Basic pathology is a very important discipline in medical teaching. However, the subjects sometimes are considered very distant from the medical practice, such as “cell injury”, “inflammation and repair”.

In order to promote a better understanding of its importance, we introduced art seminars linking the basics concepts and some diseases related with them, as granulomatous inflammation and a patient with tuberculosis, an acute appendicitis, to illustrate an acute inflammation process or a heart stroke to explain cell death, for 2^nd year-medical students . They are induced to perform a clinical situation to explain  the basic process , using music , theater performance or anything with creativity to show to their colleagues, in groups of 6 to 8 students.

All seminars must have:

- Physiopathology

- Clinical symptoms

- Physical examination

- Differential diagnosis

Theatrical performances were made by the students to explain basic pathology, using quiz shows, music, soap operas and other TV programs models. The other colleagues keep their attention much more then in a traditional lecture about the theme, and they have better performance at test examination.

Results

To learn  basic pathology  using   theatre is a tool to approach abstract knowledge  to clinical situations in medical practice and may enhance knowledge acquisition. At the same time, we can observe student behavior and posture  in different situations that can be also analyzed , such as team relationship and professionalism.  

The use of  new tools is an attractive alternative to traditional lectures and medical teachers should use different approaches to facilitate learning and evaluate student behavior.

Finlay-Johnson H. The Dramatic Method of Teaching. Ginn, 1912.

Boggs JG,  Mickel  AE, Holtom  BCG . Experiential learning through interactive drama: an alternative to student role plays. Journal of Management Education, 2007; 31 : 832-858

Bonamigo EL,  Destefani AS.  Dramatization as teaching strategy during medical training on how to communicate bad news to patient. revistabioetica.cfm.org.br/index.php/revista.../619 (accessed in 10/11/2014)

Thanks to Fernando  Serrotti for technical support