Distinctive Programs

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is dedicated to providing a world-class educational experience. Besides a curriculum driven by our educational goals and objectives and organized into four value domains, the school ensures a rounded education through a variety of additional programs.

With requirements ranging from service learning to scientific research and rare opportunities such as an oral health program and portable ultrasound training, our students leave our program ready for whatever the world has waiting for them.

Medical Student Research

All of our students are required to participate in the research curriculum, making the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine one of the few medical schools nationwide to place an emphasis on research throughout the four-year curriculum. By teaching research fundamentals during the first year and allowing dedicated time for research throughout the remaining three, students are set on track to practice evidence-based medicine.

International Rotations

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine students have a chance to expand the depth and breadth of their education through serving and learning in an international setting as part of their fourth-year clinical rotations.

Students can choose from among a number of established partnerships with hospitals and medical education programs in Brazil, France, Guatemala, India, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Oral Health Program

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is one of the few medical schools that incorporates oral health into its instruction.

Thanks in large part to a $1 million endowment made possible by a gift from the Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation, a comprehensive oral health curriculum is a major component of the education received by students at the VTC School of Medicine.

Narrative Medicine

This narrative medicine course seeks to develop students’ attentive listening skills, empathy, reflectiveness, and narrative competence through extended patient interviews and creative response.

Service Learning

Critical service learning, or VTCSOMEngage, is a required element for graduation administered through the Office for Community Engagement. Our students take part in service projects on their own such as Medicine and Health Day at the Boys and Girls Club and volunteering at the Bradley Free Clinic.

Service Learning Spotlight

Academics