Still-Well osteopathic medical student wellness program.
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In 1991, the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri, initiated a wellness program for its first- and second-year medical students. The program was based on the concept that to practice and promote preventive medicine, students must first understand and integrate wellness practices and theory into their own lives. With nearly 11 years of experience, the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine offers a wellness program to its students that addresses areas of their personal, professional, and physical development of mind, body, and spirit. Voluntary student participation has been exceptional, and research at KCOM was initiated to determine to what extent the program was working to modify the wellness of its medical students. (+info)
Graduating medical students' exercise prescription competence as perceived by deans and directors of medical education in the United States: implications for Healthy People 2010.
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OBJECTIVES: This study examined perceptions of deans and directors of medical education at 128 allopathic schools of medicine in the US about the importance of physical activity and exercise topics, and their perceptions about the competence of graduating medical students to perform six fundamental skills related to exercise prescription. Healthy People 2010 recommends that clinicians counsel all patients about regular physical activity. However, in previous studies physicians identified lack of training as a barrier to physical activity counseling, and they questioned their own ability to advise patients properly. METHODS: Using the 17-item Exercise and Physical Activity Competence Questionnaire, data were collected from 72 of 128 medical schools, for a response rate of 56%. RESULTS: While 58% of respondents indicated their typical graduate was competent in conducting a patient evaluation for the purpose of approving that patient to begin an exercise program, only 10% said their students could design an exercise prescription. Only 6% of respondents reported that their school provided a core course addressing the American College of Sports Medicine Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest a need for more undergraduate medical training in physical activity and exercise prescription. (+info)
Don't cry for us Argentinians: two decades of teaching medical humanities.
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Medical humanities--history, literature, anthropology, ethics and fine arts applied to medicine--play an important role in medical education. For more than 20 years an effort has been made to obtain an academic identity for such a multidisciplinary approach. A distinction between humanitarianism and humanism is attempted here, the former being associated with medical care and the latter with medical education. In order more precisely to define the relationship between the arts and medicine, an alternative term "medical kalology", as-yet-unsanctioned, coined after the rules of medical terminology, is proposed. The Department of Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine, National University La Plata, submits the following apologia: Don't cry for us Argentinians, since the teaching of medical humanities has helped our doctors to function more truly humanistically during the past two decades, as we intend to continue with this calling in the future. (+info)
Liver transplantation at the Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences in China.
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OBJECTIVES: To summarize the results of liver transplantation for various end-stage liver diseases at the Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences (SUMS), define the role of liver transplantation in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and fulminant hepatitis B, and assess the efficiency of lamivudine on preventing HBV recurrence. METHODS: Seventy liver transplants performed at the SUMS between April 1993 and December 2000 were retrospectively analyzed. The main indications for liver transplant were hepatocellular carcinoma (26 cases), liver cirrhosis (21 cases), fulminant hepatitis B (12 cases), sclerosing cholangitis (4 cases) and other terminal liver diseases (7 cases). Lamivudine was used in twelve patients suffering from fulminant hepatitis B. Logistic multivariate regression analysis was applied to determine the risk factors predicting liver transplantation outcomes. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients survived for more than one month, and 16 patients died within 30 days after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The overall hospital survival rate was 77.1%. The hospital survival rates in the Child's A and B patients were 87.5% and 83.3%, respectively. Those rates were superior to those of the Child's C patients (P < 0.05). The outcome of patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was superior to that of patients with large HCC. Preoperative APACE III scores, the severity of ascites and serum creatine level had independent influence on outcome. Of the patients with fulminant HBV infection, 9 recipients survived for a follow-up period of 2 - 24 months. Treatment with lamivudine monotherapy was both well tolerated and efficacious in patients with fulminant hepatitis B. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that orthotopic liver transplantation could provide long-term cure and palliation for patients with HCC, and that patient selection is extremely important in predicting outcome. The results support the continued application of liver transplantation as a therapeutic modality for various end-stage liver diseases and that lamivudine is an effective and safe monotherapy in OLT for patients with HBV infection. (+info)
Evolution of a partnership to improve K-16 science education.
