Integrated medical programmes are coming under increasing scrutiny to ensure that students are learning science in the context of medicine and in a way that prepares them for their future career as doctors. This scrutiny has led to questions and concerns about 1) the ways that learning outcomes for the sciences underpinning medical practice are determined and 2) the ways that science is taught to medical students.

This talk will give an overview of how decisions are made about what science should be included within integrated curricula, with an emphasis on medical curricula. It will draw on the published literature relating to science within medical curricula, and particularly on a systematic review we have performed recently (Bull and Mattick 2009 "What biomedical science is included in undergraduate medical courses and how is this decided?"). The literature will be supplemented with the findings of our recent empirical research in this area, including a Higher Education Academy-funded study called "Is Anatomy Different?" (de Bere and Mattick) and a National Teaching Fellowship-funded study that takes an innovative and challenging approach to identifying learning outcomes for the sciences underpinning medical practice (Bull and Mattick).

At the end of the talk, I will offer some views on the potential role of portfolio or video taping in the teaching, learning and assessment of the sciences within integrated medical curricula.