After four years of development, the School of Medicine rolled out its new Three Rivers Curriculum (3RC) with the incoming Class of 2027. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has long been recognized nationally and internationally for educational excellence. The updated curriculum will advance the school even further to the forefront of medical education worldwide. The Three Rivers Curriculum, which launched in August 2023 for the incoming class, reshapes medical education into an ongoing conversation among students, instructors and trainees across disciplines and with the larger Pittsburgh community. The model moves away from lectures to more small-group discussions, facilitated by longitudinal educators, who will engage students as active participants in their education for an entire semester. The curriculum’s case-based approach encourages critical thinking and emphasizes underlying mechanisms in medicine. There’s also renewed attention to social medicine, leadership and student well-being worked into the schedule, with new “flex weeks” that allow time for independent learning, shadowing, research and personal activities.
The refreshed curriculum arrives amid the opening of the West Wing of Alan Magee Scaife Hall, a long-awaited expansion for the School of Medicine. Leaving behind rigid lecture rooms, the facility hosts classes in smaller-scale, flexible learning spaces that match the new learning format. And in the seventh-story anatomy lab—past hallway displays featuring cross sections of the various parts of the human body—students dissect cadavers both real and digital, using virtual reality systems. Nearby, a wet lab spans the width of the building.
Please visit: Three Rivers Curriculum (https://www.omed.pitt.edu/curriculum/three-rivers-curriculum-class-2027) to learn more about the new curriculum.
Curriculum Map (https://www.omed.pitt.edu/curriculum/curriculum-map)
Curriculum Committee (https://www.omed.pitt.edu/curriculum-committee)
Longitudinal Research Project (https://researchprograms.medschool.pitt.edu/about/longitudinal-research-project)