Focus on the Integrated Learning Center
Georgetown University School of Medicine has been a leader in the education of compassionate and competent physicians for more than 150 years. Consistently ranked as a top medical school by "U.S. News & World Report," the school is at the forefront of world-class medical education techniques.
One critical initiative is the addition of a $5-million Integrated Learning Center, located in the Pre-Clinical Science Building. Within the new center, which opened in fall 2004, medical students practice their clinical skills on trained actors, who portray patients by simulating an illness or other physical finding. This practice helps medical students develop empathy and effective communication with patients, as well as the physical diagnostic skills critical to a Georgetown education. Clinical skills training also includes demonstrations and teaching by master clinicians, interactive teaching modules, and other cutting-edge teaching methods.
Be sure to tour the center for yourself while you are in town.
The Integrated Learning Center includes:
- Ten patient examination rooms, each of which features an examining table, an X-ray view box, wall-mounted clinical equipment, a sink and medical supply cabinet, built-in video cameras to record sessions for later teaching and review, and a one-way window for student and faculty observation
- Patient lounge and conference room
- Nine renovated multidisciplinary teaching laboratories and seminar rooms that provide a venue to teach laboratory sciences such as histology, microbiology, and pathology in an updated clinical environment for small group seminars
- Labs equipped with Web-based resources - such as wireless internet access, computer access with a screen at each laboratory bench top, and cutting-edge audio-visual equipment
