Innovative digital tools for new trends in teaching and assessment methods in medical and dental education.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Park JC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8376582 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Objective: The digitalization of the healthcare system poses new challenges for physicians. Thus, the relevance of learning digital competencies (DiCo), such as dealing with data sets, apply telemedicine or using apps, is already growing in medical education. DiCo should be clearly separated from digitized teaching formats, which have been increasingly used since the COVID 19 pandemic. This article outlines the faculties in Germany where DiCo are already integrated into medical education. Methods: Courses with DiCo as teaching content were collected by a literature research on Pubmed and Google as well as by contacting all dean's offices and other persons responsible for teaching at German medical faculties. The courses were summarized in a table. Results: In a first survey, 16 universities were identified that offer courses on DiCo. In the elective area at the universities, 17 courses and in the compulsory area eight courses could be identified. The scope and content of the courses diverged between compulsory curricula, integrated courses of different lengths, and elective courses that are one-time or longitudinally integrated. The topics taught are heterogeneous and include fundamentals of medical informatics such as data management on the one hand and a collection of e.g. ethics, law, apps, artificial intelligence, telemedicine and robotics on the other hand. Conclusion: Currently, only some German medical faculties offer courses on DiCo. These courses vary in scope and design. They are frequently part of the elective curriculum and only reach some of the students. The possibility of embedding DiCo in the already existing cross-sectional area appears limited. In view of the ongoing digitalization of healthcare, it is necessary to make future courses on DiCo accessible to all medical students. In order to drive this expansion forward, the implementation of the new learning objectives catalogue, in which DiCo are integrated, a network formation, a teaching qualification as well as the involvement of students is recommended.
| S-EPMC8136344 | biostudies-literature
Project description:An important hallmark of science is the transparency and reproducibility of scientific results. Over the last few years, internet-based technologies have emerged that allow for a representation of the scientific process that goes far beyond traditional methods and analysis descriptions. Using these often freely available tools requires a suite of skills that is not necessarily part of a curriculum in the life sciences. However, funders, journals, and policy makers increasingly require researchers to ensure complete reproducibility of their methods and analyses. To close this gap, we designed an introductory course that guides students towards a reproducible science workflow. Here, we outline the course content and possible extensions, report encountered challenges, and discuss how to integrate such a course in existing curricula.
| S-EPMC6095603 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundDigital health technologies hold promise to enhance patient-related outcomes, to support health care staff by reducing their workload, and to improve the coordination of care. As key users of digital health technologies, health care workers are crucial to enable a meaningful digital transformation of health care. Digital health literacy and digital skills should become prerequisite competencies for health professionals to facilitate the implementation and leverage the potential of digital technologies to improve health.ObjectiveWe aimed to assess European medical students' perceived knowledge and opinions toward digital health, the status of digital health implementation in medical education, and the students' most pressing needs.MethodsThe explanatory design of our mixed methods study was based on an online, anonymous, self-administered survey targeted toward European medical students. A linear regression analysis was used to identify the influence of the year of medical studies on the responses. Additional analysis was performed by grouping the responses by the self-evaluated frequency of eHealth technology use. Written responses to four qualitative questions in the survey were analyzed using an inductive approach.ResultsThe survey received a total of 451 responses from 39 European countries, and there were respondents for every year of medical studies. The majority of respondents saw advantages in the use of digital health. While 40.6% (183/451) felt prepared to work in a digitized health care system, more than half (240/451, 53.2%) evaluated their eHealth skills as poor or very poor. Medical students considered lack of education to be the reason for this, with 84.9% (383/451) agreeing or strongly agreeing that more digital health education should be implemented in the medical curriculum. Students demanded introductory and specific eHealth courses covering data management, ethical aspects, legal frameworks, research and entrepreneurial opportunities, role in public health and health systems, communication skills, and practical training. The emphasis lay on tailoring learning to future job requirements and interprofessional education.ConclusionsThis study shows a lack of digital health-related formats in medical education and a perceived lack of digital health literacy among European medical students. Our findings indicate a gap between the willingness of medical students to take an active role by becoming key players in the digital transformation of health care and the education that they receive through their faculties.