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This article grew out of a presentation at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Pacific Division in Irvine, California in June 2001. The symposium "Sharing Science: Successful Scientist Expert-Teacher Practitioner Interactions" was organized by Drs. Nancy J. Pelaez and Barbara L. Gonzalez of California State University at Fullerton. Goodman's presentation was entitled "The Team Approach to Outreach Activities for K-12 Teachers in a Large, Rural State." This personal view report describes the development and evolution of educational outreach programs at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine (USDSM) and the support provided by the administration. The number and strength of the programs at USDSM have grown in direct proportion to the commitment that the institution has been willing to make to faculty members with interests in science education. Currently, USDSM has three Basic Science faculty members who spend significant effort working with K-12 students and teachers and who have been called upon nationally as consultants and reviewers for similar programs. (+info)
The case for diversity in the health care workforce.
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Increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the health care workforce is essential for the adequate provision of culturally competent care to our nation's burgeoning minority communities. A diverse health care workforce will help to expand health care access for the underserved, foster research in neglected areas of societal need, and enrich the pool of managers and policymakers to meet the needs of a diverse populace. The long-term solution to achieving adequate diversity in the health professions depends upon fundamental reforms of our country's precollege education system. Until these reforms occur, affirmative action tools in health professions schools are critical to achieving a diverse health care workforce. (+info)
A national survey of provisions in clinical-trial agreements between medical schools and industry sponsors.
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BACKGROUND: Concerned about threats to the integrity of clinical trials in a research environment increasingly controlled by private interests, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has issued revised guidelines for investigators' participation in the study design, access to data, and control over publication. It is unclear whether research conducted at academic institutions adheres to these new standards. METHODS: From November 2001 through January 2002, we interviewed officials at U.S. medical schools about provisions in their institutions' agreements with industry sponsors of multicenter clinical trials. A subgroup of the respondents were also asked about coordinating-center agreements for such trials. RESULTS: Of the 122 medical schools that are members of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 108 participated in the survey. The median number of site-level agreements executed per institution in the previous year was 103 (interquartile range, 50 to 210). Scores for compliance with a wide range of provisions--from ensuring that authors of reports on multicenter trials have access to all trial data (1 percent [interquartile range, 0 to 21]) to addressing the plan for data collection and monitoring (10 percent [interquartile range, 1 to 50])--demonstrated limited adherence to the standards embodied in the new ICMJE guidelines. Scores for coordinating-center agreements were somewhat higher for most survey items. CONCLUSIONS: Academic institutions routinely engage in industry-sponsored research that fails to adhere to ICMJE guidelines regarding trial design, access to data, and publication rights. Our findings suggest that a reevaluation of the process of contracting for clinical research is urgently needed. (+info)
The Jichi Medical School (JMS) Cohort Study: design, baseline data and standardized mortality ratios.
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We have been conducting a cohort study titled the Jichi Medical School Cohort Study (The JMS Cohort Study) since 1992, which is aiming to clarify the risk factors of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in the Japanese. The baseline data were gathered from April 1992 through July 1995 in 12 rural districts using a legal mass screening system. The total samples were 12,490 males and females, and the overall response rate for the total population was 63%. The mean ages were 55.2 years for males and 55.3 years for females, respectively. Smoking rates were 50.5% and 5.5%, and drinking rates were 75.1% and 25.0% for males and females, respectively. We also examined the Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) of the cohort subjects for 7.6 year follow-up period. The SMRs were 0.68 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.59-0.78] for males and 0.73 (95% CI: 0.62-0.85) for females for the cohort subjects, whereas the SMRs were 1.00 (95% CI 0.97-1.04) for males and 1.06 (95% CI: 1.02-1.10) for females for all residents. In this article, we outlined the cohort study and showed general characteristics of the baseline data, and the SMRs of the subjects. We have been following the eligible subjects, and are preparing to show some prospective data regarding cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risks in the near future. (+info)