The Inverted Case Study Technique: changing the traditional case-study approach to prioritize physiological mechanisms over correct diagnosis and treatment

The traditional case study has been used as a learning tool for the past 100 years, and in our program, graduate physiology students are presented with a real-world scenario and must determine the diagnosis and treatment of the patient. We found that students defaulted to memorization of disease with treatment and bypassed gaining an understanding of the mechanistic physiology behind disease and treatment. To adjust our student's approach, we developed a novel way to enhance student learning. To accomplish this shift from memorization to physiological mastery, we created the Inverted Case Study. This approach diverges from the traditional model in that students are given the diagnosis and treatment beforehand and are tasked with explaining the actual physiology of the case. In this way, students can no longer rely on the memorization of symptoms-disease-treatment but rather gain a solid understanding of the physiological mechanisms of the disease since that is the focus of the Inverted Case Study Technique. The Inverted Case Study approach is an effective approach to apply and hone critical thinking skills. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This article presents a novel approach to century-old learning techniques that enhances students' self-reported learning and also their attitudes toward learning mechanistic physiology and increases their perception of preparedness for professional school.