Lupus in medical education: student awareness of basic, clinical, and interdisciplinary aspects of complex diseases

Abstract

Panagiotis Kerezoudis, Konstantinos Lontos, Anna Apostolopoulou, Anthos Christofides, Aggelos Banos, Alexandros Letsos, Dimitrios Leventis, Prodromos Sidiropoulos, George Bertsias, Mohamad Bydon, Dimitrios Boumpas

Objective: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease that necessitates a multidisciplinary approach. The aim of our study is to assess the awareness and depth of knowledge of SLE in medical students. By identifying the shortcomings of lupus-related medical education, the results can be generalized to other disease processes that require care from multiple medical specialties. Methods: We surveyed undergraduate medical students in two Greek medical schools using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. Part A assessed the students’ knowledge of SLE regarding the disease epidemiology, pathology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment. Part B inquired the students about ways that SLE is currently taught in their medical school and suggested methods to improve it. Students were divided into 2 groups according to their medical school curriculum: the preclinical and the clinical years. Results: A total of 260 students from both universities participated in our study, 114 students in preclinical years and 146 students in clinical years. We identified several misconceptions about the students’ perception of the disease’s epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations and prognosis as well as statistically significant differences in the responses between the two groups. In addition, students in both groups stated that they would like a more in-depth understanding of SLE through more extensive hands-on experience with its laboratory investigation, seeing more patients in the wards or patient-actors in the auditoriums, watching educational videos and discussing clinical vignettes during lectures. Conclusions: These findings could potentially guide medical school faculty on modifying the school curriculum in order to prepare the next generation of physicians. In an era of rapidly enlarging biomedical knowledge, having an intimate understanding of complex disease processes is of paramount importance for optimal health care delivery to patients.