Human Biology and Disease

1-3 credits · Graduate School

The aim of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive, organ-based overview, of human biology and disease pathophysiology from a clinical perspective. What distinguishes the proposed course from any other courses or programs that are currently offered at Vanderbilt, is that it will be comprehensive, covering all the major organ systems in the human body, and will be taught by clinicians from a clinical, rather than a basic science, perspective. There will be 15 topics taught covering 12 organ systems, each over 2-hour blocks coordinated by a physician or physician scientist involved in treating patients with common diseases affecting that organ system. Students will be instructed to register with UpToDate (or Medscape), an online portal for students, physicians, and healthcare professionals, and to read about and write brief reports on clinical topics being discussed each day. The last session of each block will be in a case report format in which instructors bring along a patient suffering from the disease being discussed, so that students can develop an intimate understanding of what it is like to suffer from the disease being discussed during that teaching block. To complete three credit hours (quality hours for full credit), students will be expected to attend in person 15 mornings of didactic and interactive teaching blocks over the three-week Human Biology and Disease immersion course. Some students may elect to attend 5 to 10 selected morning blocks for 1 or 2 credit hours rather than complete the whole course. There are no prerequisites for attending this course other than being a Ph.D. student or post-doctoral fellow enrolled in one of the biomedical sciences programs at Vanderbilt University. The course will be graded based on attendance and on grading daily entries for each of the topic areas using a time-stamped, online course management system. [1-3]