• College of Medicine - Riyadh
• College of Medicine - Jeddah

In collaboration with the University of Sydney, Australia, KSAU-HS has launched an innovative BS program in Medicine and Surgery. This program takes a multidisciplinary approach to medical education with an integration of basic and clinical science experiences. Its curriculum is a problem-based, community-oriented, integrated and student-centered, and has sequential blocks (modules), and gives an early exposure to patients and case management. It introduces students to patients within the first block of the curriculum, hence they understand the relevance of what they are learning, maintain a high degree of motivation and begin to understand the importance of responsible professional attitudes.

The program is organized around four themes: Basic & Clinical Sciences, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Doctor-Community Relationship, and Personal & Professional Development. It emphasizes - across these four themes - progressive development in the knowledge, skills and attitude appropriate for a graduate. The themes form the basis both for the design of the curriculum, and for the assessment of student learning.

The duration of the program is 6 years for Stream I (high school graduates) and 4½ academic years for Stream II (university graduates) with three sequential phases:

Phase I : Premedical

* Stream One for High School Graduates: (Preparatory Four Semesters):

During this preparatory phase, students are given intensive English Language courses throughout the first three semesters to strengthen their English language and to enable them to communicate fluently. The program teaches only Arabic language skills and Islamic Values & Medical Ethics courses in the first semester and Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Physics for Health Sciences courses in the second semester. In the second academic year, students are provided with courses in Biochemistry, Behavioral Sciences, Biostatistics and introduction to Evidence–Based Medicine, Computer Sciences and Medical Informatics in the first semester and Anatomy, Histology, Physiology, Microbiology, basic Pharmacology, introduction to Saudi Health System and innovative Health Profession Education.

* Stream Two for University Graduates: (Preparatory One Semester):

During this introductory semester, students are given an intensive English language course  throughout the semester. They are also introduced to the basic principles and practice of Problem-Based Learning (PBL), comprehensive knowledge and applications of Computer Science and Medical Informatics, basic principles of Epidemiology, Research Methodology, Statistics and Evidence-Based Medicine, and Islamic Values and Medical Ethics. This semester is composed of a longitudinal intensive English language block in addition to four blocks covering the above-mentioned subjects.

Phase II : Medical – Four Semesters

Teaching during this phase occurs in the College, with one day per week available for Doctor-Patient Relations sessions in the hospital. Aspects of all the major clinical disciplines are introduced in this phase through ten blocks: Foundation; Musculoskeletal Sciences and Substance Abuse; Respiratory; Hematology; Cardiovascular; Neurosciences; Urology and Renal; Endocrinology, Nutrition, and Reproductive Health; Gastroenterology; and Oncology and Palliative Care.
Self-directed learning represents the core of the program and is supported by scheduled sessions on Problem Based Learning, Doctor-Patient Relations, Doctor-Community Relations, and Personal & Professional Development.

PBL tutorials aim at developing students’ clinical reasoning abilities, to enhance their skills in working in groups and to introduce relevant aspects of the four themes in an integrated fashion. Each week, students are introduced to a clinical problem and the process of thinking through the problem provides the core of the week’s activities.

Students are helped to develop skills in locating and acquiring information after defining the learning topics in the PBL tutorials. Summaries of topics are provided, together with reading lists, keywords and indications of other resources (including museums and computer-based resources). Lectures provide a broader context for detailed learning and provide background information relevant to the week’s problem.

Basic and Clinical Sciences sessions usually offer opportunities to gain hands-on practical experience and to learn from images, models, slides and museum or dissected specimens.

There is a major focus on the critical appraisal of the evidence that underpins medical decision-making. Students learn the skills of finding and appraising relevant literature and applying these skills in the diagnosis and management of individual patients.

Phase III : Clinical Clerkship –Four Semesters

Clinical experience provides the substrate of learning in conjunction with a continuing structured PBL program in the latter two years. Generally, formal teaching sessions are reduced with emphasis being directed to the clerkship-based activities of the particular clinical service attachment. Integrated clinical attachments involve student attachment to the main medical and surgical ward services and associated ambulatory clinics in the hospital or in affiliated health care facilities. A number of related services are clustered in a given block to form a coherent clinical experience. A second elective is given at the end of the third year, during the summer.