Resident's morning report: An opportunity to reinforce principles of biomedical science in a clinical context

The principles of biochemistry are core to understanding cellular and tissue function, as well as the pathophysiology of disease. However, the clinical utility of biochemical principles is often obscure to clinical trainees. Resident's Morning Report is a common teaching conference in which residents present clinical cases of interest to a faculty member for discussion. This venue provides an opportunity to illustrate how basic biomedical principles facilitate an understanding of the clinical presentation, the relevant pathophysiology, and the rationale for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. A discussion of biochemical principles can easily be incorporated into these case discussions, with the potential to reinforce these concepts and to illustrate their application to clinical decision making. This approach maintains the effort to teach basic biomedical sciences in the context of clinical application across the educational continuum. © 2013 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 41(5):315–318, 2013