Effect of Curricular Reforms of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Medical Engineering Interdisciplinary Crossing on Eight-year Medical Students / 中国康复理论与实践

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the effect of curricular reforms of physical medicine and rehabilitation in medical engineering interdisciplinary on learning of eight-year medical students. Methods:The eight-year medical students studying Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Tsinghua University in 2018 and 2019 were enrolled into control group (n = 20) and observation group (n = 18), respectively. The control group used routine courses and studied with teachers of rehabilitation medicine; while the observation group added neuroscience theory and new advances, the development of functional magnetic resonance and application in rehabilitation medicine, new technology and progress in medical engineering in the course, and studied with teachers of electronic engineering, mechanical engineering and medicine. Their performances were compared. The observation group was surveyed with self-designed questionaire. Results:The performance of paper test, general test and total test were higher in the observation group than in the control group (t > 2.694, P < 0.01). The questionnaire showed that the observation group could better understand the course of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the development of medical engineering interdisciplinary crossing and translational research within physical medicine and rehabilitation, and they thought it was more necessary to study the new course after the curriculum finished (|Z| > 2.304, P < 0.05). The proportion of students who were interested and very interested in medical engineering interdisciplinary crossing and translational research within physical medicine and rehabilitation increased from 77.78% to 94.44% (P = 0.222), and the the proportion of students who were probably and very probably engaged in physical medicine and rehabilitation increased from 61.11% to 83.33% (P =0.043). Conclusion:The curricular reforms in medical engineering interdisciplinary crossing could raise the interest and improve the test performance of eight-year students with physical medicine and rehabilitation.