Curricular gaps in undergraduate cardiology at 42 medical schools in Peru

Abstract

Objectives. To assess cardiology teaching in Peruvian medical schools, characterise its curricular organisation, evaluate explicitly documented topic coverage, and identify differences between public and private universities. Materials and methods. We conducted a cross-sectional, comparative documentary study. Syllabi and academic documents related to cardiology teaching at 42 medical schools were analysed. Explicit inclusion of seven cardiovascular conditions and seven content categories was assessed using an analytical matrix developed for this study. Comparisons between public and private universities were performed using chi-squared, Fisher’s exact, and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results. Cardiology was taught as part of internal medicine at 81.0% of medical schools, with a duration of 4 weeks and 16 hours of theoretical instruction. Mean explicitly documented topic coverage was 26.7%. Initial treatment (42.5%) and diagnosis (40.1%) were the most frequently documented components, whereas epidemiology and prevention had the lowest coverage (17.0% each). Mean coverage of dyslipidaemia was 3.1%. The course coordinator was a cardiologist at 14 of the 42 medical schools (33.3%), and simulator use was more frequent at private than public universities (p = 0.002). Conclusions. Undergraduate cardiology teaching in Peru showed heterogeneity in curricular organisation and low explicitly documented coverage of several cardiovascular topics, particularly epidemiology and prevention. These findings provide a baseline to guide the strengthening of priority cardiovascular content in undergraduate medical education in Peru.