Interpretation of clinical data and hypothesis testing with the aid of self-collected data from physiology laboratory courses: a teaching approach for medical students

Medical students are exposed during their studies to an abundance of scientific literature, and, in front of this wealth of information, they should keep a critical eye on the many published studies to ensure that a new approach is safe and useful. However, the understanding of medical students with regard to study design, clinical data gathering, data verification, and proper use of statistics seems often limited. To familiarize medical students early in their education with the objectives and complexity of clinical research, Grasser ad Montani have developed in their physiology curriculum a practical and economical way to teach clinical data gathering and hypothesis testing. Here a newly introduced physiology module for medical students to illustrate how to scientifically collect, interpret, and treat anthropometric, metabolic, and cardiovascular data derived from practical lessons during their physiology courses; and to build and test a clinically relevant hypothesis based on the initial data collected is presented.