Presented By: Lisan Smith, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Co-Authors: Samar Hegazy, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Joseph Sepe, University of Minnesota Medical School

Purpose 
A traditional discipline-based teaching approach results in fragmented learning, where students need to connect basic sciences and figure out clinical relevance. Integrated teaching and active learning have been shown to develop critical thinking, self-directed learning, and clinical problem-solving skills. However, there are challenges to implementing an integrated curriculum, such as time limitations and connecting basic sciences coherently. To address these challenges in the Carle Illinois preclinical curriculum, we created complementary integrative teaching approaches to coherently link foundational concepts from basic sciences through interactive learning sessions. 

Methods 
Students are provided with book chapters, pre-recorded lectures, and/or educational videos in advance of the session. For some sessions, instructors provided a brief didactic to recap main concepts. In class, students applied learned concepts to solve clinical vignette-related problems by working collaboratively in small groups of 4-8 students/group. Activities included answering questions, graphing pressure volume (PV) loops, predicting outcomes of PV loops, or designing mini-concept maps to integrate learned concepts for illustrating a patient's condition, including a patient-centered prevention/treatment plan. Peer teach-back was utilized for students to share their answers with the class and get immediate instructor feedback. Students completed voluntary surveys at the conclusion of the sessions to provide feedback about the effectiveness/impact of these approaches on their learning and the strengths/areas of improvement. 

Results 
Most students demonstrated a positive perception of these approaches and emphasized several strengths/benefits of it in promoting their understanding of learned concepts. These approaches appeared to help students reduce cognitive load by integrating concepts to better understand and apply knowledge. 

Conclusion 
This approach expands on evidence-based strategies proven efficient in promoting students' learning. This approach can be adopted by other medical schools seeking to prepare their students to improve their problem-solving by applying integrated knowledge.