The Harvey Medicine and Surgery Course was founded October 1st, 2009 by professor Ermanno Gherardi, Head of the Department of Molecular Medicine.
It is a six-year, single-cycle Master’s Degree in Medicine and Surgery. The Harvey Course was thought “not just to teach the medical profession, but also to build a solid scientific basis for continued training that will be vital for the reception and understanding of future medicine”.
The Harvey Medicine and Surgery Course is the first medicine course entirely taught in English in Italy, together with several other MD programmes offered in English by the University of Pavia.
The Course was named after William Harvey (1578-1657), seventeenth-century British physician, a pioneer in correctly understanding and describing the circulatory system.
The Harvey Course arises from the need for an international (i.e. English language) medical school in Italy. The curriculum combines the long-established Italian teaching methods with the modern paradigms of interactive learning. Harvey trainees evolve into well-rounded doctors through a new wide-ranging programme of study and extensive practical training in the in the renown Pavia clinics and their research laboratories. This includes a rigorous and practical seminar programme provided by Harvey’s carefully selected local and international lecturers consisting of top-of-the-line clinicians, professors and scientists.