Improving medical physiology education: outlook for the 1990s.

In the past year, as my growing interest in physiology education encountered the realities of the “soft money” environment in which I lived, I was afforded the opportunity to broaden my perspective from that of faculty member focused on a single institution to that of consultant concerned with issues common to many institutions. As a result of this transition, I became more aware of a number of questions concerning how we approach physiology in the medical school curriculum. These are not necessarily new questions, nor are they unique to physiology. However, if we are to make significant progress in medical physiology education in the 199Os, the physiology community must, in my view, actively address these issues in a meaningful way. I will, therefore, discuss each of these issues briefly in the hope that a dialog will ensue that may lead to improved physiology education. hypotheses can be posed and tested. In today’s buzzword terminology, the students should be able to solve physiological problems. If, indeed, this is the goal of the course, the content question becomes, “What content is necessary to help the students learn this skill?” With this approach, it is not necessary to present the entire body of physiological information within the time constraints of the physiology curriculum. Instead, course activities are directed toward achieving the course goal. As part of this process, students should certainly be made aware of how to access pertinent physiological information so that they can continue to build on the foundation established in the formal course. Additional opportunities should also be made available throughout their medical training to reinforce the role of physiology and physiological problem solving in clinical medicine.