Refresher Course for Teaching Cardiovascular Physiology

S OF POSTERS AND DEMONSTRATIONS Cardiovascular physiology learning objectives: the medical physiology core curriculum objectives project Robert G. Carroll Department of Physiology, East Carolina University School of Medicine, Grenville, NC 27858-3454 (E-mail: [email protected]) An appropriate understanding of physiology is essential to the intelligent practice of medicine. Consequently, physiology instructors, course directors, curA P S R E F R E S H E R C O U R S E R E P O R T VOLUME 22 : NUMBER 1 – ADVANCES IN PHYSIOLOGY EDUCATION – DECEMBER 1999 S150 by 10.2.32.247 on O cber 1, 2017 http://adhysiology.org/ D ow nladed fom riculum committees, and licensing boards each evaluate a medical student’s understanding of physiology. Currently, this evaluation suffers from the lack of a national consensus on exactly what constitutes an appropriate breadth and depth of physiological knowledge for medical students. This issue is particularly pressing in light of the diverse, and continually evolving, teaching approaches used in the preclinical years. The Medical Physiology Core Curriculum Objectives Project hopes to achieve a national consensus on this topic. Input is being solicited from the APS sections, the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology, physiology course directors, and individual physiologists to help determine the appropriate breadth and depth of physiology understanding for medical students. A working draft of the project can be viewed at http://www1.ecu.edu/mscarrol/objectives. htm. The role of faculty is to guide and assess student learning. The Medical Physiology Core Curriculum Objectives Project will provide a national standard against which a student’s progress can be assessed. A physical model of hemodynamic principles F. L. Belloni, C. I. Thompson, and S. S. Passo New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595 (E-mail: [email protected]) We use a physical model consisting of readily obtainable materials to demonstrate basic hemodynamic principles in introductory courses on mammalian cardiovascular physiology. The model consists of a squeeze bulb with one-way inlet and outlet valves to represent the heart, Tygon tubing to represent the vasculature, and water to represent the blood. Narrow tubing (plastic pipette tip or Pasteur pipette) is used to simulate resistance vessels. Segments of compliant tubing (e.g., fingers from latex gloves) are used to simulate elastic arteries. A Y connector is used to represent parallel circulatory beds. The model can be used to demonstrate the unidirectional flow of blood, how cardiac output can be raised by increasing either heart rate or stroke volume, the effect of reducing venous return on cardiac output, the effect of resistance on arterial pressure, the ability to increase flow to specific organs by regional vasodilatation, how a pulsatile cardiac output is transformed to a relatively steady microcirculatory flow, and how blood velocity is determined by vessel diameter. The model can be used as a demonstration or as a hands-on activity. It can be used at any educational level, from elementary school up through medical and graduate school courses. It provides students with a visual and physical appreciation of hemodynamic principles, which effectively complements the mathematical and graphical presentations commonly found in textbooks. An artificial ventricle for quantitative, hands-on learning of cardiac mechanics