All the Departmental Staff participates in teaching medical students.
a) The 4th year concentrated course “Introduction to Hematology” comprises 80 hours of teaching over a 2 week period including both formal lectures to the entire medical and dental school classes as well as laboratory teaching in smaller groups of around 20 students. Two instructors are present for each laboratory to best provide individual assistance for learning blood cell morphology using actual patient blood smears. Audiovisual assistance in the form of teaching videotapes, is provided where relevant. This course consistently receives excellent ratings by the students for the high caliber teaching and for the interesting and creative methods with which the large amount of clinical material is presented.
b) The 6th year elective course comprises 17 rotations in which small groups of students (between 2 to 6) rotate into the department for a 2 week period. This elective is very well subscribed, perhaps half the student body attends and most years, we have to turn students away for lack of teaching space and manpower. The 6th year elective is comprised of a mixture of small group lectures and discussions, morphology instruction at the microscope, participation in the clinics and participation in the departmental meetings/grand rounds. One day a week is devoted to bedside teaching in the bone marrow transplantation department.
c) In addition to the formal courses, all of the senior physicians participate in supervising MD Theses (“Avodat Gmar”). These projects are individually planned and submitted to a Committee which must approve each project prior to its being undertaken. These research projects may be based on a clinical topic or a laboratory topic and they generally require between 6 months to a year for completion. The senior Hematologist who supervises each student guides them though the performance of the project as well as the written report of the results. Ultimately, many of these projects are published.