Why Do we Study Basic Medical Sciences?

Basic medical sciences are the milestone of medicine, they are the rock principles that medicine stands upon, they are the entrance to the world of medicine, without basic medicine a physician won’t heal, and simply they are the base of medicine.

One may think that I am just exaggerating but it is the truth, in fact the reason they called it “basic” is not because it is easy and can be overlooked but because it is the base to your career as a physician. The more Basic facts you know, The more your understanding of basic sciences is more the more your understanding of clinical sciences will be more.

For example one physician that knows scurvy is caused by vitamin C deficiency and it has to do “something” with collagen other physician may know that Vitamin C helps in the conversion of proline to hydroxyproline which is better than proline in formation of collagen , Also instead of just knowing “Collagen” he recalls that is important in the basement membrane of many structures and any deficiency will be first implicated in loose tissues like the gums .

A Somali proverb says “Alif kaa xumaada Al-baqruu ku dhibaa” its core meaning is “Build a delicate base and it will hunt you for ever”.

A possible argument is How can you recall all that sheer of information that you have studied in medical school especially after many years in clinical practice, Ok, But nobody have asked you to recall all of it, as each one of us knows not all the basic information are vital e.g no body will need to know what gap junctions are made of unless you need to do a research. But on the other hand there are some information That are vital to know.

One good approach to keep your basic medical sciences updated is to polish them from time to time, grab a microbiology notebook or your university lectures I know most of you have them – Computer revolutionized archives— will make your information polished plus more self esteem will be sky high.

For those of you who are currently going through the “boring” Basic sciences, yes you are eager for clinical rotations “I know you do”, We know basic sciences for the first time are difficult and need perseverance just to stay on the text book, but in clinical rotation and interacting with patients you only SAW what you REAP, Yep don’t do that mistake….