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Author: Brian S McGowan, PhD

ABSTRACT: Recommendations for a New Curriculum in Pain Medicine for Medical Students: Toward a Career Distinguished by Competence and Compassion.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
The education of physicians is a fundamental obligation within medicine that must remain closely aligned with clinical care. And although medical education in pain care is essential, the current state of medical education does not meet the needs of physicians, patients, or society. To address this, we convened a committee of pain specialist medical student educators.
METHODS:
Tasked with creating systematically developed and valid recommendations for clinical education, we conducted a survey of pain medicine leadership within the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM). The survey was conducted in two waves. We asked AAPM board members to rate 194 previously published pain medicine learning objectives for medical students; 79% of those eligible for participation responded.
RESULTS:
The “Top 5” list included the awareness of acute and chronic pain, skillfulness in clinical appraisal, promotion of compassionate practices, displaying empathy toward the patient, and knowledge of terms and definitions for substance abuse. The “Top 10” list included the major pharmacological classes as well as skills in examination, communication, prescribing, and interviewing. The “Top 20” list included the pain care of cognitively impaired populations, those with comorbid illness, and older adults. With the survey results in consideration, the committee produced a new recommended topic list for curricula in pain medicine. We strongly recommend that adequate resources are devoted to fully integrated medical curricula in pain so that students will learn not only the necessary clinical knowledge but also be prepared to address the professional, personal, and ethical challenges that arise in caring for those with pain.
CONCLUSIONS:
We conclude that improved medical education in pain is essential to prepare providers who manifest both competence and compassion toward their patients.

via Recommendations for a New Curriculum in Pain Medici… [Pain Med. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.

ABSTRACT: Knowledge and usability of a trauma training system for general surgery residents.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:Resident work-hour restrictions challenge educators to supplement residents surgical education. We evaluated a computer-based trauma surgery systems ability to increase residents surgical knowledge.METHODS:Modules on thoracic and abdominal surgical approaches were evaluated. Surgical residents with 1 or more years of experience completed the pretest, an interactive module, the post-test, and a usability survey.RESULTS:Fifteen participants completed both modules. Thoracic module pretest and post-test scores were 56 ± 11 mean ± standard deviation and 90 ± 10, respectively P < .0001. Mean abdominal module scores were 48 ± 20 and 85 ± 14, respectively P < .0001. The usability survey showed that 87% of participants would use these modules to supplement their trauma training, 93% could easily distinguish anatomic detail, and 100% thought that procedures were shown clearly.CONCLUSIONS:This novel computer-based trauma education training system improved residents knowledge of anatomy, surgical incisions, exposures, and technique. As innovative didactic tools arise in postgraduate medical education, it is crucial to document their effects on educational processes, learning satisfaction, and knowledge outcomes.

via Knowledge and usability of a trauma training syste… [Am J Surg. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.

MANUSCRIPT: Ten Commandments for Effective Clinical Decision Support: Making the Practice of Evidence-based Medicine a Reality

A b s t r a c t While evidence-based medicine has increasingly broad-based support in health care, it remains difficult to get physicians to actually practice it. Across most domains in medicine, practice has lagged behind knowledge by at least several years. The authors believe that the key tools for closing this gap will be information systems that provide decision support to users at the time they make decisions, which should result in improved quality of care. Furthermore, providers make many errors, and clinical decision support can be useful for finding and preventing such errors. Over the last eight years the authors have implemented and studied the impact of decision support across a broad array of domains and have found a number of common elements important to success. The goal of this report is to discuss these lessons learned in the interest of informing the efforts of others working to make the practice of evidence-based medicine a reality.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC264429/pdf/523.pdf

MANUSCRIPT: The GuideLine Implementability Appraisal (GLIA): development of an instrument to identify obstacles to guideline implementation

Background: Clinical practice guidelines are not uniformly successful in influencing clinicians’ behaviour toward best practices. Implementability refers to a set of characteristics that predict ease of (and obstacles to) guideline implementation. Our objective is to develop and validate a tool for appraisal of implementability of clinical guidelines.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6947-5-23.pdf

