Edinburgh Medical School has been leading medical education, training and research for the past 300 years. Pioneers such as the creator of anaesthesia, James Young Simpson, and Joseph Lister, discoverer of antiseptic, studied here. In recent years the Medical School has led major medical innovations in stem cell research, cancer, immunity and many other fields. Medicine at Edinburgh offers a modern, innovative curriculum designed to prepare you for contemporary medical practice. Our aim is for you to graduate as a competent, ethical and reflective doctor, with the care of patients as your first concern. You will graduate as an excellent communicator and team player, prepared for complex and uncertain situations, equipped for ongoing personal development, and trained for high professional achievement and leadership. The breadth and depth of medical knowledge is expanding exponentially, with advances in medical science and research rapidly translated into clinical practice. Edinburgh's future doctors will be equipped with an understanding of the underpinning science, and the clinical skills to treat patients effectively as well as the personal attributes and attitudes required by medical practice. In this way Edinburgh will prepare you to be a scholar, a practitioner and a professional. We are the only Scottish institution to offer a six-year MBChB programme, which includes a year of full-time, research-based study in Year 3. We have a long history of medical students taking a year of intercalated, research-based study as part of their medical training and our programme embeds this research year in to the training of all of our medical cohort. Most students achieve at least one academic publication and/or presentation which is beneficial to their CV and future career during the research year. You will choose from a wide range of disciplines and topics, including established areas such as neuroscience and new areas such as health sciences, and will later revisit and extend the research interests developed. At the end of the programme you will graduate with both a research-based Bachelor of Medical Sciences honours degree and an MBChB primary medical qualification. You will have a deep understanding of medical research and evidence-based medicine, and will have developed your analytical skills. All these will be useful in your chosen career, allowing you to understand and lead innovation in all fields of medicine from general practice to hospital-based specialties or public health. You will be especially well equipped for a career in academic medicine, which demands ongoing practical involvement in research, as a physician-scientist. Progression directly from Years 2 to 4 is possible but will only be considered in special circumstances, such as graduate entrants with prior research experience.