gms | German Medical Science

Competency-based education (CBE) has attracted renewed attention in recent years as a means to ensure that graduating medical students are prepared with the skills required for current medical practice and to meet contemporary healthcare needs. This learner-centered educational paradigm emphasizes outcomes and abilities rather than time in a training program. CBE was established in the Duesseldorf Medicine model course of study of the Medical Faculty of the Heinrich-Heine-University in 2013. The curriculum includes a newly developed longitudinal program of education in Human Genetics. The program integrates knowledge and practical skills in a case based approach. The back bone of the program is the case based online learning modul CASUS®. Individual cases with genetic problems are presented in a clinical setting encompassing the patients’ history, family history and clinical investigations. The system interactively stimulates the students to reflect the decision process to establish a differential diagnosis and to choose specific genetic analyses. The biological and pathophysiological basics of the genetic problems are addressed as well as the respective consequences for the patients and their families. The genetic CASUS®-cases fit into the overall topic of the respective sections of the Medicine model course of study, e.g., muscular dystrophy, Duchenne type, and achondroplasia in the section „musculoskeletal system“. The CASUS®-cases are also used in an inverted classroom setting during the fifth year courses, where the students practice genetic counselling in genetic syndromes and hereditary cancer. So far, 15 CASUS®-cases covering the most common and most relevant genetic diseases have been developed and integrated into all eight clinical sections of the Duesseldorf curriculum. The first results of the evaluation of the newly developed program of education in Human Genetics by the students are encouraging.