Advances in Physiology Education, Vol 261, Issue 6 30-S33, Copyright © 1991 by American Physiological Society
Basic medical physiology: the whole is more than the sum of its parts
E. Rosenberg, H. Brown, D. Jackson and K. Cooper
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20059.
In this article we examine the role of basic medical physiology in medical
school education. We discuss the historical background, courses in this
subject, and methods of teaching it. We conclude that the teaching of
medical physiology should emphasize the study of organ systems and of the
intact body. The techniques should emphasize meticulous observation, the
posing of hypotheses, and the subsequent testing of the hypotheses, i.e.,
the use of the method used successfully in research. Students should learn
the power of the experimental approach and to appreciate the immense
variability possible in responses in complex organisms. They should also
learn that principles of statistical probability applied logically can
detect important differences in data that may be obscured by this
variability. They should learn that there are no rigid answers when
studying an individual and that they must continue to learn throughout
their lives.
