INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY: CELLULAR MEMBRANES AND TRANSMEMBRANE TRANSPORT OF SOLUTES AND WATER. Benos, Dale J. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294.
APStracts 2:0012S, 1995.
ABSTRACT
This article summarizes the comments made in the introductory session of the Medical Physiology Course taught at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UASOM). The main thesis is that learning Physiology is easier when fundamental principles are first delineated. Four general principles of physiology (mass balance, force-flow, capacitance, and equilibrium) are discussed. Clinical medicine becomes more comprehensible when these basic principles are understood. Cellular physiology is taught first because it forms the conceptual basis for what follows in the course. The idea that the root of clinical medicine lies in the basic sciences is emphasized.

Received 1 January 1996; accepted in final form 23 August 1996.
APS Manuscript Number S001-6.
Article publication pending J. Neurophysiol.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 19 September 1996