Timetable

While describing how a modern medical school design its teaching timetable, I was fortunate enough to have a glimpse on the previous curriculum of our sister medical school across the harbour - the one they used in 1891.

Let me share with you the subjects that they taught:

• Year 1: physics, chemistry, botany, materia medica (i.e. pharmacology), anatomy, physiology, clinical observation
• Year 2 and 3: anatomy, physiology, pathology, principles of medicine, surgery, and midwifery
• Year 4: medical jurisprudence, public health, practical minor surgery
• Year 5: clinical medicine, surgery and midwifery

Impressive, eh ? Let me show you the actual timetable of their didactic lectures for a junior (presumably Year 2 or 3) medical student:

• Monday: 12 noon, surgery; 1 pm, anatomy; 2 pm, materia medica
• Tuesday: 8:30 am, physiology
• Wednesday: 12 noon, surgery, 1 pm, anatomy; 2 pm, materia medica
• Thursday: 8:30 am, physiology; 12 noon, medicine
• Friday: 12 noon, medicine; 1 pm, anatomy; 2 pm, materia medica
• Saturday: 8:30 am, physiology

Alas, I wouldn't say it was perfect, but you find in it most of the modern concepts in curriculum planning, don't you ?

PS. I claim no credit of this timetable; the material is extracted from a recent paper in the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (2009; volume 39: pp 166-172).