We, the faculty of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, seek to prepare our graduates for distinguished careers in clinical practice, teaching, research, and public service. Recognizing that medical school is but one phase in a physicians education, we must create an environment in which students prepare for a future in which scientific knowledge, societal values, and human needs are ever changing.

The faculty and students will actively collaborate to build a strong foundation which will include:

1. Enthusiasm for life-long learning.
2. Commitment to humanistic, compassionate, and ethical care of the individual and family.
3. Skills in effective communication, and commitment to education, including teaching students, colleagues, patients and the community.
4. Ongoing development of a broad and flexible base of knowledge and skills that integrates basic, clinical, social, and behavioral sciences with the art of medicine.
5. An understanding of the scientific method, and an appreciation of its application to clinical practice as well as to research.
6. Commitment to promote the health and well-being of the community, and an understanding of the special challenges and requirements of a pluralistic society.
7. Ability to lead in their chosen fields, in settings of rapidly changing technology and societal needs.
8. The ability to address complex societal and medical issues through a systematic, multidisciplinary, and collaborative approach.

* The MEC recently reviewed and reformulated the School's educational mission. The above statement was unanimously adopted at the MEC's April 16, 1996 meeting.

This page was updated last on August 14, 2003 by Christina Yoon (CYoon@mednet.ucla.edu).