Longitudinal Themes

Longitudinal Themes is a longitudinal course that encompasses all aspects of the development of a physician including but not limited to professionalism, evidence-based medicine, ethics, health equity, patient safety, service learning & patient advocacy, health professions collaboration, patient immersion experiences, communication skills and physical examination skill development.

The ­Longitudinal Themes curriculum is scaffolded across the four years of the curriculum and is based on the CanMEDS framework. Each theme falls under one or more of the CanMEDS roles:

  • Medical Expert: integrated systems block content; Longitudinal Clinical Experience (LCE); evidence-based medicine (EBM); clinical skills (communication and physical exam
  • Collaborator: interprofessional education; Patient Immersion Experience (PIE); social accountability (social determinants of health); ethics; Physician Discussion Group (PDG)
  • Scholar: evidence-based medicine (EBM)
  • Communicator: interprofessional education; clinical skills (communication); Patient Immersion Experience (PIE); Longitudinal Clinical Experience (LCE); ethics; Physician Discussion Group (PDG)
  • Health Advocate: service learning (SiS; SJ-COSS); social accountability (social determinants of health); Patient Immersion Experience (PIE); ethics; Physician Discussion Group (PDG)
  • Professional: ethics; Physician Discussion Group (PDG)

The Longitudinal Themes include:

  • Clinical skills - communication (history taking) & physical exam
  • LCE – longitudinal clinical experience (students spend half-day clinics in preclerkship with a family physician)
  • SIS – students in service (students work with community agencies as part of a service learning)
  • SJ-COSS – Social Justice, Communities of Service/Scholarship
  • IPE – interprofessional education
  • PIE – patient immersion experience (students work with patient mentors who teach about the illness experience)
  • PDG – physician discussion group (4 year curriculum that helps students integrate the learning from all the other longitudinal themes to help form the physician identity)
  • Other themes are integrated and assessed through system blocks – social accountability which includes Black and Indigenous health, ethics, EBM (evidence-based medicine), opioid curriculum, health systems/patient safety