The Mentored Clinical Casebook Project at Harvard Medical School

Abstract

An excellent physician must be aware of the countless issues that affect each patient's health. Many medical education programs expose students to a broad spectrum of disparate knowledge and hope they will integrate all the pieces into a coherent whole. The authors describe an explicit approach to integration used at Harvard Medical School since 2003 that aims to enhance students' learning in medical school and throughout their medical careers: the Mentored Clinical Casebook Project (MCCP). The MCCP is constructed on the premise that such integration does not occur suddenly but, rather, is an unending process. A first-year student is assigned to one clinician and follows one patient for one year. The student is expected to spend as much time with the patient as possible, in both clinical and nonclinical settings, seek help from the clinician, and consult other experts and sources to develop a complete picture of the patient's life. The student must produce a casebook that includes, but is not limited to, the patient's history; basic science, clinical, socioeconomic, and cultural issues; and self-reflection. The MCCP is intended to allow students to develop a deeper and more diverse understanding of what comprises a patient's health care life, to discern the patient as a person and the person as a patient. This educational project has been popular with students since its inception, providing them with a personal framework from which to address the needs of future patients and introducing them to how much they will continue to learn from their patients.