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The Symptom Biography Curriculum: Teaching Medical Students to Follow the Life Story of a Possible Cancer Symptom
1Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK. waseem.jerjes@nhs.net.
Abstract:
The Symptom Biography Curriculum proposes a new approach to undergraduate cancer education that teaches medical students to explore how possible cancer symptoms evolve before presentation to healthcare services. Rather than focusing solely on structured symptom checklists, the curriculum encourages students to examine symptom interpretation, changing language, patient attribution, delay, and the social context surrounding help-seeking. The approach introduces competencies including temporal listening, attribution listening, language tracking, and delay without blame. Through simulated consultations, reflective exercises, and patient narratives, students learn to reconstruct the "life story" of symptoms before diagnosis. This curriculum aims to strengthen diagnostic curiosity, communication skills, and patient-centred understanding in early cancer education.
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