Curiosity and medical education

A healthy lifestyle is fundamental for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Investment in primary prevention, including modification of health risk behaviors, could result in a 4-fold improvement in health outcomes compared with secondary prevention based on pharmacological treatment. The American Heart Association (AHA) emphasized the importance of lifestyle in its 2020 goals for cardiovascular health promotion and disease reduction. In addition to defining “cardiovascular health” based on criteria for blood pressure and biochemical markers (lipids and glycemia), the AHA Strategic Planning Committee further identified lifestyle characteristics of central importance: nutrition, physical activity, smoking, and maintenance of a healthy body weight.1 The World Health Organization estimated that ≈80% of NCDs could be prevented if 4 key lifestyle practices were followed: a healthy diet, being physically active, avoidance of tobacco, and alcohol intake in moderation.2 To support healthy lifestyle initiatives, major changes are necessary at the societal level to improve population health. Numerous strategies might help to create a culture that promotes and facilitates healthy behaviors, including creating laws and regulations, mounting large-scale public awareness and education campaigns, implementing local community programs, and providing individual counseling.3 Physicians are uniquely positioned to encourage individuals to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors: Approximately 80% of Americans visit their primary care physician at least once a year. Physicians directly communicate with their patients during clinical encounters across numerous settings, and research indicates that patients highly value recommendations provided by their physicians.4,5 However, data further indicate that lifestyle counseling does not routinely occur in physicians’ offices, thereby representing a lost opportunity. Physicians report that they perform lifestyle counseling during ≈34% of clinic visits.4 Patients, in turn, report an even lower frequency of physician lifestyle counseling. For example, obese patients reported receiving physical activity and …

Migration of physicians has produced serious shortages in many developing countries. The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) is attempting to show this international brain drain through creation of faculty development programs for medical school faculty from developing countries in order to strengthen medical education and help build a sustainable discipline of medical education. The goals of these programs are to allow Fellows to acquire basic skills in medical education, skills in leadership and management, and build a strong community of practice. Acquisition of these skills will improve medical education in their home country, stimulate growth of the field of medical education, and improve opportunities for professional advancement. Three programs currently exist: the FAIMER Institute, a two year fellowship with residential and distance learning components; International Fellowships in Medical Education, which funds selected Institute alumni to obtain masters degrees in medical education; and FAIMER regional institutes, which use the principles and structure embedded in the FAIMER Institute to build faculty development programs overseas. Evaluation of FAIMER programs indicates approximately one-third of Fellows have been promoted, and that a community of medical educators is being created in many developing countries which may promote retention of these physicians.Practice points•Slowing out-migration of medical educators from resource-poor countries will require development of field of medical education and pathway for professional advancement in that field.•Enhancement of faculty skills in medical education methods should be presented in conjunction with leadership and management skills required for implementation of those methods.•Active development of a community of practice in medical education will lead to enhanced support and productivity.•Program evaluation of a faculty medical education leadership program requires a variety of quantitative and qualitative data sources.

The article discusses WU Jie-ping' s thought on medical education by analyzing his ad-vanced concepts in medical education and experiences in cultivation. WU Jie-ping has brought internation-ally advanced thought on medical education into ours and created the concepts adapted to Chinese medical education which designates the direction of the development of our medical education. He has fruitful a-chievements on medical education practices and researches with many theses on the field and excellent medical staff trained. Also his education thought on medical education aim and revolution, teachers' ac-complishment improvement, self-pullulating and focus on materialistic study still have important directive sense on the development of the modem medical education. Key words: WU Jie-ping; Thought on medical education; Innovation

The impact of an accreditation system on the quality of undergraduate medical education in Saudi Arabia

