New Med students become oriented to West Philadelphia

Doctors may not make house calls any more, but they do get out every once in a while. About 150 prospective doctors, all students in the Medical School, did just that on Wednesday, taking an extensive tour of the West Philadelphia as part of an orientation program for first-year students. Second-year Med students guided the new students in the day-long tour of area neighborhoods and health institutions, which was the first of its kind to be included in the Med School's new student program. After listening to a speech on the demographic history of West Philadelphia, the students boarded SEPTA trains and buses and headed west to various health clinics in the area. Tour leaders had interned at the clinics this summer so they were able to tell the new students ways to become involved in helping the community. The clinics included the Sunnycrest Family Support Center, the West Philadelphia Community Center and Mantua Hall, a Housing and Urban Development-sponsored housing project. Second year Med student Micah Rosenfield, the co-coordinator of the internship program, said the tour was intended to remind the first-year students about the human aspect of medicine. "They will be learning about medicine from the point of view of disease and treating patients on the basis of pathology, but we want to teach them to see their patients as people," Rosenfield said. "There is more to medicine than disease and more to patients than a cirrhotic liver," he added. Abby Letcher, a second-year Med student and the other coordinator of the Community Health Group, said that the tour is just the first of many experiences the new students will face in a course of study that is becoming more integrated with the surrounding community. "This is the beginning of a new social and preventative curriculum mandated two years ago by the Med School," she said. "For the first time, community experiences have been put into the mainstream curriculum." Rosenfield said he felt the tours were a success. "People were very enthusiastic about the tour," he said. "It was a good opportunity for students to learn about the community they will be living in, as well as providing them with a better idea of the environment their future patients have to deal with every day."

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