Physiology Core Concepts Enhance Flipped Learning Outcomes in Cardiovascular Physiology

Physiology core concepts (CCs) are important for understanding physiology, especially in active learning settings such as flipped learning (FL). Yet, their impact on learning within short, intensive modules is unexplored. This study examined whether incorporating physiology CCs into FL enhances medical student performance in a 3-week cardiovascular physiology module and whether FL itself improves outcomes compared to traditional teaching. Third-year medical students received either standard FL (n = 85) or FL with CC instruction (FL+CCs; n = 90). Final exam responses were analyzed with chi-square tests. FL alone did not improve performance compared to traditional instruction of students from the previous year; in fact, the FL group had significantly fewer correct responses (74.5% vs. 77.9%; P = 0.022). However, the FL+CCs group achieved significantly more correct responses on the final exam compared to the FL-only group (77.2% vs. 71.6%; P = 0.008). Analysis across five core concepts revealed consistent trends favoring the FL+CCs group, with homeostasis showing the largest difference (56.7% vs. 40%; P = 0.003). In addition, 60% of students in the FL+CCs group reported that the CCs enhanced their understanding. These findings suggest that in short-duration cardiovascular modules, FL alone may not be sufficient to improve learning; however, integrating CCs into FL may overcome this limitation and enhance medical student performance in cardiovascular physiology. In addition, the pronounced homeostasis effect warrants further investigation with expanded assessment. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.