The volatile and changing healthcare landscape, heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and other contemporary crises, poses challenges to the sustainable development of medical education, and integrating innovation and entrepreneurship into medical education is the avenue by which to address the current and future medical challenges. Medical student entrepreneurship education (MSEE) contributes to the individual and social sustainable development of students in terms of their future careers. To investigate the effect of teacher entrepreneurship on MSEE, a hypothesis model of MSEE that includes teachers’ entrepreneurial competence (TEC), teachers’ entrepreneurial behaviors (TEB), and co-creation strategy (CCS) was constructed on the basis of symbolic interactionism. A total of 714 samples were collected from entrepreneurial teachers in Chinese medical universities for quantitative analysis. This study confirmed our hypothesis that TEC and TEB have a positive and statistically significant direct impact on MSEE. As demonstrated in the mediation effect test, when CCS was added as the mediating variable, TEC and TEB had a statistically significant indirect effect on MSEE. With empirical evidence from China, the study provided a new perspective for deepening the research on MSEE and laid the foundation for interdisciplinary research on medical education and entrepreneurship education. The findings contribute to entrepreneurial learning and pedagogical practices in medical education for the sustainable development of medical students.

Background. Improving the effectiveness of training of future highly qualified personnel requires the improvement of existing and search for new forms and methods for organizing the educational process. Such approach requires the use of complexes of technical and didactic means that ensure the interconnection between classroom and non-classroom forms of the educational process. Objective. To analyze the existing conditions for the implementation of information and educational environment. Methods. Analysis of theoretical sources on the problem of the use of the information and educational environment in higher medical education, studying and generalization of leading experience in teaching student courses using information and communication technologies. The analysis of the results of the efficiency of implementation of the educational and informational environment has been carried out on the departments of phthisiology and pulmonology, histology, cytology and embryology, medical physics, biophysics and higher mathematics and analytical chemistry. Results. The article presents certain results of the work of lecturers concerning the development and use of the informational and educational environment in the context of continuing learning of present-day information-oriented society. Creating information and educational environment that supplies interaction between lecturers and students in classroom through interactive forms of communication on the basis of edХ platform promotes the optimization of the learning process. The basic principles of providing innovative approaches, methods, technologies of the uniform informational and educational environment of higher education medical institutions are substantiated. The necessity of disclosing the experience of higher education institutions regarding the creation of the informational and educational environment as part of the optimization of the student's educational process is emphasized. The experience of using new learning form confirmed the simplicity and interactivity of interaction of the student and the lecturer, gives the wide opportunities for learning process arrangement, enables the student to model learning process individually, as well as new forms of learning process supervision. Conclusion. In our opinion, online courses based on edX platform facilitate the optimization of the learning process in higher education institutions. The prospect of further work is the continuation of the development and implementation of the online course for students on edX platform in the learning process.

Background: Competence in system-based practice in medical education must include training on functioning as an interprofessional team member to address health-related social needs (HRSN). This pilot targets the existing gap on teaching residents how to leverage interprofessional expertise and larger context of HRSN in patient care.This pilot applied the principles of social simulation to teach residents how to work with interprofessional partners to effectively address patients’ HRSN. Methods: We developed simulation cases on HRSN commonly encountered in our Emergency Department. A 9-item instrument using a Likert 5-level scale assessed participants’ knowledge and skills on HRSN before and after the simulation implemented in 2021. Unmatched data largely from missing ID in responses were omitted. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess for significant changes pre- and post-intervention. Results: Thirty-three of forty eligible Emergency Medicine (EM) residents (82.5%) participated in the study. Eighteen of thirty-three participants (response rate 54.5%) were included when matching data based on ID. We found significant differences in self-reported ability to identify patients’ HRSN (p=.0014), differentiate between the roles of interdisciplinary team members (p=.0007), and ability to identify hospital resources patients could be referred to (p=.0018). There was no difference in self-reported sense of empowerment in response to perceived ability in addressing a patient’s HRSN. Conclusions: Findings from this pilot suggest that social simulation can be an effective tool for teaching residents how to function in interprofessional teams and navigate the dynamic larger healthcare context of social determinants of health (SDOH) in addressing a patient’s HRSN. Competence in system-based practice in multidisciplinary medical education must include training on functioning as an interprofessional team member to address SDOH. This pilot targets the existing gap in teaching residents how to leverage interprofessional expertise and the larger context of SDOH in patient care.

