Creating an Integrated Undergraduate Biomedical Science Course for Pre‐Medical Students Transitioning into Medical Schools Adopting Competency Based Curriculum

The Scientific Foundation of Future Physicians report outlines overarching medical education goals including communication and critical thinking. It emphasizes the adoption of competency based curriculum within both undergraduate and medical education. It also underscores the importance of not only increasing student's knowledge, but also improving the attitudes and skills associated with these competencies. Lastly, new curriculum should emphasize basic sciences integration. The question is: How can you design a course that meets these challenges? In an effort to bridge this divide, medical education faculty at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine created an integrated biomedical science course for undergraduate pre‐med students. The course focused on type 2 diabetes mellitus. Primary instructional strategies included Team‐Based Learning (TBL) exercises and interactive didactic sessions. The course also required students to submit online reflective writing assignments that focused on 1) student learning experiences and 2) simulated patient‐centered experiences. The use of TBL and reflective writing were chosen as methods of instruction in order to meet the challenge of improving the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the students in an integrated fashion due to the nature of the disease process being learned. This is a report on the design and implementation of this course.