Nowadays, high quality education is the center of attention in every medical school. Searching for new ways to introduce the educational units is a natural drift for every discipline. Introducing new educational technique: "Solving of Clinical Case", aims at building a spontaneous bridge between preclinical knowledge and future work in the hospital in immediate and unattended contact with patients. Clinical case solving is a prerequisite for increasing the motivation of students, enhancing logical thinking and stimulating the student for additional investigation at home. The clinical case is based on real patients and the history of their diseases and it is related to the topic of the exercise. It includes the whole data from the moment the patient is seen by doctor for the first time until definitive diagnosis is formulated and medication prescribed. The clinical case is divided in two parts, discussed in two subsequent seminar classes. During the first part the tutor does not give any additional information about the case, he just guides the discussion. The students work by themselves, formulate hypothesis and argument them by building logical connections between causes and results, using the model: causes (and conditions) - altered structure - harmed function - clinical symptom - set of symptoms (syndromes) - disease. At the end of the first part hypothesis are rearranged by their probability. The students may use the time between the two parts to find additional information on the topic and gain some knowledge on the hypothesis that have been discussed, using either traditional forms of education - textbooks, monographs, lectures, original scientific issues and reviews or any kind of source including the www. The second part is used for discussing what kind of laboratory, functional or instrumental tests are still needed to prove or exclude the hypothetical diagnosis. The way it is created, every clinical case emphasizes not only on the biomedical side of the patient's problem, but also the socio-judicial aspects.
Scripta Scientifica Medica 2008; 40(2): 117-120.