BackgroundWorld Health Organization Collaborating Centres (WHOCCs) cooperate with the WHO on a range of strategic areas such as nursing, nutrition, mental health, chronic diseases, education, and health technologies, depending on their speciality areas. As of 2021, WHO has 47 CCs in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) collaborating on diverse areas. Four CCs in the EMR located in Egypt, Kingdom of Bahrain, Sudan, and Pakistan focus primarily on medical education (ME).ObjectiveThe objective of this review of the literature is to describe the best practices in ME based on published research from the four WHOCCs in EMR. The secondary objective is to classify them based on the level of Kirkpatrick’s model (KM) of educational outcomes.MethodsThe contributions of WHOCCs are categorised in to five domains namely “Curriculum Development and Course Design”, “Student Assessment”, “Quality, Accreditation, and Program Evaluation”, “Teaching and Learning” and “Innovation in Medical Education”. Initial extraction yielded 96 articles for review, while the second level of analysis reduced the number of publications to 37 based on the date of publication within the last 5 years. Numerous best practices in ME emerged from the recently published works of these WHOCCs in the areas of learning and teaching, curriculum development, innovations in medical education, quality, and assessments in medical education. Literature from the WHOCCs on assessment and curriculum design are limited, possibly indicating opportunities for additional research.ConclusionThe researchers conclude that the WHOCCs in the EMR show transformational impact on all principal areas of research and at multiple levels.

In light of the present revolution happening in medical education in Japan as medical schools implement new curricula to conform to global standards, there is a growing demand for more internationalization and higher quality practical medical English education. In response, many institutions including governmental organizations, universities and academic associations are moving ahead with new initiatives to adapt to these changing demands. This paper reviews the current trends and innovations in medical English education in Japan. This paper also describes one initiative by the Japan College of Rheumatology (JCR) known as the JCR International School held yearly in Karuizawa. By examining recent trends and innovations in medical English education in Japan, the most relevant and applicable can be elucidated to illuminate a path forward for improved medical English education within the JCR.

IntroductionAgainst a backdrop of ever-changing diagnostic and treatment modalities, stakeholder perceptions (medical students, clinicians, anatomy educators) are crucial for the design of an anatomy curriculum which fulfils the criteria required for safe medical practice. This study compared perceptions of students, practising clinicians, and anatomy educators with respect to the relevance of anatomy education to medicine.MethodsA quantitative survey was administered to undergraduate entry (n = 352) and graduate entry students (n = 219) at two Irish medical schools, recently graduated Irish clinicians (n = 146), and anatomy educators based in Irish and British medical schools (n = 30). Areas addressed included the association of anatomy with medical education and clinical practice, mode of instruction, and curriculum duration.ResultsGraduate-entry students were less likely to associate anatomy with the development of professionalism, teamwork skills, or improved awareness of ethics in medicine. Clinicians highlighted the challenge of tailoring anatomy education to increase student readiness to function effectively in a clinical role. Anatomy educators indicated dissatisfaction with the time available for anatomy within medical curricula, and were equivocal about whether curriculum content should be responsive to societal feedback.ConclusionsThe group differences identified in the current study highlight areas and requirements which medical education curriculum developers should be sensitive to when designing anatomy courses.

