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The College of Medicine

The Drexel University College of Medicine, a new name just a few years ago, is the consolidation of two venerable medical schools with rich and intertwined histories: Hahnemann Medical College and Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. Established in 1848 and 1850, respectively, they were two of the earliest medical colleges in the United States, and Woman’s was the very first medical school for women in the nation.

The medical college is a living laboratory, giving students hands-on experience. Along with clinical rotations in hospitals, pathologists’ assistant students benefit from the physical plant, which has some of the latest, most advanced facilities in health care. The New College Building at the Center City Hahnemann campus is designed for the purpose of teaching basic sciences and clinical skills. The College of Medicine provides wireless Internet access to curricular resources from anywhere on campus. Computers, multimedia technology, and the Internet have opened impressive avenues of education, allowing students to augment the information and skills they learn from classes, print materials, and clinical rotations.

College of Medicine faculty members have been leaders in developing interactive computer-based learning tools. Lecture handouts, slides, lab manuals, and other visual materials are increasingly made available to students in searchable electronic formats. For example, pathology slides are currently available on the Web. In addition, all medical school lectures, including Pathology, are available on the Web for the pathologists’ assistant students to view anywhere and at anytime.

Some of the College's key facilities and their features include:

• Lecture Halls
  • The New College Building at the Center City Hahnemann campus is designed for the purpose of teaching basic sciences and clinical skills. The lecture halls are designed to accommodate a variety of educational methodologies, spanning from the basic lecture format to the enriched laboratory setting where courses such as Anatomy, Pathology, Microbiology, Histology and Applied Anatomic Pathology can be taught to the Pathologists’ Assistant students.
• Multidisciplinary Laboratory
  • Forty-two tables with microscopes for teaching neuroanatomy, microbiology, and pathology are available.
  • Microscopes are equipped with a networked video system so that all students in a class can look at a single slide through a microscope via monitors on their lab tables or projected to the entire class.
  • Students can retrieve microscopic images via laserdisc or computer.
• Libraries
  • Drexel University has four libraries to serve the needs of students, faculty and staff. The collection of each library emphasizes subjects relevant to the health sciences, with print resources distributed to meet the needs of the programs and departments at each location.
  • With a bar-coded University identification card, materials can be borrowed from the general book collections at each library for a four-week period. Reserve materials may be borrowed for 2 or 3 hours, with some items available for overnight loan after 4 p.m. and on weekends. Reference books and journals must be used in the libraries.
  • Books, journal titles, and other library materials may be identified through the Libraries' online catalog. A free document delivery service provides access to books and journal articles owned by our libraries, but not at the library user's home location. Through cooperative agreements with other libraries locally, across the country, and worldwide the interlibrary loan service, for a small fee, provides access to books and journals not owned by the University.
  • Computers in the reference areas of each library, and the Microcomputer Centers, provide access to the Libraries' online catalog; to databases (indexes) including MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO; to more than 2000 full-text electronic journals, and to online reference resources such as MD Consult, Harrison's Online, and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Full Internet access is provided for reference and research purposes.
  • All online resources (databases, electronic journals, etc.) are available to students, staff and faculty who are registered Library users, and can be accessed remotely (from home or other off-campus locations). In addition to Internet access, computers in the Microcomputer Centers also provide a broad range of software including word processing, spreadsheet, communications, graphics, statistics. Computer-assisted instruction and tutorials are available for many curricula-related topics. A plotter and scanner are also available at some locations.
  • The Library staff is dedicated to providing assistance to students and other library users through on-the-spot reference help, mediated literature searches, and instructional sessions. Guides are available online to help with the use of Library services and resources.
• Computer Center
• The computer center at the College of Medicine features state-of-the-art equipment, allowing pathologists' assistant students to utilize the University’s electronic resources.
• Students have access to many online resources such as MedLine, PubMed, and MDConsult.
• Students can check their e-mail and review pathology slides on the Web.
• Full texts of many books and journals are available online.
• Video Conferencing
• Drexel University College of Medicine has made extensive use of video conferencing. It has students on campuses in two different parts of the city and large classes taking a standard curriculum. To serve this clientele, the university has set up videoconferencing classrooms in Center City and Queen Lane with split screen to allow for speakers–presenting instructors or questioning students–in both locations. This methodology is utilized for the instruction of the Pathologists’ Assistant students in Pathology.
• Web-based Instruction
  • Use of the web for instruction can range from a supplement to classroom instruction to teaching a whole course remotely.
  • To facilitate web-based instruction, Drexel University has standardized on and IRT has licensed a leading course management product, WebCT. The Medical Ethics course for the Pathologists’ Assistant students is an on-line course facilitated by the use of the instructional tool WebCT. The core functionality of this package supports:
    - Development and use on both Windows and Macintosh platforms
    - Testing and grading in a wide variety of formats (true-false, multiple choice, short answer, essay)
    - Self-assessment tools for students
    - Built-in course mail, threaded discussion and chat
    - Course planning, management, revision
    - Faculty-to-student and student-to-student communication, both synchronous and asynchronous
    - Student access to his/her own grades
  • Many instructors post their syllabi on the web, distribute supplementary readings via the web, and set up electronic discussion lists for their students. Having students submit assignments electronically is common practice.