Integrated teaching of pathology and other disciplines?

In the classical teaching system, the different disciplines required for the education of physicians are given separately, not only in location but also in time. The latter is very obvious, as sometimes years separate the teaching of basic sciences and clinical disciplines. Integration of the different "building blocks" is, for a considerable part, left to the intellect and imagination of the individual student. Nowadays more emphasis is put on the correlation and significance of the different disciplines as parts of the whole of medicine. As a result, different aspects of medicine are taught at the same time. This is accomplished by choosing a medical problem as a topic, and then analyzing it from the viewpoint of the different relevant disciplines. One of the advantages of this system is that the student can see the relationship of the different parts of medicine more clearly. He can easily see why he has to know the basic sciences for a better understanding of clinical medicine. This should stimulate his effort. It is evident that pathology is involved in nearly every topic chosen. One of the difficulties of this integrated and problem oriented teaching is to avoid gaps (blank spots). This can be attained by a well balanced choice of topics. At one of the Dutch medical schools this system is in use. The principles and results will be discussed.