Medical Student Education

The medical microbiology course consists of 80 one hour sessions comprising 62 lectures with the balance made up of wet-labs, clinical correlates and problem based learning sessions. The course is divided into four Blocks. Block I is an introduction to bacteria and host parasite interactions. Block II builds on Block I by linking specific bacterial species to the symptoms and diseases that they cause (bacteriology). Block III is all about viruses (virology) and Block IV consists of a week of parasites (parasitology), a week of fungi (mycology), then a final week that pulls everything together from the entire course.

At the end of each Block there is a Block exam, each one is worth 20% towards the final grade. About two weeks after the Block IV there is a USMLE shelf exam which is worth up to 15% of the final grade. The remaining 5% balance towards the final grade comes from attending labs, taking online quizzes and participating in clinical correlates and problem based learning sessions.

The Microbiology course for medical students is supervised by Chris Mackenzie, PhD.