Tools for integrating women's health into medical education: clinical cases and concept mapping

The authors describe two teaching tools, case-based learning and concept mapping, and how they support cross-disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary learning, use a biopsychosocial model, and promote the integration of sex- and gender-based science into the medical curriculum. The process of case development at MCP Hahnemann University (MCPHU) is outlined in detail for a specific case. That case, which integrates three different components of women's health, is then presented in full. The authors then provide an example of a concept map dealing with women and alcohol use; the map defines current knowledge and serves as a blueprint for developing curricular goals and learning objectives for the topic. Properly constructed concept maps and cases help teach patient-centered approaches to problem solving, address sex- and gender-based differences in disease as well as in pathophysiology and pharmacology, integrate psychosocial issues-such as family dynamics, environmental stressors, access to health care, effective gender-based communication between patient and provider, and cultural variations-along with biomedical ones, and encourage a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. The authors maintain that these tools might be used to transform medical education by making it more integrated and interdisciplinary.