Digital Histology Interest Group or DHIG

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  • 1.  Member Introduction

    Posted 06-20-2014 00:52
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussions: Open Forum and Digital Histology Interest Group or DHIG .
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    Hi, I am the course director of Medical Histology and Human Embryology at Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota. I also teach Gross Anatomy and Neuroscience. At present, the Histology course is restricted to the MDs, while the PAs, PTs and OTs share the classroom and the labs with the MDs for Anatomy, Embryology and Neuroscience. Our school has now adopted an integrated curriculum and we are in its first run. I have converted the lab component of Histology into PBL sessions. These are very popular with the students from which they learn most (as per feedbacks and evals). These are exclusive virtual microscopy sessions using our image database (Histoweb), which I am in the process of expanding. We have always used the Aperio platform, and recently updated to its latest. The maximal benefit of an integrated curriculum is that the students are almost immediately exposed to system pathology slides (same week, sometimes later same day), thanks to a tightly coordinated histology and pathology department. ------------------------------------------- Manas Das Assistant Professor Sanford School of Medicine, University of SD Vermillion SD 714-454-0677 -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Member Introduction

    Posted 06-23-2014 12:04
    Hi Manas, thanks for the introduction. It's very nice to "meet" you.

    That is quite an interesting setup: is there a reason why PAs, PTs and OTs learn Anatomy, Embryology and Neuroanatomy with Med students but not Histology? 

    Could you share how your PBL session with virtual slide works in more detail?  Are students given clinical cases with accompanying virtual slides?  How are students tested for histology competency?  Do you have practicals? 

    In our dental school, histology used to be integrated with anatomy but it was taken out and made into a stand-alone microanatomy course about 4 years ago - it is taken as the first anatomical science course in their first year, even before their anatomy course.  Students seem to like the course and do well on board. 

    Histology in our medical curriculum is integrated mostly in a block called molecules to medicine - after a stand-alone gross anatomy course.  I am not heavily involved in med histology right now, but from what I can tell, students don't seem to be too happy with the current level of histology instruction/exam.  Chief complaint being that there is not enough coverage of basic/normal histology in the allotted (short) time.

    Lisa

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    Lisa Lee
    Associate Professor
    University of Colorado School of Medicine
    Aurora CO
    303-724-7460
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  • 3.  RE: Member Introduction

    Posted 06-24-2014 11:59
    Hi Lisa,

    Thanks for the communication. It's very nice to "meet" you too !!

    The way it works in our school is the MDs go through two blocks of medical foundations, MF1 [13 weeks - Gross Anatomy, General Histology ( Basic Tissues), Early Development (General Embryology), Biochemistry, General Physiology] and MF2 (8 weeks - General Pharm, General Path, General Micro etc.). Systemic histology and embryology (starting this year) are spread out in the system blocks which eventually follow. The GI block, for instance, would have the first week (almost) dedicated to GI histology, embryology, physiology before proceeding to GI path or pharm. I made this switch after I took over these departments in 2013. A major downside of this change is that the development of a system does not accompany the gross anatomy - but there are several advantages (specially the TIME factor) which tends to outweigh the risk. Also, this is why the allied health students could not take Histology and now Embryology with the MDs - their curriculum would not allow breaking up a single course like the way I mentioned.

    The histology labs were not typical PBL sessions - they were presented in a PBL-like format. They did not have pre-reading case components. Since this was our first run of the integrated curriculum, and I was experimenting for the most part - this is what I did during MF1 - I got the class divided into groups (concurring to the TBL grouping criteria) and projected a virtual image - gave them an impromptu case scenario related to the image - asked them to identify the image - discussed the image (and the case to a certain extent) myself and between the groups. Their responses were NOT graded in the first run. I did not document the case scenarios with lab results or any other detail - since I covered a large amount of slides in a shorter time. The student performances in the graded weekly quizzes, midterms and the block finals in identifying slides confirmed their competency.

    Now that we are in our systemic blocks - we have classic TBLs with integrated histopathology. We recently had a TBL involving celiac disease where both the IRAT and the GRAT components tested learning objectives related to histological identification of different regions of the GI tract and surface specializations of its epithelial lining.

    The technique has been very well accepted in the student community - I am now planning to write actual PBL cases - which is a darn exhausting task for General Histology !!

    Please feel free to ask any other query you might have.

    Regards,

    Manas

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    Manas Das, M.D.
    Assistant Professor
    Sanford School of Medicine, University of SD
    Vermillion SD
    714-454-0677
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