This course fully integrates the basic disciplines of Gross Anatomy and Radiology, Developmental Biology and Embryology, Histology, and Physiology of the human body, and its organ systems.

General Objectives

• Acquisition of essential knowledge of normal macro and microscopic anatomy, radiological imaging, embryology/developmental biology, and physiology in an integrative manner that emphasizes structure- function relationships in the human body at the tissue, organ and systemic levels of biological organization.
  
  
• Fostering of continuous self-education in these fields.

The course has been divided in the following modules:

1. EARLY DEVELOPMENT, SKELETAL-MUSCLE-SKIN SYSTEMS, AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM, NERVOUS TISSUES, SPINAL CORD, BACK, PECTORAL REGION AND UPPER LIMB.
2. CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM.
3. RESPIRATORY SYSTEM.
4. GASTRO-INTESTINAL SYSTEM.
5. KIDNEY, PERINEUM, AND PELVIS
6. REPRODUCTION AND ENDOCRINOLOGY

The course was designed to use several modalities of learning, including problem based learning (PBL), lectures, laboratories (cadaver dissection, radiology, histology, and physiology), demonstrations (used sparingly), reviews (used sparingly), and journal club.

Problem-based learning (PBL). PBL plays a central but not exclusive role in the curriculum. Fundamentally, PBL will "drive" the other modalities of learning. The main objectives of PBL are to stimulate: 1. Active self-learning. 2. Learning to retrieve information efficiently from books, computers, and journal articles. 3. Construction of logical interrelations from apparently disperse pieces of factual knowledge in preparation for understanding and exercising some of the thinking patterns of medical practice. 4. Integration of basic knowledge within a context of a realistic clinical case in which the emphasis is on normal structure-functions relationships of the human body rather than on clinical diagnosis, treatment or outcome. 5. Reading, critical analysis, presentation of original articles in the modern biomedical literature related to the clinical case (see “Journal Club” below). PBL groups will remain intact for the entire course, although each group will have different facilitators for the first and second 8-week periods.

Clinical skills center. In Week 11, students will have a PBL case together with an experience with standardized patients, and a simulator of physiological and pathophysiological functions in our Clinical Skills Center, directed by Dr. Yoon Kang.

Lectures. Lectures play an important role in the curriculum. These include basic lectures that provide an overview of key aspects of each system, and clinical lectures that relate basic knowledge to treatment of disease.

Laboratories. Laboratories Laboratory experience, including cadaver dissection, radiological imaging, histology, embryology computer labs, and physiology, is highly emphasized in the curriculum, and in terms of total hours of contact with students is the most extensive part of the course. The laboratories are designed to provide: 1. Hands-on acquisition of knowledge in gross anatomy, radiology, and histology; 2. Familiarity with some physiological tests commonly used in clinical practice (e.g., blood pressure measurement, ECG, pulmonary function tests); 3. Reinforcement of concepts of structure-function interrelationships in the human body.

Journal Club. Journal Club is integrated into the PBL sessions. One or more articles at the forefront of the field will be chosen for presentation and discussion in each PBL case. The articles will usually be directly related to the topics of the PBL case. Performance in presentation and discussion of articles will be an integral part of student’s PBL evaluation ( see “Student Evaluation” below.)

Demonstrations. These are used sparingly to expose students to important clinical and laboratory procedures in which "hands-on" experience is not feasible at this stage of instruction (e.g., angiography).