Educational Transformation by Design: The Science and the Story of Harvard’s Cambridge Integrated Clerkship
Dr David Hirsh, Harvard Medical School

Wednesday 21 January 2017
Lecture theatre G34, Sir Alexander Fleming Building
South Kensington Campus

Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs), meaningfully different models of medical education, are transforming clinical education worldwide. The LIC model is grounded in educational theory and principles derived from the empirical sciences of learning (general education, medical education, social and cognitive psychology). This presentation reviews the case for change and rationale that drove the wholesale redesign of the clinical year from traditional blocks to an LIC framework. The presentation describes the underpinnings and structure of one LIC, the Harvard Medical School Cambridge Integrated Clerkship and the literature and data about the model. This session concludes by considering “next generation” models arising from longitudinal integrated design with an eye to the future of medical education transformation.

A Panopto recording of David's talk can be found at the following link:

Perspectives in Education: Professor David Hirsh, 25 January 2017 

David A. Hirsh graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in History from Dartmouth College and an MD from the University of Virginia. He is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director and co-founder of Harvard’s Cambridge Integrated Clerkship. He is also Associate Director of Harvard’s Academy of Medical Educators and directs the Academy’s Fellowship in Medical Education.

Dr. Hirsh has received local, national, and international honors and awards for his teaching, scholarship, clinical practice, and public service. He serves as a visiting professor of education and educational consultant across North America and globally.

His academic interests include “educational continuity,” medical education transformation, longitudinal integrated clerkships, OSCEs, East Asian and Western constructs of professionalism, and humanism in medicine. He continues to practice primary care women’s health in Cambridge, to mentor student and faculty research, and to teach courses in all four years of the Harvard Medical School curriculum.