Survey of biochemical topics used by clinicians in teaching and practice

In a pilot survey of biochemical topics, implied and overt, one of us (M.K.) attended 14 clinicians in 7 London medical schools during 4 half-day sessions, chosen at random, and recorded the activities and their relation to biochemistry. The sample was not intended to be representative but aimed at reasonable comprehensiveness. A list of twenty 'biochemical and related' topics was derived from these records, sent to the clinician for approval and comment, and used for rating the incidence of topics during the sampled sessions. Ratings by the two authors independently and the clinicians were combined. Collaboration between biochemist and clinicians was found crucial for the interpretation of clinical events in biochemical terms. Extension of this survey, using a questionnaire embodying the 20 biochemical categories, is to serve as a basis for defining objectives in biochemistry teaching for medical students.