Inquiry Immersion
Inquiry Immersion is a two week pause in the Foundational Science curriculum during Year 1 when students join together for selectives, didactics, and practical workshops. The goal of this mini deep dive is to help shift students conception of medicine from a series of facts to be learned, to a vision of medical practice as a consistent engagement with an ever-evolving and imperfect body of knowledge.
Mini-Courses offer the chance to delve into the unknown of scientific knowledge and explore the boundaries of existing research and scholarship. Faculty experts from across the university participate and represent a wide spectrum of perspectives and scholarship at UCSF. Each course delves into a current controversy or unmet need in healthcare and includes teamwork and collaboration, capstone presentation, and the showcase event.
In addition, School of Medicine students begin preparing to undertake their own Summer Explore during Inquiry Immersion. Inquiry Inspiration sessions provide a broad context of exposure to antecedent learners projects, and skill-building sessions are dedicated to mentor finding, grant application, and ethical conduct of research. Throughout Inquiry Immersion, medical students have the opportunity to meet with interested potential mentors and plan their own future scholarly work.
Mini-Course Overview
The goal for Inquiry Immersion and the Mini-Courses is to help first year students in the healthcare professions shift their conception of medicine as a series of facts to a vision of medical practice as consistent engagement with an ever-evolving and imperfect body of knowledge. Focused Mini-Courses offer students the chance to take a deep dive into a controversy or dilemma and explore the boundaries of existing research and scholarship with expert researchers.
Mini-Course Elements
- Two weeks in December, before Winter Break.
- 12 hours of class time, mainly after 1:00pm, spread over 2-4 days/week.
- 4-12 students maximum.
- Students choose their Mini-Course from a “menu” of options using course summaries and titles – not schedules and speakers.
- No other homework is assigned during Inquiry Immersion to enable focus on Mini-Course topic.
- Students present at a Showcase at the culmination of Immersion.
Faculty who interested in proposing a Mini-Course course, please contact the Inquiry Team.
Previous Mini-Course Examples
|
Research Domain |
Research Question |
Faculty Lead(s) |
|---|---|---|
| ACADEMIC HEALTH & HEALTH REFORM | How are recent health care reforms impacting UC Health? | John Stobo, MD & Garen Corbett |
| ALZHEIMER'S | Why and how do neurons die in dementia and what can we do about it? | Panagiotis Theofilas, PhD |
| AGING | Can the aging process be reversed? | Saul Villeda, PhD |
| AID IN DYING | How do you want to die? Attitudes and Ethics Surrounding Physician Aid in Dying | Elizabeth Dzeng, MD, PhD, MPH |
| DRUG DESIGN | Why is it so hard to design new small molecule drugs? | James Fraser, PhD |
| E-CIGARETTES | What should you tell patients and providers about e-cigarettes? | Stanton Glantz, PhD |
| E.H.R | Are EHRs destined to drive physicians away from medicine? | Shobha Sadasivaiah, MD, MPH |
| GENDER AND DISEASE | If Diseases are “Sexist” do we have to be? | Dena Dubal, MD, PhD |
| GERIATRICS | Does Medicare have cognitive impairment when it comes to caring for patients with dementia? | Jessica Eng, MD, MS |
| MEDICAL HUMANITIES | Can the humanities save health care, help patients, or make you a better clinician? | David Elkin, MD & Shieva Khayam-Bashi, MD |
| HIV & CANCER | Cancer in HIV-positive men and women: why is it increasing and can we stop it? | Joel Palefsky, MD |
| HOLISTIC MENTAL HEALTH | Can integrative healthcare heal the mind-body split in western medicine? | Sudha Prathikanti, MD & Selena Chan, DO |
| IMMIGRATION | How does immigration policy impact health in our communities? | Juliana Morris, MD |
| MEDICARE | Should Millennials have Medicare? | Pamela Schweitzer, PharmD & Mark Atalla |
| MENTAL ILLNESS | Mental Illness and Dangerousness: Fact or Stigma? | Mikel Matto & Alissa Peterson, MD |
| MICROBIOME | Can the Gut Microbiome Be Harnessed to Facilitate the Goal of Personalized Medicine? | Susan Lynch, PhD & Renuka Nayak, MD |
| MINDFULNESS MEDICINE | What does mindfulness have to offer health professions education? | Carter Lebares, MD & Joe Cook, MA |
| NEXT GEN SEQUENCING | How do we use Next Generation Sequencing in the clinical setting? | Eric Chow, PhD |
| PRECISION MED DISPARITIES | How will precision medicine affect health disparities? | Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS |
| REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH | “Are flame retardants in my furniture affecting my kids’ IQ?” How does a health practitioner respond? | Annemarie Charlesworth, MPH |
| SLEEP | Is sleep a critical pathway to health? If so, why do medical providers ignore it? | Aric Prather, PhD |
| SURGICAL PERSONALITY | Is the Stereotype of the “Surgical Personality” a Myth or Reality? | Wen Shen, MD |
