Ensinando Bioquímica Para Futuros Médicos

The next generation of physicians will need new skills, attitudes and knowledge. They will need to acquire skills to critically evaluate medical literature and will have expertise in Public Health, and home care. Medical education will necessary be linked to a new model of Public Health. In this context, it will be important that Biochemisty may contribute to the formation of these skills. During a transient period, some modifications in teaching Biochemistry may be beneficial to the medical students. In the last fifteen years we have introduced some modifications on biochemistry teaching for medical students at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). We reduced the factual content, retaining only the medically relevant material necessary to understand the molecular approach to the most prevalent diseases, mainly those leading to failure of organs and systems. The laboratory experiments are substituted by the interpretation of biochemical data of patients found at the Hospital das Clínicas de Porto Alegre. Basic Biochemistry is learned indirectly by answering the questions arised from the clinical and biochemical data of the patients. Students show permanent interest in learning biochemistry in such way and their evaluation has been highly stimulant. We think that this approach can be adapted to other fields of basic science.