USNWR Ranks UCSF No. 4 Nationally for Surgical Education of Medical Students

UCSF was recently ranked No. 4 nationally for the surgery curriculum taught in medical school, placing it in the top 2.5% of the 177 medical and osteopathic schools surveyed in the U.S. News & World Report survey of best graduate and professional schools.  

The curriculum, developed by highly acclaimed Department of Surgery faculty, encompasses didactic in-class learning fused with early longitudinal immersion in clinical teams, and an inquiry-focused learning environment that encourages medical students to ask questions that push the frontiers of science and understanding of human health and disease.

To serve as a resource for medical students, the Department created a dedicated medical student portal, launched during a recent Grand Rounds presentation, The New Bridges Curriculum and the Future of Surgical Education. 

The core of program, led by program director Andre Campbell, M.D. and associate director Matthew Y.C. Lin, M.D., is the Department of Surgery Clerkship which provides UCSF medical students with a solid, enduring surgical foundation, offering diverse training opportunities including lecture series, faculty-led case presentations, observed physical exams, informal bedside rounds, and both hands-on patient care and procedures. Students rotate through numerous locations throughout the Bay Area. The Bridges Curriculum, among the most innovative in the U.S., is tightly integrated into the surgery component of medical school training.

The program is unique in the one-on-one attention faculty devote to students, each of whom is paired with a surgery mentor/preceptor during their clerkship, emblematic of the faculty's dedication to excellence in medical education. The Department of Surgery has also been a pioneer in surgical teaching innovations, including the publication of didactic videos online, the integration of a cadaver curriculum during the third year of medical school, and affording numerous research opportunities to medical students that often result in published work early in their careers.