Advanced Diagnostic Medicine - An Asynchronous, Online Case-Based Course

This course is an online, asynchronous, two-week case-based course on diagnostic medicine including aspects of pathology, radiology, and laboratory medicine. This course is structured around four cases given over the course of two weeks using online discussion boards and survey tools. A. The goal of the curriculum is to help students develop an algorithmic approach to diagnostic medicine. This includes principles of pathology, radiology and laboratory medicine. After completing this rotation, the medical student should be able to apply their knowledge of disease mechanisms, organ systems, and hospital systems to achieve efficient and effective use of diagnostic tests as well as know the proper use of blood products. Methods of instruction include case-based learning, short answer questions, theoretical discussion boards, and an evidence-based literature review. The four cases presented over two weeks each consist of a bolus of information with appropriate question prompts will be given each day which they will be expected to respond to appropriately. In addition to responding to the prompts, they will be expected to react and respond to each other’s responses. A faculty facilitator will assist in guiding the discussion as well as evaluating the quality of responses. Each case is also associated with two short-answer questions that have clearly defined answers in the literature, as well as a more theoretical discussion board that has no clear-cut answer. In addition, there is a final 'project' of a literature review, where the students are asked to write an evidence-based review answering a timely clinical question.