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Teaching Histology Dispersed Throughout a Theme Based Medical Curriculum
Author(s) -
Mazurkiewicz Joseph Edward
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.310.2
Subject(s) - organ system , curriculum , theme (computing) , histology , context (archaeology) , physiology , restructuring , function (biology) , pathology , biology , anatomy , medicine , psychology , microbiology and biotechnology , computer science , pedagogy , political science , paleontology , disease , law , operating system
Fifteen years ago the Albany Medical College adopted a concept and organ system Theme‐based curriculum. As a result of the restructuring, discipline‐based courses, such as Histology, Biochemistry, Physiology and Anatomy were "disarticulated" and the content from each course was realigned into separate themes that fostered vertical integration, e.g., the cell biology, anatomy, histology, biochemistry and physiology of a particular was presented for an organ system. While at first there was a perceived loss of the traditional, horizontal integration that necessarily flows from a discipline based course, a net advantage for the education of medical students was realized as the content in the new themes was refocused on a specific organ system. Histology was dispersed throughout the first year and repurposed in the new setting. It serves as a morphological substrate mediating the biochemistry and physiology of an organ and is taught in relation to cell biology. Understanding the structural organization of cells within tissues and organs is an essential prerequisite for understanding how organs function. The histology material relevant to a particular theme is thus presented in an integrated context in which the histology is complemented by pertinent biochemical, physiological and anatomical information. Structure and function are considered to be on a continuum.