The teaching of organ pathology in European undergraduate education programs in medicine

The European Society of Pathology has established a working group on the undergraduate teaching of pathology. At the IX European Congress of Pathology in Hamburg 1982 some general problems and opportunities regarding the teaching of pathology for undergraduate students in Europe were dealt with. We undertook to formulate the educational objectives of pathology for undergraduates and outlined the subject content necessary to achieve these objectives, how much time is necessary to teach pathology, and when during the medical course the teaching should take place. The results were published as an article in Path Res Pract 178, 518-519, 1984. At the Xth European Congress in Athens 1985 we dealt with the teaching of general pathology in European undergraduate education program in medicine, and both subject content, time, place, pedagogics and the construction of a syllabus guide in general pathology were discussed and defined in detail. The results of this discussion were published in Path Res Pract 181, 365-369, 1986. In two symposia in Porto we concentrated on the teaching of organ pathology as a subject of its own, apart from general pathology. This will be continued at the next congress in Ljubljana September 1-6, 1991.