| TUMOR RESISTANCE | How should we tackle primary and acquired resistance to personalized cancer therapy? | Emily Bergsland, MD |
| VIOLENCE AND TRAUMA | Can physicians help prevent multiple forms of violence simultaneously? | Leigh Kimberg, MD |
| VULNERABLE POPULATIONS | Is it right for students to participate in care of the undeserved globally and locally? | Rochelle Dicker, MD, Sharad Jain, MD & Rachel Brim, MD |
| ZIKA | How can we control the Zika virus epidemic? | George Rutherford, MD |
| CANCER | How can we use the immune system to treat cancer? | Peter Sayre MD, Ph.D. |
| CLIMATE | What should physicians know and do about climate change, sustainability and health? | Thomas B. Newman, MD. MPH & Arianne Teherani, PhD |
| COSMETIC PSYCHIATRY | What if you could boost your brainpower and ace the exam? | David Elkin, MD, MSL, Tobias Marton, MD, PhD & Erick Hung, MD |
| DRUG PRICING | What should sovaldi cost? | Ari Hoffman, MD |
| FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH | Can We Turn Fiction into Reality? | Hao Li, Ph.D & John Newman, MD, Ph.D |
| MARIJUANA | Is it medicine yet? | Donald I. Abrams, MD |
| MINDFULNESS | Can mindfulness decrease stress and improve performance in medicine? | Esme Shaller, Ph.D. |
| MS | Why don't monkeys get multiple sclerosis? | Riley Bove, MD |
| PUBLIC POLICY | Should marijuana be advertised on the MUNI? | Stanton Glantz, PhD |
| SEQUENCING | How do we use next generation sequencing in the clinical setting? | Eric Chow, Ph.D. |
| VIOLENCE | Can physicians help prevent multiple forms of violence simultaneously? | Leigh Kimberg, MD |
| BIOENGINEERING | Can we recreate the function of organs using nanotechnology? | Tejal Desai & Shuvo Roy |
| ENTREPRENEURSHIP | I have a great idea for a product, service, or business that will change health | Kevin Rodondi, PharmD |
| GENE & CELL THERAPIES | A New Pillar of Medicine? | Theodore Roth & Alexander Marson, MD, PhD |
| GENOMIC TESTING | To Sequence or Not to Sequence? Are We Ready for Universal Genomic Sequencing in 2019? | Kathy Hyland, PhD & Shannon Rego, PhD |
| HEALTH ECONOMICS | Should all FDA-approved medications be covered by health insurance plans in the US? | Rosa Rodriguez-Monguio, PhD |
| HEALTH POLICY | How are recent health care reforms impacting UC Health? | John Stobo, MD & Garen Corbett |
| HOUSING FOR OLDER ADULTS | Is there such a thing as Housing-Sensitive Conditions? | Anne Fabiny, MD |
| INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE | How can integrative medicine address the need for non-pharmacologic pain management options? | Shelley Adler, PhD & Anand Dhruva, MD |
| LGBTQ HEALTH | Of Mice, Men and Women - Do Sex and Gender Matter in Research and Clinical Care? | Marcus Ferrone, PharmD, JD |
| MALARIA | Control or Elimination? | Phil Rosenthal, MD |
| NUCLEIC ACID THERAPIES | A route to personalized medicines? | Frank Szoka, PhD |
| OPIOID CRISIS | Can We Respond Humanely to the Opioid Crisis? | Phil Coffin, MD & Tasce Bongiovanni, MD |
| PARASITIC DISEASES | Why are parasites so successful? | Judy Sakanari, PhD |
| PERSONALIZED MEDICINE | What’s the cutting-edge of cancer therapeutics using genomic sequencing? | Theodore Goldstein, MD & Phil Febbo, MD |
| PRECISION MEDICINE | Will Precision Medicine Revolutionize Health Care? The Looming Impact on Clinical Practice, Access to Care, Societal Costs, and Patient Outcomes | Kathryn Phillips, PhD |
| PROTEIN DISEASE | Protein Homeostasis, Aging and Protein Aggregation Diseases: Can we develop new cures? | Jason Gestwicki, PhD |
| HEALTH DISPARITIES | What's it gonna take to eliminate racial health disparities in your lifetime? | Zea Malawa, MD, PhD |
| REGULATORY SCIENCE | Are Inactive Ingredients in Medications Really Inactive? | Kathy Giacomini, PhD |
Example Course Overviews
Why Don't Monkeys Get Multiple Sclerosis?
OVERVIEW:
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative human disorder. While the last few decades have seen a revolution in the treatments available for MS, we still don't know its cause, or why rates appear to be increasing, especially in women. Is MS triggered, as it is in animal models, by a specific agent/pathogen? Or does MS arise spontaneously in humans, as a result of disruption of the normal homeostatic mechanisms regulating humans' prolonged period of myelin production and maintenance? This course will apply the lens of evolutionary medicine to examine the rise of MS in the modern world.
What if You Could Boost Your Brainpower and Ace the Exam?
OVERVIEW:
The emerging field of cosmetic psychiatry, namely the enhancement of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional processes in persons who do not suffer from illness or disease, is already upon us. But what is the efficacy and safety of neuro-enhancement interventions (medications, neuro-modulation, or cognitive gaming)? What are the ethical tensions at play? This Inquiry mini-course will explore the topic of cosmetic psychiatry and the challenging clinical, ethical, and public health questions in this emerging field.
