As medical education increasingly shifts from discipline-based courses to
integrated curricular models, ensuring the visibility and coherence of
foundational scientific threads, particularly physiology and pathophysiology
(P&P), becomes essential for preparing students for Step 1, clinical
rotations, and residency. This project identifies key opportunities to
enhance P&P teaching within an integrated curriculum and proposes
actionable strategies to strengthen physiological learning across the preclinical
phase.
We recommend explicitly defining physiology in curricular overviews and
syllabi so all content developers (course/thread directors) and students can
clearly distinguish P&P principles from other descriptions of normal
structure and function. Strengthening faculty roles is also critical:
involving physiologists in both discipline-specific and integrated teaching
can help ensure balanced representation of P&P across case-based
learning, large-group sessions, and active-learning formats (e.g., PBL).
Since directly mapping a stand-alone physiology course onto an integrated
curriculum presents significant challenges, P&P content should be
introduced earlier and distributed more consistently across all blocks,
including those where it is currently underrepresented (e.g.,
neurobehavioral). The American Physiological Society’s comprehensive
organ-system learning objectives (2012) provide a useful framework for
guiding this redistribution across an integrated curriculum.
To support continuous quality improvement, we propose earlier and more
systematic collection of student feedback specific to P&P thread content.
Quantifying thread content with updated models, not only learning objectives
or contact hours, may improve students’ ability to assess their competence
and help faculty achieve balanced thread integration. Finally, incorporating
simulation and laboratory-based experiences (e.g., ECG workshops) can promote
experiential engagement with core physiological concepts.
Together, these recommendations offer a structured approach for
strengthening P&P instruction within an integrated curriculum and
improving student preparation for subsequent stages of medical training (Step
1 and beyond).