To evaluate the effectiveness of the course of Laboratory Medicine and Clinical Sciences in the Laboratory Medicine Faculty of Sun Yat-sen University.

Twenty-four undergraduate students in Batch 2016 of Medical Laboratory Faculty were divided into small groups (4-6 students per group). They learned each case in groups before class. In the first session of each class, the case-based study (CBS) tutor would randomly assign case-related questions to the students. Students were required to present their answers in class. The CBS tutor would guide the students to discuss the case further. In the second session, a lecture associated with the case would be given by a special subject lecturer. After the course, students, tutors and lecturers were given questionnaires and were randomly interviewed to comprehensively understand the course's effectiveness. SPSS 19.0 was used for statistics.

Most case discussion tutors agreed that they could guide students to discuss clinical cases well in class and give comments according to students' presentations (93.75%, 15/16). Most of the lecturers agreed that they could well guide students to think about the relationship between laboratory and clinical diagnosis and treatment in class (91.67%, 11/12). Both teachers and students had very positive evaluations of the learning mode, learning content, inspiration to students, and teachers' ability of this course. All the teachers and students agreed that the learning mode of combining CBS with special subject lecture was more helpful for the students to systematically learn medical knowledge compared with a CBS session alone or a lecture alone.

The course, Laboratory Medicine and Clinical Sciences, which combines the CBS with the traditional lecture mode, integrates the advantages of the two learning modes. It not only stimulates students' enthusiasm for active learning, deepens clinical knowledge memory, and builds a clinical thinking model, but also enriches the teaching modes of medical laboratory education.

Case-based study; Traditional lecture; Learning mode; Medical laboratory education