BMJ  2006;332:278 (4 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7536.278

Commentary

Integrated learning

¹ Division of Medical Education, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL ed.peile@warwick.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Much of today's learning happens in modules. Neatly packaging concepts into topic areas is convenient for course organisers and for those who accredit learning. Patients remind us daily that the real life problems of medicine defy such artificial boundaries. The problems that Mr Bond's team are dealing with involve both psyche and soma simultaneously.¹ Thus, considerations of the pathophysiological mechanisms of disease, imaging and diagnostics, surgical interventions, and therapeutics must take place alongside ethical debate and psychological engagement, all within the pragmatic context of limited resources. That is the value of case-based learning—it is real, complex, and convoluted. Mr Bond's case forces us to integrate our learning from different areas of medical studies and apply this to the dilemmas facing a real patient.

In the rapid responses on bmj.com, doctors and students showed how this is possible. Having rejected "covert moral judgment colouring decision-making," an eminent North American doctor . . . [Full text of this article]

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