Abstract

Background: Allied health science (AHS) courses in India include degree, diploma, and certificate courses in various disciplines that support the practice of medicine to make the health-care team function efficiently as they provide assistance in the laboratory, technical, and other support services. Many of the AHS courses have basic medical sciences that are taught in a compartmentalized manner as traditional method. However, horizontal integration module is not included for AHS. Aims and Objectives: The objective of this study was to analyze the performance of the 1st year AHS students to the application of horizontal integration as a small module within traditional teaching in physiology.
Materials and Methods: Thirty-three students underwent 12 lectures in physiology in the topic of “The Gastrointestinal Tract (GIT)” in a traditional teaching method of didactic lectures. The students then had an interactive 2-h horizontally integrated modular session on “Biochemical principles of diet-nutrition.” The interrelated topic from biochemistry and physiology was incorporated as horizontal integration. The students’ performance was assessed with a pre-test and post-test, structured viva voce in diet-nutrition and a traditional viva voce in the traditionally taught GIT topic.
Results: The results showed that the post-test mark was higher than the pre-test mark; the performance of students who scored