underlie the scientific basis of medical practice. Organ system block courses integrate physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, and patient with concurrent courses in patient care and patient, physician and society blocks. Weekly discussions, patient interviews, and examination of hospitalized patients reinforce essential clinical skills. The third-year curriculum consists of seven required clerkships. They are designed to optimize the balance between out-of-hospital and in-patient learning opportunities, eliminate unintentional curriculum redundancy, and optimize opportunities for student-designed curricula in the junior and senior years. Every student engages in a mentored scholarly project conducted longitudinally throughout the four-year curriculum. Completion and presentation of the scholarly project is due in the spring of the senior year and is a requirement for graduation. Students pursue their projects through several program options, which may include areas of concentration. Students can focus on more traditional laboratory-based or clinical research projects or can conduct research in less common areas such as health policy, epidemiology, and comparative effectiveness research. An innovative system of Web-based learning portfolios facilitates learner-mentor communication and enriches the possibilities for collaboration within and beyond the university. The Scholarly Project immerses students in scientific investigation to foster data collection, hypothesis-development, and research skills that are critical to the practice of clinical medicine. The medical school maintains the curriculum online via the Navigator system, a family of Web-based applications with domain-specific courseware to support student achievement of course objectives. Students have access to various online resources such as digitized images, syllabi, practice quizzes, podcasts, and other material associated with specific instructional units. MD/PhD Program The MD/PhD Program, established in 1983 and funded partly by the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program, is a collaborative training program involving the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. The program serves as a bridge between the medical curriculum and a large number of graduate programs at the two universities. Students enrolled in the program complete the entire medical school curriculum as well as the curriculum of a field of study for the PhD degree. Graduates receive a dual degree. The program takes advantage of the highly developed curricula of the medical and graduate programs as well as the large depth and breadth of research available at the two universities. MD/PhD students typically complete the first two years of medical school before entering a program leading to the PhD degree. The students then enter a track in a selected field of study. Students choose from