What is a curriculum?

Dissatisfaction with the current internal medicine residency experience has led to proposals for various new curricula. Unfortunately, the more basic question of "What is a curriculum?" or more accurately, "What curriculum model is most appropriate for clinical training?" has remained largely unexamined. The dominant curriculum model, although valuable, may not be adequate for the task. In its place we propose an experimental model that is more congruent with the realities of graduate medical education.