Integration in medical education was first defined as an educational strategy that unifies subjects frequently taught in separate departments. (1) In the years since it first appeared in the literature, the popularity of integration in medical education has steadily increased, with leaders in the field calling for enhanced integration throughout the curriculum, particularly of basic science knowledge. (2) This call to action is supported by several applicable learning theories. Foremost that medical students, as adult learners, desire to understand the relevance of a topic to clinical practice. (3) Second, enhanced integration can promote long-term retention when learning is organized in a way that mimics the way knowledge will be recalled during clinical practice. (4) An additional consideration is that the content within undergraduate medical curriculum is ever-expanding while the length of time remains the same. As the body of scientific and clinical knowledge increases, so does the emphasis on social sciences and humanities. (2) Through enhanced integration of all content, educators can decrease the extraneous cognitive load, which is imposed on the learner when they are required to integrate content outside of class, and increase the germane cognitive load, enabling the learner to devote their cognitive resources to applying the content rather than reorganizing the material. (5) Interactive team teaching enhances integration by drawing on the knowledge of two or more disciplines to present mechanisms of disease in the context of clinical scenarios. In this pre-conference workshop, participants will utilize a rubric to analyze integration at the session level and design a team teaching plan for their home institution.  

Objectives - The objectives of this pre-conference workshop are to:

• Apply relevant learning theories to support integration in medical education.
• Differentiate the levels of integration within curricula, courses, and individual sessions.  
• Allow opportunities for discussion and application of the basic models of team teaching.  
• Explore the challenges and solutions to implementing team teaching in integrated curricula.