Clinico‐Histologic Conferences (CHC): A New Endeavor in Teaching Histology

Abstract

Clinico‐Histologic Conferences were developed for the histology course in the first year of medical school to: enhance the relevance of histology by providing a clinical context, foster peer teaching and learning through teamwork, and promote longitudinal integration and application of medical knowledge. Twenty‐four groups of six students each were assigned a disease and created a 10 min presentation with a handout with the objective of teaching the class about that disease. The students' oral presentation and handout focused on the salient features of the disease, i.e. description of the disease, including symptoms, findings, incidence (US & other countries), age or gender or other predisposing factors and outcomes (morbidity, life expectancy); etiology of the disease (cause or origin of the disease, the basis of the cellular manifestation of the disease, and if known, the molecular/genetic defect.); diagnosis (lab tests, histological tests). A 5 min Q and A was at the end of each presentation with an expert MD facilitator present. The facilitator evaluated the students on their oral presentation (choice of content, format, and discussion to facilitate student understanding of the disease) and handouts (quality of information, format, clarity of information and graphics of histology/pathology of disease). There were also questions on the midterm and final exams related to the content taught in the CHCs.