The core curriculum, delivered in a four-hour morning session once a week, is designed to enhance and augment the knowledge gained during the first two years, and is directed towards life-long learning and skills, including critically reading the medical literature and understanding health care for children in the larger policy context. It focuses on the following specific skills:

The second, and major, component of the block is protected time for residents to focus on research projects, medical education projects, community advocacy experiences, and/or more in-depth exposure to clinical experiences. Residents meet individually with faculty mentors two or more months before the start of CDB to design their projects. Senior residents have used their CDB time in a wide variety of ways to explore career alternatives, either start or complete a primary research project, or undertake a project that will round out their own training (and often contributes to the training of other residents). The diversity of CDB activities reflects the diversity of interests and career paths of our residents.