We offer many elective courses during the senior year to best serve each student’s individual needs and goals. Students with well-defined career goals and those who are still in the process of choosing a specific area to focus on have a wide assortment of electives to choose from. Most courses are two or four weeks in duration.
Students are also encouraged to approach faculty members for the development of unique courses.
| Department: | Medicine |
|---|---|
| Course Number: | MED-4008 |
| Course Name: | Scleroderma: Diagnosis and ManagementOf a Multisystem Disease |
| Instructors: | Drs. Shapiro, Allen, Medarov & Tadros |
| Course Description: | Prerequisites: Completion of Internal Medicine Clerkship and successful completion of third year. Ability to travel to Malta site 2-3 days/week. Description: Outpatient exposure to care of individuals with scleroderma in three practice locations: rheumatology scleroderma clinic, pulmonary clinic (pulmonary hypertension and interstitial lung disease), and gastroenterology (motility disorders clinic). Faculty for course will include rheumatology (Shapiro), pulmonologist (Medarov), gastroenterologist (Tadros), and rheumatology (Allen). Student would spend 2-3 days with rheumatologist and 1-2 days with pulmonologist and gastroenterologist (minimum of two days with rheumatologist and one day each with pulmonologist and gastroenterologist). Nephrology, cardiology and clinical pharmacy involvement in some cases. Students should reach out to Dr. Shapiro to find out where to report. |
| Educational Objectives: | The focus is on scleroderma as a disease that requires application of knowledge from multiple disciplines, the development of a care team, and the coordination of care. Students will learn: 1. How is a disease with multiple potential presentations recognized and definitively diagnosed? 2. How are difficult diagnoses presented to patients; how is education custom-crafted for each individual? 3. What are the manifestations of scleroderma in each major organ system? 4. How is care coordinated between different specialists? How do different specialists view the same disease differently? 5. What aspects of care of this disease are adequate/inadequate? 6. How does a chronic disease evolve over time? How does care of early and late disease differ? |
| Types of Patients: | These will be primarily adult patients, a few teenagers, all either referred because of suspicion of scleroderma, or with an established diagnosis. Patients may have had the disease for weeks or decades. Patients will have a spectrum of mild to severe disease. The disease can affect all ethnicities. The disease can affect individuals of each sex, but is more common in females (3:1), so the patient population seen will be predominantly female. |
| Teaching Sessions /Conferences: | Students will participate in rheumatology journal club, presenting scleroderma related article, and may also participate in interstitial lung disease conference and potentially in GI conference. |
| Resources /Readings: | Video lectures available at sclerodermavideo.com; The Scleroderma Book, by Maureen Mayes, MD; Scleroderma, text by Christopher Denton, MD, John Varga, MD. |
| Evaluation Method(s): | Direct Observation, Conference Participation, Formal Presentation, Patient Write-Ups, Mid-Rotation Feedback |
| Contact Information: | Course Director: Lee Shapiro, MD, Rheumatology, [email protected], 518-727-5866; Michael Allen, MD, Rheumatology, [email protected]; Pulmonary: Boris Medarov, MD, [email protected]; Gastroenterology: Micheal Tadros, MD, [email protected] |
| Period(s) Available: | 3,6,7,8,9 |
| Available Length: | 4 weeks |
| Max Students: | 1 |
| Visiting Students: | Yes |