Entry requirements

Required previous knowledge is decided by the Committee for Undergraduate Medical Education.

Aims

The aim of this course is to provide the students with the knowledge and skills that will be required of them as qualified physicians in order to fulfil their medico-legal obligations.

After completion of the course, the student should

have acquired knowledge of laws and statutes and be able to interpret them correctly

have knowledge of the general principles relating to the issuing of certificates,

be able independently to carry out conventional medico-legal examinations and sampling,

know what is required of a physician when he or she is called to a scene of death or crime and be able independently to carry out such an examination of a dead person as is required at a death/crime scene investigation,

have knowledge of the pathogenesis, pathophysiology and morphological findings at certain sudden natural and unnatural deaths,

have knowledge of the most common types of traumatic injury and of the mechanisms underlying their occurrence,

have knowledge of the morphological, clinical and chemical findings in the more common types of poisoning,

be oriented in the different traffic-related medical measures taken to prevent accidents and the injuries which they cause.

Content

Laws and statutes

Medico-legal examinations of living and dead persons

Findings at crime scene investigations

Traumatology

Toxicology

Instruction

The course comprises lectures, seminars and demonstrations

Assessment

One stipulation for assessment of the course as satisfactorily completed is that the student has been present to the required degree. The rules for compulsory presence follow the principles established by the Committee for Medical Education, in compliance with the instructions issued at the beginning of the course. All demonstrations are compulsory.

The examination takes the form of a written test with free response questions, multiple choice questions and writing of medico-legal certificates. A pass is based mainly on the examination result, but also to some extent on the knowledge and proficiency displayed at practical tests in writing certificates.