Multiple-choice questions are a gold-standard tool in medical school for assessment of knowledge and are the mainstay of licensing examinations. However, multiple-choice questions items can be criticized for lacking the ability to test higher-order learning or integrative thinking across multiple disciplines. Our objective was to develop a novel…

A national survey of physiology, pharmacology, and surgery departments found that while laboratory exercises using animals are common, they are not universal, and that the widely available alternatives assume diverse forms, including films, computer models, lectures, readings, and clinical clerkships. (MSE)

A computer program that replaces a set of pharmacology and physiology laboratory experiments on live animals or isolated organs is described and illustrated. Five experiments are simulated: dose-effect relationships on smooth muscle, blood pressure and catecholamines, neuromuscular signal transmission, acetylcholine and the circulation, and…