Teaching and learning of medical biochemistry according to clinical realities: A case study

Abstract

To foster medical students to become physicians who will be lifelong independent learners and critical thinkers with healthy skepticism and provide high-quality patient care guided by the best evidence, teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) has become an important component of medical education. Currently, the teaching and learning of biochemistry in medical schools incorporates its medical relevance and applications. However, to our knowledge there have been no reports on integrating EBM with teaching and learning medical biochemistry. Here, we present a case study to illustrate the significance of this approach. This case study was based on a biochemistry/nutrition question in a popular board review book about whether a homeless alcoholic man is at risk of developing a deficiency of vitamin E. The possible answers and explanation provided in the book raised a question about the correct answer, which provided us with an opportunity to adapt the philosophy and certain basic EBM principles to find evidence for the clinical applicability of a commonly taught biochemistry topic. The outcome of this case study not only taught us how to conduct an EBM exercise to answer a specific patient question, but also provided us with an opportunity for in-depth teaching and learning of the medical relevance of a specific biochemistry topic based on the best clinical evidence obtained from a systematic research of medical literature.

Teaching scientific principles in undergraduate medical education – a scoping review on international examples

“…For example small group exercises, with students working together in order to understand and critically analyze a scientific paper or publication, support collaboration with only minimal intervention by faculty (see for example 35). Self-study time and the possibility to practice skills such as literature search or critical appraisal are essential for students to develop an understanding of evidence in medicine and to adopt these skills (26,31,37,40,41). Educational interventions should plan sufficient time for self-practice so that students achieve a sense of mastering of relevant tools or databases (24,40).…”

“…Give students the opportunity to integrate clinical knowledge and allow for clinical transfer (33,41).…”

“…Reporting strategies of the educational interventions differed substantially. Some studies report precisely, describe the educational intervention and present evaluation data including pre-and postmeasures of student knowledge and student attitude (32,34,38,41). Others characterize the intervention briefly and present post-course evaluation data of student satisfaction (35,(48)(49)(50) or report on the educational intervention without any kind of evaluation (25,28,51).…”

“…Most evidence supports the notion of interactive learning, with integration of EbM teaching into clinical teaching. Examples of successful interactive integration can be found in this review(33,41). Compared to knowledge, attitudes are harder to assess.…”

Attitude of Medical Students towards Biochemistry and Its Integration through Problem-Based Learning

“…Likewise, low score on positive statement and high score on negative statement inferred negative attitude. Out of the statements in the questionnaire, 8 questions (3,4,5,9,10,10,11,12,13) were positive statements.…”