Background In most health professions education programs, didactic lectures remain the most common teaching modality. There is a need for synchronous interactive instructional methods that require little student preparation, promote directed-independent learning and high-order cognition, while increasing feedback and teamwork. We have recently created a Cloud-based learning (CL) educational tool that uses the conceptual Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) theoretical framework, together with generative learning theory. Using student surveys, we aim to evaluate this instructional methodology and compare it with more common practices in medical education, including Team-Based Learning (TBL), Flipped Class (FC), and Didactic Lectures (DL). In addition, using a literature-based analysis, we compared CL to several instruction methods (DL, PBL, TBL, FC) to determine whether CL has unique characteristics that differentiate it from other instructional methods. Methods Student perception surveys were used to contrast responses regarding these instruction methods in terms of satisfaction, student preparation time, teamwork, collaboration, and formative feedback received. Responses were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis H-test and Dunn’s pairwise test to determine statistical significance between the medians. Results Compared to other teaching methods, students expressed a preference for TBL and DL over CL and FC (DL = TBL = CL > FC). CL and DL were perceived to require the least preparation time (less than 30 min), compared to FC and TBL (CL = DL < FC < TBL). Regarding the learning environment and engagement with each of the instructional strategies, participants were equally engaged with TBL, DL and CL, and less engaged with FC (TBL = CL = DL; TBL > FC). TBL and CL were rated significantly higher in terms of collaboration and teamwork, in which CL provided significantly higher instructor feedback than TBL, DL and FC (CL > TBL > DL = FC), while TBL provided significantly higher peer feedback than CL (TBL > CL > DL > FC). Conclusions Despite the benefits of CL (student preparedness, high feedback and collaborative environment), students express preferences toward TBL and DL. Compared with existing teaching methods, CL has some unique characteristics that enable students to create their own study tool with reduced preparation time, strong feedback and a collaborative environment that can be considered an alternative educational strategy.

Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Searching for evidence to inform best practice in medical education is a complex undertaking. With very few information sources dedicated to medical education itself, one is forced to consult a wide range of often enormous sources--and these are dedicated to either medicine or education, making a medical education search all the more challenging. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of relevant information sources and methods (including bibliographic databases, grey literature, hand searching and the Internet) and describes when they should be consulted. The process of constructing a search is explained: identifying and combining core concepts, using Boolean algebra and search syntax, limiting results sets, and making best use of databases' controlled vocabularies. This process is illustrated with images from search screens and is followed by numerous examples designed to reinforce skills and concepts covered. The guide has been developed from the ongoing experience gained from the systematic searches conducted for the Best Evidence Medical Education Collaboration, and concludes by looking ahead to initiatives that will shape future searching for medical education evidence.

Integration of theoretical knowledge and practical skills is critical for effective medical education. Simulation is crucial in bridging the gap to prepare medical professionals for high-quality patient care in a safe environment. Simulation-based teaching has become the standard practice in medical education, especially in postgraduate courses like Anaesthesia. However, undergraduate medical education and other doctoral courses are still nascent. In line with the current National Medical Commission guidelines, it is imperative to complement the existing curriculum with a simulation-based approach as early as the first year of medical school. This review focuses on the current practices related to simulation-based medical education during undergraduate and postgraduate courses, particularly on anaesthesiology. We aim to discuss different types of simulation, the advantages of integration, students' perspectives, and the role of simulation in assessment and feedback. Finally, recommendations for future advancements of simulation in medical education and the way forward will be laid.

Communication skills training is a routine practice in medical education designed to instruct and evaluate future physicians in matters of patient-provider interaction. Based on the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS), medical schools across the United States hire and train standardized patients (SPs) to act as patients in and evaluators of simulated interactions with medical students (MSs). Using discourse analysis, I examine how a computerized assessment form creates a particularized version of communication skills with implications for future practice. The 39-item checklist is completed by SPs following a simulated interaction designed to prepare third-year MSs for the Step 2 CS. Specifically, I analyze how the form is structured to make recognizable specific communication skills tasks, who should complete said tasks, and what varying degrees of communication skills competency are within the realm of task completion. By analyzing the form, I consider the agency of texts in medical education, the implications of technologizing communication as an institutional skill, and the limitations of enlisting SPs to evaluate communication skills competency under the guise of a patient perspective.