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Medicine on a need-to-know basis

Disease-oriented, introductory medical curricula can help overcome educational and institutional barriers that separate aspiring translational scientists in PhD programs from the world of medicine.

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Figure 1: Instructional components of the Introduction to Medicine curriculum.
Figure 2: Assessment of the knowledge of diabetes and general medical subjects.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the students, faculty and staff who contributed to the conception, design and teaching of the Introduction to Medicine curriculum; and D. Baylor for critical reading of the manuscript. Supported by start-up funds from the Bio-X Initiative, the Center for Clinical Immunology and the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine (all at Stanford University); the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (to E.D.M.); the Lemelson Foundation through the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (to E.D.M.); and the Applera Foundation (to E.D.M).

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Correspondence to Elizabeth D Mellins.

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Busch, R., Byrne, B., Gandrud, L. et al. Medicine on a need-to-know basis. Nat Immunol 7, 543–547 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0606-543

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