Rationale Cardiac Case Study In the spring of 2008, my nephew was diagnosed, prenatally, with a congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. His case motivated me to incorporate his heart condition into my Human Anatomy and Physiology (HAP) curriculum as a case study. PBL Case Study-- Diagnosis & Communication In years following his birth and 3 open-heart surgeries, I incorporated his situation into my honors HAP courses as a diagnostic case. Given the ultrasound images and artist’s rendition of the same along with the doctors’ interpretive notes, the students were to diagnose the patient with the correct CHD and research the treatment plan and prognosis for it. [See Cardiac Case Study 01: ] Following this research, the student teams play the role of the cardiologists communicating with the patient’s primary physician. They draft a letter explaining his heart condition and the surgical treatment plan along with the timeline for these surgeries. [See Cardiac Case Study materials: ] Finally, they supply medical interventions that the patient will require over the course of his life. Modeling This year, I used my nephew’s heart condition in a different way in my general HAP classes. After we studied the structure of the heart along with the blood flow through the heart, I asked my students to develop a model for a “circulatory fix” for hypoplastic left heart syndrome. I provided models for normal circulation [See gen circ schematics: ] and shared the movie Something the Lord Made as background for what solutions they might need to consider to insure the patient gets sufficient oxygen distribution to the brain and body. We shared the models on whiteboards by doing a gallery walk where students ask questions and provide comments on the proposed models using sticky notes, after which groups may answer questions and defend their models. [See photos ] The students were engaged and insightful! I was extremely proud of the work they did; in fact, many of their solutions were reasonably close to the actual procedures used on my nephew!