MANUSCRIPT: Why Don’t Physicians Follow Clinical Practice Guidelines? A Framework for Improvement

Context Despite wide promulgation, clinical practice guidelines have had limited effect on changing physician behavior. Little is known about the process and factors involved in changing physician practices in response to guidelines.
Objective To review barriers to physician adherence to clinical practice guidelines.

http://rds.epi-ucsf.org/ticr/syllabus/courses/66/2009/10/22/Lecture/readings/Cabana.JAMA.1999.pdf

MANUSCRIPT: Enhancing the Use of Clinical Guidelines: A Social Norms Perspective

This article reviews the history of guideline development and use, assesses the current state of implementation, identifies obstacles to adoption, and suggests strategies to overcome these obstacles. The major finding is that the current approach to development, dissemination, and encouraged use of guidelines is inconsistent with knowledge of psychology.

The major recommendations are that the approach to translation of evidence into practice be revised to address convenience; to respond to public and peer demand; to provide immediate feedback concerning performance; and to leverage existing incentives, transparencies, and accountabilities. Implementation of these recommendations is expected to augment safety and best practice in the health-care community.

 

http://www.jsmf.org/about/s/norms.pdf

RESOURCE: Coursera forced to call off a MOOC amid complaints about the course

Maybe it was inevitable that one of the new massive open online courses would crash. After all, MOOCs are being launched with considerable speed, not to mention hype. But MOOC advocates might have preferred the collapse of a course other than the one that was suspended this weekend, one week into instruction: “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application.”Technology and design problems are largely to blame for the courses problems. And many students are angry that a course about online education — let alone one offered by the Georgia Institute of Technology — wouldnt have figured out the tech issues in advance, or been able to respond quickly once they became evident. Many of the problems related to the courses use of Google Docs to sign up for group discussions.

via Coursera forced to call off a MOOC amid complaints about the course | Inside Higher Ed.

STORIFY: Online and open access learning in HE: MOOCs, new pedagogies and business models #ldnMOOCS

This one day seminar was intended for senior managers and policy makers in higher education, as well as other stakeholders and innovators in both the public and private sectors. It promised to:
take a critical look at the critical surge of online and open access higher education in the US, as well as its emergence in the UK and elsewhere. And asked what it has to offer to students and Universities seeking to adapt to the new landscape.

via Online and open access learning in HE: MOOCs, new pedagogies and business models (with tweets) · glittrgirl · Storify.

RESOURCE: Teaching with Twitter: how the social network can contribute to learning

The important question to ask regarding e-learning is: What does an online space make possible by way of teaching that my class couldn’t do face-to-face? One effective answer to this is that online spaces allow students to role play and inhabit characters in a way that would be a rather embarrassing drama workshop if tried in the classroom. So in a discussion forum my entire class of 30 students can all ‘be’ one of the characters from Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, and, in character, debate the motion ‘This house believes the law is an ass’. To do this with flair they have to get under the skin of their character. In other words, they have to read the novel carefully and well, which is exactly what I want them to do. This kind of ludic, playful and creative activity is also something I have come to regard as very much having a place within the more critical discipline of English studies.

via Teaching with Twitter: how the social network can contribute to learning | Higher Education Network | Guardian Professional.

RESOURCE: The terror of tweeting: social medium or academic message?

To me this is a peculiar kind of technological confusion. If we ban live tweeting, do we also ban conversations about a paper in the lunch queue or the bar? If people really are anxious about tweeting or blogging, because it might reveal too much about them or their work, does that mean that they don’t talk to their colleagues over coffee, whether about research or the latest gossip?

To focus our anxiety on the technology is to ignore its function: the simple art of communicating and connecting with other people, and the pleasure of doing so. If an academic can talk to a colleague or a friend, they already know how and why to tweet. No further guidance is necessary.

via The terror of tweeting: social medium or academic message? | Higher Education Network | Guardian Professional.