The social and behavioral sciences play an increasingly important role in Medicine. Most medical schools in North America offer a certain degree of learning in these subjects. AIMU is planning to offer an increased amount of learning opportunities for the basic science students in these areas starting from Fall 2017. Patient safety, health systems and nutrition are also important learning areas.
From Fall 2017 MD 1 students will be participating in the online basic certificate in quality and safety which is being offered by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in the United States. In addition they will be introduced to critical appraisal of the scientific literature as a part of the Public Health and Biostatistics course. The skills of critical appraisal will be further developed during subsequent semesters. MD2 students will complete an online nutrition in medicine course offered by the University of North Carolina. The MD2 students and second semester nursing students will be participating in a health humanities module. This module, which has been offered in some other medical schools, will use case scenarios, role-plays, paintings, literature excerpts and other methods to explore important issues in medicine. Small group active learning strategies will be widely used during this interactive module. Certain online courses including an introduction to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) will be offered to the MD 5 students.