Curriculum
Pending accreditation, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine will offer a four-year MD program that enhances conventional medical education with a whole-person approach to care. The school’s unique curriculum, ARCHES, integrates foundational sciences and clinical practices with innovative teaching techniques to proactively support many aspects of a person’s health including mental, physical, social, and emotional. Offerings such as 1:1 whole health coaching and self-care training for students embrace a culture of well-being and empower future physicians to care for their patients’ well-being, as well as their own. The curriculum is evidence-based, with inclusive and collaborative approaches to care designed to promote resilience, prevent disease, and restore health. The program will be delivered using diverse modalities and active learning methods such as simulations, case-based learning, and small group activities.
ARCHES will include six core threads, interwoven throughout the full program:
Art of Healing
Research
Clinical Care
Health Systems Science
Embracing Whole Health
Science of Medicine
A.R.C.H.E.S.
ART OF HEALING
Looks to the humanities, including fine arts, literature, and history to optimize care. The courses will develop communication skills and a compassionate bedside manner while prioritizing ethics, professionalism, and medical decision making. AWSOM will share a campus and a vision with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Students will learn about creative arts therapies and connect with the community.
RESEARCH
Develops students’ skills in research and encourages life-long learning. Students will complete Whole Health Innovation Projects that will require them to define an area of need related to whole health, reflect deeply, research broadly, implement a potential solution, evaluate, and share their findings.
CLINICAL CARE
Optimizes patient care skills through standardized patients, simulation activities, and first-hand experience practicing with faculty supervision in the on-campus whole health clinic. Students will complete their primary care clerkship in their first two years, followed by required rotations, electives and sub-internships.
HEALTH SYSTEMS SCIENCE
Focuses on health care delivery, interprofessional collaboration, and solving systemic problems that hinder access for all. With emphasis on areas such as inclusive excellence, caring for diverse populations, public policy, and population health, these courses will help students understand how to navigate and improve the health care system.
EMBRACING WHOLE HEALTH
Encompasses all that a physician does to help people become stewards of their own health. Under the guidance of health coaches, students will learn how to practice self-care in their own lives and how to collaborate with patients to create health goals that align with their values. They will understand the research related to whole health and put personalized care techniques into practice to become advocates for advancing a whole-person approach to health care.
SCIENCE OF MEDICINE
Integrates the foundational medical sciences, a substantial focus of the first two years of training. Faculty from different areas collaborate to help students acquire fundamental principles and the function and pathology of each organ system. Foundational sciences are also featured in the third and fourth years, with advanced topics built into each clerkship, elective, and residency preparation experience.