Abstract
This paper is to explore a potential “feedback loop” from patients to biological research proposed with an early-stage Alzheimer’s patient previously (Murakami, S. and Halperin, SA. 2014 Frontiers in Genetics of Aging. Front. Genet. 5:269. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00269). Medical education has been undergoing a major change towards a single accreditation system for graduate medical education, which merges two types of medical schools, allopathic medical schools (MD schools) and osteopathic medical schools (DO schools). When implemented in 2020, medical education will share common competencies. Of them, scientific competencies have a highest priority, though it has a large gap in incorporating biological evidence into education. Research focuses on establishing specific evidence and may miss a wide variety of implications seen in the human systems. For example, our conversation between a researcher and a patient have led us to re-highlight early signs of behavioral problems in the Alzheimer’s disease, which are otherwise considered as late phase problems. In addition, we expect routine communication with patients can provide beneficial discussion about medical education and policies that are otherwise not considered. This paper will seek for suggestions for better use of biological evidence for education and policies.