First Year Medical Students' Perceptions Towards Integration of Medical Law in the Medical Curriculum: a Pilot Study

Medical law is not new in medical literature and can constitute an imperative component in medical education. Some medical schools include medical law as a compulsory component of the curriculum. In line with curriculum re-structuring at the University of Malaya, medical law was integrated in the medical curriculum and the feasibility of this integration into the Year 1 undergraduate curriculum was evaluated. Following implementation of a 4-weekmedical law module, an evaluation of the suitability of early integration of this module was conducted using a ten-item, 4-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 4=strongly agree) questionnaire. Two open-ended questions were also included to gauge insights of the integration. All items were scored 3 points or more from the students' responses (n = 129). Using the open-ended questions, recommendations for future directions as well as constraints and issues related to the integration of medical law into teaching and learning was revealed. Overall, findings of the study indicated that integrating medical law into medical curriculum at an early stage was beneficial for the medical students.