Physics for physicians: integrating science into the medical curriculum, 1910-1950

One of the most difficult problems in twentieth-century medical education has been finding ways to successfully integrate the basic and applied sciences into the medical curriculum. Not only have medical students regarded basic sciences such as physics and biochemistry with distaste, but these subjects traditionally have been taught by pure scientists with little interest in the needs of medical students. In this paper, the author reviews the history of physics teaching at the Queen's University Faculty of Medicine in Canada, placing particular emphasis on the work of J.K. Robertson (1885-1958), professor of physics. Although physics no longer has the relevance to general medical training that it once had a study of Robertson's ideas and methods provides insight into the process of integrating basic science into medical training. Robertson's success in the endeavor was based largely on two factors his "sympathetic understanding" of the needs of medical students and his innovative combination of basic and applied science in one course--factors that are as important to medical teaching today as they were 50 years ago.