{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T12:57:52Z","timestamp":1791291472519,"version":"4.3.0"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791244800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Medical chemistry serves as an indispensable bridge connecting foundational chemical sciences with clinical medicine, yet traditional discipline-based teaching models create a persistent gap between chemical principles and clinical practice. This narrative review establishes a five-dimensional analytical framework\u2014driving forces, curriculum restructuring, pedagogical innovation, practical translation, and outcome evaluation\u2014developed from the multidisciplinary-interdisciplinary-transdisciplinary integration continuum, competency-based medical education theory, and constructive alignment principles. The framework, with the traditional discipline-based teaching model as the comparison baseline, is applied to systematically examine 105 studies from 2016 to 2025, identified through a reproducible search protocol across PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, and CNKI. The analysis reveals a progressive evolution from knowledge-service to competency-construction paradigms across multiple national contexts. Curriculum restructuring has advanced through a complementary three-stage trajectory, with clinical-topic spiral modules demonstrating superior knowledge transfer in settings with established cross-disciplinary faculty collaboration. Pedagogical innovation has achieved contrastive complementarity between case-based and problem-based learning, supported by Bayesian network meta-analysis evidence, though reported effect sizes are moderated by implementation fidelity, class size, and assessment alignment. Experimental teaching reform has progressed along a four-stage trajectory toward interdisciplinary innovative experiments, with virtual simulation addressing infrastructure constraints in resource-limited settings. A multi-level assessment framework, operationalized through an instrument-outcome matrix linking knowledge, clinical reasoning, practical skills, and long-term outcomes, is proposed to replace the current fragmented evaluation landscape. Three persistent bottlenecks\u2014cross-disciplinary faculty development, resource integration mechanisms, and evaluation standard unification\u2014constrain further progress. The review's findings are framed with appropriate caution, acknowledging the predominance of single-center small-sample studies that limit generalizability, and recognizing that high-quality educational research can employ diverse methodologies beyond randomized controlled trials.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2026.1958220","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T12:36:42Z","timestamp":1791290202000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Chemistry-medicine interdisciplinary integration in medical education: a narrative review of teaching reform, evidence synthesis, and international perspectives"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Abliz","family":"Abdurahman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Chemistry Department, College of Pharmacy, Xinjiang Medical University","place":["Urumqi, 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