Case-based Learning: Its Importance in Medical Student Education

In an era when medical education is changing to serve the educational needs of Generation Z/Millennial learners, there is a desire to shift from traditional lecture-based teaching to more active learning, which has been shown to more effectively engage medical students ( 1 Chew FS Ochoa ER Relyea-Chew A. Application of the case method in medical student radiology education1. Acad Radiol. 2005; 12: 746 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar , 2 Alvarez A Gold GE Tobin B et al. Software tools for interactive instruction in radiologic anatomy. Acad Radiol. 2006; 13: 512 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar ). As graduate medical education has begun to employ more active forms of learning, it is important for radiology curricula to engage medical students similarly, in ways that are most beneficial to their learning. Radiologists, with ever-increasing workloads, research expectations, and administrative duties, have less time and fewer resources with which to meet the needs of today's learners, particularly medical students. From both an educator and learner perspective, case-based learning (CBL) is an efficient and effective method to engage the Gen Z/Millennial cohort.