Story: “New open textbook takes a detailed look at human disease and pathology”


This post was originally published by the University of British Columbia Library.

Are you a budding pathologist who is curious to see what human disease looks like up close? A new multimedia resource that delves into the science behind disease is now available to health science students, faculty and the general public through UBC Library’s open textbook catalogue. The open text is a result of a collaboration between UBC and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), led by coauthors Dr. Jennifer Kong and Helen Dyck.

Kong holds a dual appointment as the acting manager of the UBC David F. Hardwick Pathology Learning Centre (DHPLC) in Vancouver, and as faculty with Department of Basic Health Sciences at BCIT in Burnaby. Helen Dyck was the DHPLC manager (currently on leave). Together, they collaborated on Pathology: From the Tissue Level to Clinical Manifestations and Inter-professional Care. With funding awarded through the BCIT Open Education Grant and UBC OER Rapid Innovation Grant, Kong and Dyck developed the first three chapters of the open text with the help of  undergraduate student Lyz Boyd from the Faculty of Medicine.

While Pathology was created with undergraduate health science students in mind, it’s written in an accessible format, as a beginner’s guide to disease with descriptions for each video, interactive exercises, and an extensive glossary. The text is structured as a highly visual guide to a selection of common diseases like melanoma, cirrhosis and emphysema, using videos and photos of specimens and histology slides to show disease presentation and progression. All the specimens and slides included in the text are from DHPLC’s specialized collections.

Read the full story on the UBC Library website.