Courses | School of Medicine | Queen's University

	Course Type	Course Name	Number of Credits	Focus
Required by both Graduate Diploma in Medical Sciences and Professional Master's of Medical Sciences	Core (Academic)	MSCI 800 Research Methodology	3.0	Critically review the literature and develop a research proposal.
	Core (Clinical)	MSCI 801 Integrated Graduate Clerkship I	6.0	Orientation, clinical placements in a broad variety of disciplines, simulated clinical experiences, and interactive academic seminars.
	Elective (Academic)		3.0	Selection based on students’ areas of interests; courses vary from one another.
Required by Professional Master's of Medical Sciences	Core (Clinical)	MSCI 802 Integrated Graduate Clerkship II	6.0	Clinical placements in focused clinical disciplines based on students’ interests, simulated advanced clinical experiences, and facilitated small group learning.
Required by Professional Master's of Medical Sciences	Core (Academic)	MSCI 898 Research Project in Medical Sciences	6.0	Hands-on learning in laboratory settings, and design and conduct a research project.

Course Descriptions

Required Courses for both the Graduate Diploma in Medical Sciences and Professional Master's of Medical Sciences

MSCI-800 (3.0) Research Methodology
This is a foundation course in which students will conduct a critical review from which they will develop a research proposal. Examples of topics are (but are not limited to): questions relating to basic biomedical or clinical sciences; disease processes; therapeutics; ethical questions in science or medicine; health policy. From this critical review, the student will develop a research proposal to address a specific knowledge gap identified from the literature review.

MSCI-801 (6.0) Integrated Graduate Clerkship I
This course is a 6 month clerkship in which medical sciences students will be placed in a broad variety of clinical learning environments. Course content will include an Orientation, the Nightmares course (simulation-based critical events training), standardized patient clinical experiences, ambulatory clinical placements, and interactive academic seminars. Students will be exposed to a broad variety of clinical disciplines.

Required Courses for the Professional Master's of Medical Sciences

MSCI-802 (6.0) Integrated Graduate Clerkship II
This course is a 6 month clerkship designed for students who have completed Integrated Graduate Clerkship I. Students will be placed in clinical learning environments with more complex patient presentations, and with selected placements focused in their clinical discipline areas of interest. Students will be peer assessors, and will be expected to lead discussions and case presentations during the interactive academic seminars.

MSCI-898 (6.0) Research Project in Medical Sciences
This course will engage the student in a hands-on learning experience in a laboratory setting. The research project will involve experimental design, data collection and analysis, written report and oral presentation.

Elective options:
The general site for finding graduate level courses is here: http://www.queensu.ca/sgs/graduate-calendar/courses-instruction.

Psychology courses:
These could be very appealing to those interested in Psychology at the graduate level. Be sure to establish whether the is being taught in the current year and term, and determine the extent of expertise or prerequisite knowledge required.

Pathology and Molecular Medicine:
Be sure to establish whether the is being taught in the current year and term, and determine the extent of expertise or prerequisite knowledge required.

Examples of Elective Courses for the Graduate Diploma in Medical Sciences

Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences

BMED-812 (3.0) Advanced Neuroanatomy
BMED 812* is designed as an option course in Anatomy for graduate students in the Faculties of Arts and Science and Health Science, and a core course for graduate students in the M.Sc. Program in Anatomical Sciences. The emphasis of this course deals with the structure and function of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Through a series of lectures, hands-on laboratories, a pig brain dissection, readings, small group learning sessions, and peer teaching, a survey of the gross, microscopic, and functional anatomy of the human nervous system is achieved. This is a half-course offered in the fall term concurrent with ANAT 312*.

BMED-853 (3.0) Cellular and Molecular Cardiovascular Disease
An intense course that aims to survey the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of major cardiovascular diseases, and the current and emerging tools used in their diagnosis and treatment. Alterations in tissue AND/OR cell form, function, signaling, metabolism will be discussed to present an integrative view of how cardiovascular diseases develop, progress, are currently treated and may be treated in the future.

Centre for Neuroscience Studies

NSCI-829 (3.0) Disorders of the Nervous System
A multi-disciplinary course that explores advanced concepts of clinical neuroscience. Depending on the year, topics may include stroke, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative disorders, ADHD, depression, deep brain stimulation, pain and placebo effects, normal and abnormal aging. Students will learn to critically evaluate scientific literature and present these concepts to classmates during student-led seminars.

NSCI-844 (3.0) Controversies in Neuroscience
As insight regarding the human brain expands, so do issues such as what constitutes personhood, what drives the criminal mind, intelligence-enhancing drugs and end-of-life decisions, to name a few. Lead by experts who deal daily with such concerns, we will focus weekly on a particular topic in neuroscience which impacts on society.

Department of Public Health Sciences

EPID-801 (3.0) Introduction to Epidemiology
This course focuses on the determinants of health, data sources, measurement and design principles that are intended to produce the highest quality evidence for public health issues. Epidemiologic methods and principles are the focus, and these can be applied to all substantive health areas. This course provides an introduction to the principles and methods of epidemiology, including measurement of population health status, several study designs, measures of effect, sources of error, confounding and internal and external validity. We also cover appraisal of the literature, criteria for causality, study of outbreaks, prevention and screening, ethics, communication/knowledge translation and cite examples of how epidemiology can be applied to a vast range of health issues.

EPID-812 (3.0) Program Evaluation
This course provides an introduction to public health program evaluation methods. The intent is to familiarize the student with the major issues, methods and challenges faced by program evaluators working in the field of public health. The emphasis will be on conceptual approaches, potential program design issues, and the interpretation and application of program evaluation findings.

Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine

PATH-822 (3.0) Experimental Cancer Therapeutics
The aim of this course is to introduce and discuss essential questions in the basic science of experimental therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Students with an interest in cancer research are encouraged to take this course. Topics will include discussions on: new drug development; molecular and signaling pathways involved in tumourigenesis; challenges with existing cancer therapeutics; molecular approaches to profiling human cancer signatures; drug discovery and delivery; imaging, preclinical and clinical testing of novel therapies to assess efficacy and validate drug targets; and clinical trial results and the molecular basis for variability in tumour responses. A general theme for the course will be how to identify an experimental target or novel therapeutic, and translate the results into an improved therapy for the treatment of cancer.

PATH-823 (3.0) Cancer Biology
This course will discuss questions in the basic science of Oncology, particularly relating to mechanisms of neoplastic transformation and tumour progression. Topics include growth factors & signal transduction pathways, pathology of cancer, oncogenes, epidemiology, tumour suppressor mechanisms, angiogenesis, immunosurveillance and immunotherapy, mutator phenotypes, metastasis and treatment response.

Other graduate-level courses can also be approved by the curriculum committee.