The College of Medicine, a unit of the Health Science Center, began operations in 1956 and is located on the south end of campus. This location, in direct proximity to university facilities, offers many opportunities to utilize and complement resources of the university in the educa-tional and investigative programs of the college. Joint programs exist with the colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Education, Engineering, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the other colleges of the Health Science Center. Also, computational and statisti-cal services are available through university resources and facilities.

        The College of Medicine is responsible for several major educational programs. Foremost is the four-year program leading to the M.D. degree. After graduation, physicians enter residency programs. At present, the College of Medicine offers 470 positions in accredited residency training programs. The college offers an inter-disciplinary graduate program (IDP) in biomedical sci-ences leading to the Ph.D. in medical sciences with spe-cialization in the following concentrations: biochemistry and molecular biology, genetics, immunology and mi-crobiology, neuroscience, molecular cell biology, and physiology and pharmacology. The college also offers two-year programs leading to a Master of Science in clinical chemistry or biotechnology and a three-year program offered by the College of Medicine and Warring-ton College of Business Administration leading to the joint MS/MBA. The college also offers a two-year physi-cian assistant program leading to the Master of Physician Assistant Studies.

        Further training is offered through positions for postdoctoral research fellowships in all basic science and clinical departments. The clinical departments conduct frequent seminars as part of a continuing education pro-gram for practicing physicians. In addition, some of the clinical departments have assumed responsibility for community medicine programs in communities sur-rounding Gainesville.

        The faculty is dedicated to a teaching program of high quality. The design of the four-year curriculum encour-ages a close faculty-student relationship. The educational program is structured to enable the graduate to choose any career in medicine. Therefore, emphasis is placed on fun-damental biological principles and their relevance to the practice of medicine.

Undergraduate Preparation

        Students intending to apply for admission to the College of Medicine should complete the requirements for a bachelor’s degree. Preprofessional students at the University of Florida may major in a program offered by any department or college in the university. The Office of Preprofessional Education offers a variety of resources, including the university’s Preprofessional Handbook.

        An applicant to the College of Medicine must have personal qualities of the highest order-character, integrity, intellectual honesty, responsibility, maturity, initiative and aptitude. In addition, students must have demon-strated superior academic achievement during under-graduate work and completed the Medical College Apti-tude Test (MCAT). College of Medicine catalogs are available upon request from the Office of Admissions.

Computer Requirement

        All students entering the university are expected to purchase or lease computer hardware and software, as required by their programs. Refer to the university’s requirement in the Admissions section of this catalog, the university’s home page at http://www.ufl.edu or to the CIRCA home page at http://www.circa.ufl.edu/ comput-ers for general computer information as well as a link to the college’s web page for specific requirements for each program.

Special Programs

        A Junior Honors Program exists for undergraduate students who have chosen a career in the medical profes-sion and who have demonstrated both superior scholastic ability and personal development during their first two college years. Students are chosen for the program at the end of their sophomore year. The third year consists of two-thirds arts and sciences courses and one-third Col-lege of Medicine credit. The latter is offered in a seminar form. The fourth year consists of first-year preclinical courses in the College of Medicine. Since the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences grants academic credit for all of the third-year work and part of the fourth-year work, a participating student receives a B.S. degree and completes one year of medical school while still an un-dergraduate student (in a total of four years). The program is limited in size to 12 students per year in order to retain the discussion seminar format.

        Unusually gifted students may enter a combined M.D.-Ph.D. program that offers a unique opportunity for integrating clinical experience with competence in basic biomedical research. This program reflects the increasing dependence of the practice of medicine on scientific advances in the biological sciences.

        The Program in Medical Sciences (PIMS), an inter-university approach to medical education, began in 1971 at the Florida State and Florida A & M universities in Tallahassee. In this program the two universities along with the University of West Florida in Pensacola have combined efforts to provide instruction in the preclinical medical sciences parallel with the first-year curriculum of the University of Florida. From among those students accepted into the PIMS program after satisfactory com-pletion of the required curriculum, an evaluation commit-tee, with the approval of the College of Medicine dean, selects those students who may transfer to the University of Florida College of Medicine at the second-year level. Those who make satisfactory progress complete the remaining three years of medical education at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Teaching Hospitals

        Shands Hospital, a modern tertiary care facility, is part of the Health Science Center complex and is the teaching hospital of the College of Medicine. The Col-lege of Medicine has responsibility for patient care, teach-ing and research at the Veterans Administration Medical Center, located next to the Health Science Center. A formal affiliation was established with the Jacksonville Health Education Program, Inc. in 1969 for the purpose of providing combined educational and clinical resources. In addition, the college is involved in several projects con-cerned with community health care.

        Further detailed information will be found in the College of Medicine or the Graduate School catalogs. Copies may be obtained by writing to the Office of the University Registrar, Box 114000, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-4000.