St. Luke School of Medicine (Liberia, Africa) Fast Facts

School Info

Founded in 1998, and chartered and accredited in Liberia as "St. Luke School of Medicine (SLSOM)", provides professional doctoral training in allopathic medicine. St. Luke School of Medicine offers a four-year Doctor of Medicine curriculum. SLSOM is a non-sectarian medical school. In the aftermath of a devestating civil unrest and enduring years of self-serving demogogary, St. Luke School of Medicine welcomes the duly elected government and administration of the Honorable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to Liberia. St. Luke School of Medicine stands ready to continue to serve Liberia and West Africa by producing quality medical graduates. Indeed, St. Luke School of Medicine graduates have been the top scorers on several West African countries' medical licensing examinations, to make Liberia proud of its medical educational achievements.

Curriculum

The basic science curriculum provides the scientific basis for medical understanding, diagnosis, and treatment. It emphasizes the principles and mechanisms of health, disease and modes of therapy. As stated by the USMLE, our goal as a medical school is to ensure mastery of not only the basic medical sciences undergirding the safe practice of medicine, but to also present the scientific principles required for maintenance through lifelong learning. Our curriculum for basic science is centered on the Content Description for USMLE Step 1. The last five or six trimesters, eighty (80) weeks consists of sixty-eight (68) weeks of core clerkships: Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, General Surgery, Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Emergency Medicine and Community Medicine, and twelve (12) weeks of electives.

Facilities

Liberia students study onsite and online through St. Luke's local area network and internet. St. Luke School of Medicine’s medical curriculum combines lectures, computer and online studies, and laboratory studies unmatched in Liberia, if not West Africa. St. Luke's offers courses on a trimester system. Trimesters are four months in length (about 16 weeks each) and begin in September, January, and May with a one-week break in between. St. Luke students will finish basic sciences in 1-1/3 years compared to two years at most other medical schools. St. Luke students will take the mandatory Public Health and Community Medicine each semester. Clerkships are available for students for all clinical science students in the United States, Liberia, India and other countries. Additionally, all students who are able to obtain visas for entry into the United States are encouraged to do at least two semesters of clinical rotations in United States hospitals.