An anatomical backbone for an integrated first‐year medical curriculum

Abstract

One current trend in medical education is weaving basic science course content into an integrated curriculum. Related challenges to traditional curricula with separate, department‐based, courses include: curricular governance, examination logistics, lecture and laboratory scheduling, and content distribution among faculty. Having already integrated our anatomy curriculum into a single Human Morphology course with regional dissection at its core, our course recently became the backbone for integrating our entire first‐year medical curriculum. Existing lectures from all courses were rearranged and aligned by topic and supplemented with clinical correlations. Reshuffling and shortening the lectures reduced unnecessary redundancy, reduced hours in class, and reinforced learning by juxtaposing content coverage from multiple perspectives. The logistics of curriculum scheduling, management, and delivery developed over one year in meetings among course directors and other key faculty. The initial outcome maintains course autonomy and course directors. Cross‐departmental faculty meetings continue to provide unprecedented interdepartmental faculty communication regarding teaching, learning, and content. We expect the curriculum to continue evolving toward full integration, retaining full regional dissection as a core element. Supported in part by NIH P03 1B040107 and G12‐RR03034.