appropriate and effective communication strategies, including nonverbal, explanatory, questioning and writing skills, to both elicit and provide health care information to patients and their families.
II. Medical Knowledge

Students must demonstrate knowledge about established and evolving basic and clinical biomedical sciences, including epidemiology and social/behavioral sciences, & their application of this knowledge to patient care.

  • Demonstrate knowledge and application of the basic and clinical sciences relevant and appropriate to the clinical practice of medicine.

    • Students will compare and contrast features of the chemistry of amino acids, and how they function as the building blocks of proteins.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will summarize features of protein structure and function (as enzymes and for structural purposes).

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will describe the chemistry of nucleotides, and how they function as the building blocks of nucleic acids.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will integrate the metabolism of glucose and its utilization as an energy source, with the metabolism of other carbohydrates, both simple and complex, and with the metabolism of amino acids and lipids, in both health and disease.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will integrate aspects of the structure and function of the mitochondrion with its role in energy metabolism and in specific pathologies in humans.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will integrate the metabolism of amino acids, nucleotides, and other nitrogen-containing compounds, and with the metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids, in both health and disease.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will describe the structure and metabolism of fatty acids, tri-acylglycerols, phospholipids, glycolipids, and sterols.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will integrate the metabolism of lipids as energy sources, in membrane structure and function, hormone signaling, and with the metabolism of carbohydrates and amino acids, in both health and disease.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will integrate hormonal control of carbohydrate and fatty acid/lipid metabolism by the principal signaling hormones insulin and glucagon, with local allosteric regulators.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will compare and contrast the structure and function of lipoproteins and their roles in normal and specific disease states.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will integrate the above regulation into the context of organelles, organs, organ systems, life styles and treatment modalities.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will integrate additional specific topics relating to human health and disease for which a substantial component of their understanding is found at the level of the roles of biomolecules (examples include but are not limited to sickle cell anemia, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, glycogen storage disease, atherosclerosis, leukemia, and in general clinical diagnosis).

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

    Students will demonstrate skills in the interpretation of contemporary biochemical data on each of the major classes of biomolecules, that is also pertinent to the practice of clinical medicine and research into human health and disease.

    Measurement/Evaluation: multiple choice question exam

  • Demonstrate an investigatory and analytic thinking approach to clinical situations.
III. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

Students must be able to engage in self-evaluation regarding their academic & clinical performance, develop plans for personal improvement, and recognize how the application of new learning can be used to improve patient care.

  • Demonstrate strategies to analyze academic and clinical performance over the course of their professional careers, and develop improvement plans, in a methodical fashion.
  • Locate, appraise, and assimilate evidence from scientific and clinical studies related to patients' health problems.
  • Obtain and use information about patients they care for and the larger population from which these patients are drawn.
  • Apply knowledge of study designs and statistical methods to the appraisal of clinical studies and other information on diagnostic and therapeutic effectiveness.
  • Use information technology to manage information and access on-line medical information; and support their own education.
  • Facilitate the learning of other students and health care professionals.
IV. Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Students must be able to demonstrate interpersonal & communication skills, both verbal and written, that results in effective information exchange with patients, patients’ families, peers, and other health professions colleagues.

  • Create and sustain a therapeutic and ethically sound relationship with patients in order to effectively communicate their health care needs, including situations involving sensitive, technically complex, or distressing information.
  • Utilize appropriate and effective communication strategies, including nonverbal, explanatory; questioning and writing skills, to both elicit and provide health care information to patients and their families, with peers, and with other health professions' colleagues.
  • Work effectively with others as members of a health care team, including peers, residents, faculty and other health care professionals.
V. Professionalism

Students must demonstrate a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principals & sensitivity to a diverse patient population.

  • Demonstrate respect, compassion, and integrity in interactions with peers, patients, and other health professionals.

    • Students will demonstrate standards of professionalism, including respect, honesty, reliability and responsibility, in interactions with faculty, staff, peers, and patients

    Measurement/Evaluation: professionalism form

  • Demonstrate accountability to patients, society and the profession, and a commitment to excellence and on-going professional development.
  • Demonstrate a commitment to ethical principles pertaining to provision or withholding of clinical care, confidentiality of patient information, and informed consent.
  • Demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to patient individuality including the role of culture, ethnicity, gender, age, disabilities, and other aspects of health practices and decisions.
  • Recognize and address personal limitations, attributes or behaviors that might influence their effectiveness as a physician.
VI. Systems-Based Practice

Students will be able to function effectively in teams and within a larger organizational structure. They must demonstrate an awareness of the larger context & system of health care and of the resources available within the system to provide optimal care to individual patients and groups. Finally, students must demonstrate an awareness of current barriers to health care and of the various strategies designed to assist patients in gaining access to care.

  • Demonstrate effective involvement in a health care team and be able to recognize how their involvement in patient care may affect other members of the health care profession.
  • Know how types of medical practice and delivery systems differ from one another, including their methods of controlling health care costs and allocating resource.
  • Describe the principles of cost-effective health care and resource allocation that does not compromise quality of care.
  • Advocate for quality patient care and assist patients in dealing with system complexities.
  • Be aware of how to partner with health care managers and health care providers to assess, coordinate, and improve health care and know how these activities can affect system performance.