Teaching practice and pedagogical reform of basic medical courses for intelligent medical engineering program under cross-institutional integration

The convergence of artificial intelligence, big data, and other engineering technologies with clinical medicine has catalyzed the emergence of the interdisciplinary discipline of Intelligent Medical Engineering, which demands the cultivation of compound professionals integrating medical literacy, engineering competencies, and innovative thinking. As the core foundational course underpinning this discipline, Introduction to Basic Medicine remains a newly established offering lacking mature pedagogical paradigms and aligned experimental teaching systems. Conventional pure medical basic instruction models are misaligned with the cognitive attributes and training objectives of students with engineering backgrounds. This study developed and operationalized a full-cycle pedagogical reform framework oriented toward medical-engineering interdisciplinary integration to systematically construct students’ medical knowledge architecture, foster interdisciplinary thinking, and enhance capacities for independent learning, practical application, and innovation. This study employed action research coupled with quasi-experimental pedagogical practice. This pedagogical reform endeavor was predicated on two core innovative dimensions: the systematic integrated restructuring of interdisciplinary curricular content, and the construction of a closed-loop instructional paradigm encompassing pre-class preparatory activities, in-class interactive instruction, and post-class tiered consolidation. A diversified assessment framework integrating formative evaluation and summative examination was developed. A comprehensive set of evaluation metrics, including student academic performance, reliability analysis of survey instruments, classroom engagement metrics, and post-course interview feedback, was employed to appraise teaching effectiveness. The cross-institutional integrated pedagogical reform was associated with favorable shifts in student learning outcomes. It correlated with augmented autonomous learning efficiency, consolidated mastery of basic medical knowledge, and improved interdisciplinary cognitive competence. The empirical investigation further delineated prevailing limitations, encompassing inadequate depth of interdisciplinary practical components, suboptimal execution of differentiated tiered instruction, and ambiguous formative assessment criteria, alongside targeted optimization strategies. The medical-engineering integrated full-cycle instructional framework presents a transferable, empirically validated paradigm for foundational medical education in interdisciplinary majors implemented via cross-institutional collaborative training, and delivers a methodological reference for curriculum development and pedagogical innovation in emerging medical-engineering disciplines.