Undergraduate and Medical School Physiology Education in the United States.

In the United States, physiology education during much of the 20th century was concentrated in departments of physiology in professional and graduate schools, with more diffuse representation of mostly animal and exercise physiologists in undergraduate campuses. This model began to change in the waning years of the 20th century, however, as traditional discipline-based professional school departments gave way to more diverse units with a focus in education, often across multiple programs. A quick web search of the 20 U.S. medical schools obtaining full, provisional, or preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) since 2002 (3) reveals that only 1 of the 20 (CUNY School of Medicine in New York) has a traditional department that identifies itself with physiology in the title: the Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience Department. A second school, Florida International University Wertheim College of Medicine, includes its physiologists in a Department of Cellular Biology & Pharmacology. The remaining 18 medical schools group their basic scientists into multidisciplinary units that go by broad names such as Biomedical Sciences or Medical Education. Where does physiology education fit into these diverse collections of faculty? Many of the units identified as biomedical sciences have responsibility for teaching in multiple programs, ranging from undergraduate biology or physiology and exercise science to medicine and pharmacy. Is the disappearance of departmental silos named for specific disciplines a good thing for the future of physiology or does it foreshadow trouble? In this editorial, we look at the current state of physiology education in two areas: undergraduate institutions and medical schools.