Introduction: Curricular integration has been a fundamental factor in the development of modern medical curricula; however, in its more well-known models, including horizontal and vertical integrations, the learning of medicine around subjects, as it is done in traditional curricula, continues to be understood. This way of conceiving learning does not allow methodological analysis of the design of integrated/integrative curricula that involve other ways of learning. Objective: To stimulate a theoretical and methodological reflection on curriculum integration in medical education, with the aim of orienting the design and assessment of integrated/integrative curricula and to discuss how innovative vertical and horizontal integrations are. Development: Horizontally and vertically integrated curricula are similar to traditional curricula fragmented in their design linear conception, while in systemic curricular integration, examples of which can be visualized in curricula designed through problem-based learning, curricular design is addressed in a circular way by connecting issues that feed back to one another; therefore, learning activities could be designed and assessed simultaneously. Conclusions: Thinking about curricular integration as a strategy of educational innovation implies discussing what we are understanding as integrated/ integrative curricula, how we are analyzing the practice of our medical curricula, with which theoretical frameworks we are doing that analysis, and what implications this has in curricula design and assessment.
