Purpose
In contemporary medical education, the shift from discipline-based, basic science education to systems-based learning has allowed medical students to start clinical rotations earlier and interact with patients sooner. However, fast-forwarding the timeline into the clinic greatly shortens time spent with basic sciences, with most medical schools now decreasing time devoted to teaching basic sciences to 18 months. Without a fundamental understanding of basic physiological principles, physicians are less accurate in diagnosing complex or unpredictable clinical situations. To that end, utilizing the core concepts in physiology in medical education is a novel approach to teach medical students complex physiological processes in a condensed curriculum.

Methods
64 MS1 students were introduced to the core concepts in physiology during their first course in medical school (Foundations) as a framework to approach complex physiological mechanisms in medicine. Emphasis was placed on the core concepts in subsequent organ systems courses, including optional learning activities utilizing the core concepts. After the Cardiovascular course, students completed an evaluation survey and a course final exam.

Results
Students reported that the core concepts helped improve their understanding of physiological mechanisms (4.6/5), were effective in reducing the amount of time it took to comprehend the physiology material in the course (4.5/5), and improved confidence in approaching complex clinical situations (4.3/5). Students who completed the core concepts activities scored 4.1% higher on the course final exam than those who did not.

Conclusion
Despite being consistently ranked as one of the most important disciplines in preparation for clinical clerkships and residency, the time devoted to medical physiology education has significantly decreased in recent years. Here, we show that integrating physiology core concepts into medical education curricula improves understanding and promotes mechanistic thinking in medical students to help them navigate complex clinical situations.