ABSTRACT
Background & Objectives : In traditional medical curriculum, the main focus is on understanding of physiological concepts; however application, relevance and clinical co-relation of basic knowledge remains uncovered. Therefore retention of basic knowledge by students till later years of clinical exposure is not adequate and hence is seldom applied for patient care. Vertical integration if introduced in physiology can bridge the gap between physiology and clinical subjects, improving knowledge retention and student’s capacity for clinical correlation. A pilot study was undertaken in first year medical students, to study the impact of vertical integration on learning and retention of physiology concepts. Methods: Two topics of endocrinology were taught through traditional and integrated approach to two groups of students with cross over for second topic. In integrated approach, integrated modules were developed and taught by faculties from Physiology, Pathology and Medicine together; whereas traditional approach included usual didactic lectures in Physiology. Knowledge based tests were carried out immediately post intervention (post- test) and after three months interval (repeat post- test). Results Students obtained significantly higher marks in repeat post- test when taught by integrated method than by traditional method (paired t test, p<0.001), implying better knowledge retention in integrated group. Conclusion: There is better retention of knowledge after three months in group that underwent vertical integration. Therefore we recommend introduction of vertical integration along with traditional physiology teaching in first year of medical curriculum.
ABSTRACT
Asthmatic patients are known to have autonomic abnormalities. This study evaluated the status of autonomic nervous system in children of asthmatic parents for any occurrences of autonomic abnormalities that are known to occur in asthma. In this study autonomic function tests were conducted in children (5 to 10 years of age) divided into two groups: Group A had children from non-asthmatic parents as Control Group and Group B had children from asthmatic parents as Test Group. Both the groups had healthy children showing no clinical signs and symptoms of asthma, allergy or any illness known to affect autonomic nervous system. In response to various parasympathetic function tests (S/L ratio, 30:15 ratio, valsalva ratio and tachycardia ratio) and sympathetic function tests (handgrip test and cold pressor test) done, the two groups did not show any statistically significant dissimilarity for any of the parameters. The results of our study showed that there were no autonomic abnormalities found in the children of asthmatic parents. Thus this study indicates that the autonomic defects seen in asthmatics could be secondary to asthma and not because of autonomic aberrations inheritance in asthmatics as shown by earlier few studies supporting the possible role of inherited automatic reactivity in the pathogenesis and progression of asthma.