Context, resources and integration: three reasons for students to love pathology

Abstract

Reform of curricula in Australian medical schools has changed the focus in the early years, so that teaching of foundation disciplines emphasises relevance to human health. This is not so much a challenge as an opportunity for pathology, which is unique among these disciplines in being at the heart of modern medical practice. Providing a context for learning pathology, either in terms of an individual clinical problem or a population health issue, is crucial to making the content interesting and engaging for students. In turn, this enables integration of the teaching of other foundation disciplines with pathology, which is mutually advantageous. This presentation will illustrate some approaches that have successfully been implemented at UNSW to achieve these aims. It will also demonstrate the use of virtual microscopy and other digital learning materials, delivered online in ways that are easy to navigate, interactive and provide formative feedback. Rich resources such as these can help to make pathology attractive to the current generation of technology-savvy medical students.