Medical Science Educator Volume 3: No. 1

Recently in my early morning reading, I came across an interesting human behavioral twist on Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “For every positive action, there is a positive reaction.” I stopped after that sentence to consider its impact in the context of what we in the BSEF are doing. Our goal is a positive action,… Read more »

In this issue of THE FORUM we are publishing two contributions outlining some of the most popular formats for the introduction of clinical correlations in the Basic Sciences. Dr. Ingenito’s contribution addresses two important modalities, the “Patient-Oriented Problem Solving” (POPS) exercises and clinical conferences, as used in his pharmacology course. POPS were initially developed by… Read more »

The process by which an individual learns a discipline involves learning the basic knowledge of the discipline and practicing application of that knowledge to real situations. Later, one can practice more, refine one’s knowledge base, and even add new discoveries to the discipline. In my medical student days, the practice was mostly oriented toward the… Read more »

Two recent widely-publicized and disseminated reports, the “GREP Report” [1] and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Report [2], have focused on the importance of teaching the basic medical sciences in a conceptual framework which forms the rational basis for medical practice. The recommendations included the use of instructive techniques which employ clinically-oriented problem solving approaches;… Read more »

Faculty members hear many voices calling for the “integration of basic and clinical science material” throughout the four years of the typical undergraduate medical curriculum. While such voices can be traced to documents such as the GPEP and the ACME-TRI report, it remains confusing for individual faculty members to know what can be done to… Read more »

EDITOR of THE FORUM NEWSLETTER This individual will replace our current Editor, Dr. John J. Curry, nd be charged with maintaining and expanding the standards of quality he has set. Responsibilities include sequencing and formatting of all contributions to THE FORUM submitted by Associate Editors, National and Regional Directors. Nominees should be facile in the… Read more »

Medical students almost always respond enthusiastically to attending autopsies, participating in the dissection, and helping work through the abnormal physiology involved in understanding clinical-pathological correlations. They enjoy seeing the anatomy of an unembalmed cadaver, and looking at histologic slides to confirm, refute or elucidate the clinical hypotheses made at the time of the gross dissection…. Read more »

John Curry and Jim Swierkosz, being asked to serve as a BSEF Central Region Nominating Committee, now present for your consideration their choice of two candidates (from those nominated at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the BSEF in New Orleans, November 11, 1992) for the position of BSEF Central Regional Director. Both these candidates have… Read more »

The terms relevance and irrelevance are extremely difficult to define, since they are relative. They depend largely on the knowledge available at a given time and on the orientation of the individual educator During our education and professional careers, students and educators will never know what is relevant and what is irrelevant. Relevant facts may… Read more »

NOVEMBER, 1993 WASHINGTON, D.C. The Sixth Annual Meeting of the Basic Science Education Forum will be held in Washington, D.C. during the Annual AAMC Conference scheduled for November 5-11, 1993. Continuing in our tradition of selecting topics related to the four Current BSEF Projects (See next page), our theme for this meeting will address Topic… Read more »

NORTHEAST Quebec City, PQApril 16-18, 1993Thinking, Learning, and Problem Solving in Medical Students and ResidentsOrganizers: Laval University, Georges Bordage, M.D., Ph.D. For details on BSEF activity phone:Alix Robinson, Ph.D.(315) 464-5870 CENTRAL Rochester, MN April 29-May 2, 1993Making it Happen!Organizers: Robert Winter, M.D. and Margret Lie, M.D.For details on BSEF activity phone:Roger Koment, Ph.D. (605) 677-5174… Read more »