Table 2.
Strategies to incorporate laboratory medicine into the undergraduate medical education curriculum
| Advocate for laboratory medicine in the curriculum to meet accreditation standards and school’s objectives |
| Advocate for Curriculum Committee membership for laboratory medicine (pathology) faculty |
| Incorporate a laboratory medicine concept in each clinical case throughout the curriculum |
| Incorporate the Essential Laboratory Tests for Medical Education list into the curriculum [35] |
| Develop a laboratory medicine (pathology) bootcamp (intensive elective course) for M3 and M4 students interested in or preparing for pathology residency |
| Tour of the clinical laboratory, elaborating on turnaround time, reference range, cost of test, potential laboratory error |
| Develop a 1–2-week elective offered during pre-clerkship or M4 year |
| Develop a pathophysiology course M4 year, integrating basic and clinical science, laboratory medicine and pharmacology |
| Utilize virtual courses (e.g., pathelective.com) to integrate laboratory medicine concepts into clerkships |
| Pathology-related Adaptive Spaced Education, consisting of clinical scenarios and questions distributed weekly via e-mail to improve students’ retention of laboratory medicine concepts [41] |
| Integrate laboratory medicine cases during clerkship rotations taught by pathology faculty on-line or via spaced education [42] |
| Advocate for laboratory medicine faculty to participate in medical student clinical rotations, or have laboratory medicine faculty on the diagnostic medicine team |
| Develop a Mock Trial scenario during pre-clerkship to illustrate laboratory medicine litigation cases [39] |
| Develop scenarios on how to disclose error (e.g., wrong diagnosis, mislabeled specimen) led by laboratory medicine faculty |
| Grants for educational scholarship (AMA Changing Medical Education) |
| Incorporate formative and summative feedback on ability to utilize laboratory tests into clinical rotations and acting internship |
| Market laboratory medicine professionals as clinical consultants [8] |
| Utilize Academic Pathology Educational Cases during M3 and M4 clerkships [32] |
AMA American Medical Association, M3 third-year medical student, M4 fourth-year medical student