Physiologically lucky: the role of medical physiology in modern medical education

As medical students, we are entrusted with the responsibility of healthcare, and thus are required to learn the fundamentals of many scientific and clinical disciplines. This includes physiology. The variety of medical subjects cannot but leave students with questions as to which is the most relevant to what they intend to pursue after their graduation; the answer to this question differs from one medical speciality to the other. We had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. John E. Hall, Chairman of the Department of Physiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and author of the world famous ‘Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology’. The interview took place at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, USA in August 2011. Keeping it to a medical student perspective, we discussed Physiology in the context of medical education: its current and future importance, as well as some advice from Dr. Hall to the current generation of medical students.