The forensic medicine program focuses on the emerging demand for medico-legal investigations by medical examiner staff and provides a foundation in forensic investigations and autopsy skills.
Students acquire skills in the technical aspects of death scene investigation, identifying, preserving and protecting custody of forensic evidence, differentiating accidental and intentional injuries in both living and dead persons, and determining potential forensic value of written and photographic records. The program also provides skills in the interpretation of research in forensics and skills in utilizing information technology to access information in the forensic sciences.
Click here for programs in Forensic Medicine offered by PCOM.
Prof. Giuseppe Screnci, MS, Director of the Forensic Medicine program, analyzes a slide with students
Field pictures
Investigating a crime scene
It's a grizzly scene - bodies covered in maggots. A bloody knife. An empty pill bottle. On closer inspection, the maggots are grains of rice and the corpses are breathing. It's a crime scene analysis class; students enter the crime scene in small groups and then debrief with the instructors to see if they can determine what happened.
Unearthing a gravesite
Skeletal remains and other evidence are strewn across a grassy field. Students of Forensic Medicine conduct a line search of the area and flag evidence as they find it, and then create a grid using a Cartesian coordinate system to map the crime scene.
