Integrating Medical History into Organ-System Based Curriculum : A Retrospective Study

Aim This study aimed to explore the integration of medical history into clinical lecture-based learning, evaluating its impact on the teaching quality of the organ-system-based curriculum (OSBC) as an integration tool, and to investigate a cost-effective approach to implementing interdisciplinary teaching. Background OSBC symbolizes the current trajectory of medical education reform. The implementation of OSBC in China encounters several challenges, including a dearth of effective integration strategies, the inadequacy of traditional lecture-based learning for integrated curricula, insufficient cultivation of students' critical and innovative thinking, and escalating educational expenses. Methods A retrospective study was conducted involving students from 2021 to 2022. Medical history was integrated into clinical lecture-based learning at functional nodes without increasing faculty workload or teaching hours. Students who received the new teaching method were divided into the experimental group, while the other students, who did not receive the method, were in the control group. Formative and summative assessments were utilized to compare the performance of the two groups in terms of in-class and final exam results, the excellent rate of innovation and critical thinking, and student satisfaction. Results Compared with the control group, the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher rates of excellence in final assessments (78.3% vs. 37.3%, P  < 0.0001), innovation scores (78.3% vs. 25.4%, P  < 0.0001), critical thinking scores (55% vs.16.9%, P  < 0.0001).Similarly, the satisfaction of students in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group(96.7% vs. 71.2%, P  < 0.0001). In the in-class assessment on primary immune thrombocytopenia, the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher accuracy in questions related to pathogenesis (85% vs. 40.7%, P  < 0.0001), laboratory examination (85% vs. 42.4%, P  < 0.0001), and therapeutic principles (93.3% vs. 67.8%, P  < 0.0001). Conclusion Integrating the history of medicine into clinical lectures at key points of integration and enhancement improves the quality of OSBC through a multidisciplinary approach.It may enhance the linkage between foundational and clinical knowledge,and cultivate critical thinking and innovative abilities in students of this course. This innovative adaptation of LBL within OSBC suggests potential as a low-cost, locally feasible model for integrated curricula reform in China, though it still needs to be further validated in national research.