Treatment of Blood Cholesterol to Reduce Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk in Adults: Team-Based Learning

Abstract

Abstract Introduction This is one of seven biannual team-based learning (TBL) modules used in the clinical pharmacology course that is offered to third-year medical students at the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine. The clinical pharmacology course was initiated in 2008 when it was first offered to fourth-year medical students, and then it was gradually moved to third-year medical students. The main objective of the course is to apply rational prescribing within several clinical case scenarios. In this resource the treatment of dyslipidemia is explored. The remaining six modules explore the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes, treatment of hypertension, treatment of chronic obstructive disease, prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism in medical patients, pain management, and treatment of community acquired pneumonia. Methods The prereading material typically includes an article from The Medical Letter journal and a summary of the treatment guidelines from the relevant associations or expert groups. Students then engage in an individual readiness assurance test before being grouped into teams where they complete a group readiness assurance test and a series of team application exercises. Results Two articles describing the course and its outcome have been recently published. We have shown that medical students were highly satisfied with the course and the teaching approach and that their performance on prescription writing and formulary development had improved. Discussion The original dyslipidemia session has been deployed more than 10 times. However, with the recent guidelines, the case has been modified and reformatted, and the readiness assurance test questions formulated de novo. This new session has so far been delivered three times.

Keywords

• Medical Students
• Medical
• Cholesterol
• Risk
• Clinical
• Atherosclerosis