Purpose
During this forced down-time of COVID-19 pandemic, shift to virtual anatomy education is the solitary solution to support the learning of students. The purpose of this study was to understand ...the visible and invisible potential challenges being faced by the 1st year medical and dental students while attending digital anatomy classes.
Methods
The present study was conducted on 81st year medical and dental students who were admitted to their respective college in August 2019 and were willing to participate in the study. A multiple choice close-ended questionnaire regarding their opinion on virtual classes was designed and feedback was taken from the students.
Results
Majority (65%) of the students agreed that they missed their traditional anatomy learning i.e., dissection courses, face to face lectures and interaction with mentors. The students strongly felt the lack of confidence and difficulty in the topics completed without dissections, models, microscopic slides and other modalities. 83% felt lack of proper gadgets, high-band width and strong internet connections, a potential barrier in their digital learning. Lack of self-motivation was felt by 69% students.
Conclusions
The current situation of anatomy education is not intentional, and is not the long term silver bullet solution for a visual subject like anatomy. Though learners face a lot of challenges, however, a shift to online must be supported at this time of health crisis. As the digital learning may go for indefinite period, the feedback of students may be helpful for relevant and timely modifications in digital anatomy education.
Millennials are quickly becoming the most prevalent generation of medical learners. These individuals have a unique outlook on education and have different preferences and expectations than their ...predecessors. As evidenced by its implementation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in the United States and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada, competency based medical education is rapidly gaining international acceptance. Characteristics of competency based medical education can be perfectly paired with Millennial educational needs in several dimensions including educational expectations, the educational process, attention to emotional quotient and professionalism, assessment, feedback, and intended outcomes. We propose that with its attention to transparency, personalized learning, and frequent formative assessment, competency based medical education is an ideal fit for the Millennial generation as it realigns education and assessment with the needs of these 21st century learners.
Objective: The current medical education system is steeped in tradition and has been shaped by many long-held beliefs and convictions about the essential components of training. The objective of this ...article is to propose initiatives to overcome biases against competency-based medical education (CBME) in the culture of medical education.
Materials and methods: At a retreat of the International Competency Based Medical Education (ICBME) Collaborators group, an intensive brainstorming session was held to determine potential barriers to adoption of CBME in the culture of medical education. This was supplemented with a review of the literature on the topic.
Results: There continues to exist significant key barriers to the widespread adoption of CBME. Change in educational culture must be embraced by all components of the medical education hierarchy. Research is essential to provide convincing evidence of the benefit of CBME.
Conclusions: The widespread adoption of CBME will require a change in the professional, institutional, and organizational culture surrounding the training of medical professionals.
Pathology education must evolve as medical knowledge expands and disruptive technologies emerge. The evolution in pathology teaching practices accelerated as traditional teaching modalities were ...suspended in March 2020 during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
To provide pathologists an overview of established teaching paradigms and practical examples of how these paradigms may be applied to pathology education, emphasizing differences in graduate and undergraduate medical education as well as the challenges and promises of remote learning, as revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Selected peer-reviewed publications representing the field of educational social science.
Evidence-based methods described in education and social sciences can be effectively deployed in pathology education and especially remote learning, as necessitated by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding established principles, such as cognitive load, competency-based learning, peer-assisted learning, and flipped classrooms may prove useful in developing effective, learner-centric content for pathology education.
The aim of this study is to compare surgical outcomes of international medical graduates (IMGs) and United States medical graduates (USMGs).
IMGs represent 15% of practicing surgeons in the United ...States (US), and their training pathways often differ substantially from USMGs. To date, differences in the clinical outcomes between the 2 cohorts have not been examined.
Using a unique dataset linking AMA Physician Masterfile data with hospital discharge claims from Florida and New York (2008-2011), patients who underwent 1 of 32 general surgical operations were stratified by IMG and USMG surgeon status. Mortality, complications, and prolonged length of stay were compared between IMG and USMG surgeon status using optimal sparse network matching with balance.
We identified 972,718 operations performed by 4581 surgeons (72% USMG, 28% IMG). IMG and USMG surgeons differed significantly in demographic (age, gender) and baseline training (years of training, university affiliation of training hospital) characteristics. USMG surgeons performed complex procedures (13.7% vs 11.1%, P < 0.01) and practiced in urban settings (79.4% vs 75.6%, P < 0.01) more frequently, while IMG surgeons performed a higher volume of studied operations (50.7 ± 5.1 vs 57.8 ± 8.4, P < 0.01). In the matched cohort analysis of 396,810 patients treated by IMG and USMG surgeons, rates of mortality (USMG: 2.2%, IMG: 2.1%; P < 0.001), complications (USMG: 14.5%, IMG: 14.3%; P = 0.032), and prolonged length of stay (pLOS) (USMG: 22.7%, IMG: 22.8%; P = 0.352) were clinically equivalent.
Despite considerable differences in educational background, surgical training characteristics, and practice patterns, IMG and USMG-surgeons deliver equivalent surgical care to the patients whom they treat.