Case design to emphasize population health concepts in problem-based learning

Medical training traditionally focuses on disease diagnosis and management. The need to incorporate preventive medicine, economics, and health promotion is increasingly apparent. Because problem-based learning (PBL) encourages multidisciplinary thinking, it is ideal for linking traditional medical education and population-oriented training. Although use of PBL has grown in medical education, cases typically focus upon patho-physiology, diagnosis, and therapy of individuals. Even when cases are intended to integrate multidisciplinary topics such as behavioral sciences or prevention, the biological aspects are emphasized.

To describe approaches to case design that emphasize population perspectives of health.

Specific examples drawn from actual cases we have used illustrate how five basic components of a case--namely, title, context, intrigue, indicators of problem resolution, and tight structure--facilitate discussion of, and enhance concern for, population issues.

The literature indicates that health professional students tend to favor biological over population content in clinical cases. We illustrate how population content can be represented in specifically designed cases.