Pathophysiology studies the rules and mechanisms of disease occurrence and development, and provides a theoretical basis for disease prevention and treatment. Pathophysiology is an important basic medical course which also has significant clinical attributes. It is a "bridge course" linking basic medical sciences and clinical medical sciences. After studying the knowledge of the structure, function and metabolism in normal human bodies, by learning pathophysiology, medical students can understand the functional and metabolic alterations in sick bodies, so as to lay a foundation for further study of clinical knowledge of various subjects. In this course we selected the most classic pathophysiology knowledge required by medical students, covering three major parts of content--overview of pathophysiology, basic pathological processes, and systemic pathophysiology, a total of 14 chapters and 87 micro-lesson videos.
The course is designed based on the following principles:
1. To strengthen the combination with clinical knowledge. All micro-lesson videos in this course are guided by cases, which are echoed in the lecturing and unit testing. Some important principles of prevention and treatment are introduced in close combination with the pathogenesis.
2. To adhere to the "student-centered" teaching idea. Based on cases and questions, this course promotes step by step to inspire students to think. In addition, following each micro-lesson video, review questions are carefully designed to guide students’ autonomous learning.
3. To persist the purpose of “enhance morality, foster talents”. Elements of medical moral education are carefully designed where is appropriate in each lecture, and professional pathophysiology teaching is organically combined with medical moral education.
Our teaching team has accumulated rich experience in the long-term practice of educational reform and curriculun construction, and formed distinct features. The team was awarded the National Excellent Course in 2005 and the National Excellent Resource-Sharing Course in 2016. We edited the national planning textbook Pathophysiology, and won the first prize of provincial teaching achievement twice.
The course is mainly designed for undergraduate students in medical related majors. It also meets the needs for teachers, graduate students and clinical practitioners to improve their knowledge of pathophysiology.
Through studying the course, medical students will learn to correctly apply the knowledge and methods of pathophysiology to analyze the causes, mechanisms, functional and metabolic alterations, and understand the principles of prevention and treatment of diseases, and lay a foundation for their future study in clinical courses.