The link between the classroom and the latest research: Fisioupdate; development of a project for updating scientific contents

Abstract

FisioUpdate is a project developed by some Lecturers teaching in courses related with Physiology at Universidad Europea de Madrid. The aim of this project is to be updated in the most recent discoveries in Physiology, and to approach this knowledge to our students in class. Since its beginning, 5 years ago, the Lecturers have attended weekly meetings, presenting and discussing 3–4 papers in each session. To date, almost 15 teachers, from 2 different Departments and different professional backgrounds, have attended permanent or occasionally, these meetings. The articles analyzed (more than 170) have dealt with varied topics, such as skeletal muscle (types of fibers, satellite cells, fatigue, exercise adaptation, hyperemia…), membrane physiology (gas transport, ionic channels…), neuromuscular junction (proteins involved, medical therapies…), brown, beige and white adipose tissue (leptin, anorexigenic hormones..) The knowledge acquired from these meetings was included and applied in subjects related to Physiology in 1st and 2nd years of many Health Sciences Degrees, such as Medicine, Sports, Physical Therapy, Psychology… Additionally, every year we have included new tools for spreading the existence of the project to other Lecturers and Departments in our University. In this sense, we have published a compendium with the summaries of the articles reviewed, and we have circulated it to our colleagues via mail. Besides, we have created a wiki space, with restricted access to the components of the FisioUpdate project, to function as a database of all the papers reviewed and a short summary of them. When appropriate, we also have uploaded to the wiki supplementary resources, such as graphs, schema, pictures or any other relevant information for a better understanding of the articles analyzed. Based on all these results, we consider that these kinds of activities are highly recommended for Lecturers, as a way to be updated in the most recent contents in a determined area. Currently, the participants on this project are highly motivated to continue with it, and working on the incorporation of new Lecturer for next years.