| S-EPMC7455864 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic in 2020 has had a lasting impact on all areas of personal life. However, the political, economic, legal and healthcare system, as well as the education system have also experienced the effects. Universities had to face new challenges and requirements in teaching and examinations as quickly as possible in order to be able to guarantee high-quality education for their students. This study aims to examine how the German-speaking medical faculties of the Umbrella Consortium of Assessment Network (UCAN) have dealt with the challenges but also the opportunities that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic created in medical education and whether digitalisation has been driven forward as a result. In an initial online-survey we focused our questions on the current teaching situation with regard to digitised teaching content, the support or establishment of adequate framework conditions by the medical faculties and IT facilities and also the execution of examinations during the summer semester 2020. Between August and September 2020, a total of 88 examiners, educators, dean of study and/or technical admins from 32 partner faculties took part in the survey. Students were not included in our survey. Most respondents stated that a switch to a digital semester had worked, the use of e-learning increased compared to previous semesters and that most courses could be converted, with the exception of practical courses, which were largely cancelled. The respondents also indicated that most examinations could still be taken, with the exception of practical examination formats, like Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). However, in the case of face-to-face examinations, strict distance and hygiene conditions had to be obeyed or there had to be a switch to distance-online examinations, which raised many open issues such as equal opportunities of students (technical equipment, internet access, premises) and attempts at deception (third-party help with the exam, mutual exchange between students, web search). In conclusion, we identified several issues regarding the rapid transition to a digital semester due to COVID-19 which were categorised into the following topics: Face-to-face teaching could not take place, (2) know-how of educators, (3) integrity aspects, (4) technical aspects, (5) additional personnel required, (6) additional time and effort required for implementation of digital teaching. Our study shows that a switch to digital teaching and distance online examinations is feasible, but many problems were encountered concerning academic integrity and basic ethical principles still need to be solved. In order to investigate whether above mentioned issued could be solved one year after the transition to a digital semester, we conducted a second survey in which the 32 initially surveyed institutions were questioned again. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40979-021-00084-8.
| S-EPMC8421088 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe importance of teaching the skills and practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) for medical professionals has steadily grown in recent years. Alongside this growth is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of EBM curriculum as assessed by competency in the five 'A's': asking, acquiring, appraising, applying and assessing (impact and performance). EBM educators in medical education will benefit from a compendium of existing assessment tools for assessing EBM competencies in their settings. The purpose of this review is to provide a systematic review and taxonomy of validated tools that evaluate EBM teaching in medical education.MethodsWe searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library, Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC), Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) databases and references of retrieved articles published between January 2005 and March 2019. We have presented the identified tools along with their psychometric properties including validity, reliability and relevance to the five domains of EBM practice and dimensions of EBM learning. We also assessed the quality of the tools to identify high quality tools as those supported by established interrater reliability (if applicable), objective (non-self-reported) outcome measures and achieved ≥ 3 types of established validity evidence. We have reported our study in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines.ResultsWe identified 1719 potentially relevant articles of which 63 full text articles were assessed for eligibility against inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twelve articles each with a unique and newly identified tool were included in the final analysis. Of the twelve tools, all of them assessed the third step of EBM practice (appraise) and four assessed just that one step. None of the twelve tools assessed the last step of EBM practice (assess). Of the seven domains of EBM learning, ten tools assessed knowledge gain, nine assessed skills and-one assessed attitude. None addressed reaction to EBM teaching, self-efficacy, behaviours or patient benefit. Of the twelve tools identified, six were high quality. We have also provided a taxonomy of tools using the CREATE framework, for EBM teachers in medical education.ConclusionsSix tools of reasonable validity are available for evaluating most steps of EBM and some domains of EBM learning. Further development and validation of tools that evaluate all the steps in EBM and all educational outcome domains are needed.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42018116203.
| S-EPMC7183115 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundIn some current healthcare settings, there is a noticeable absence of national institutions committed to the synthesis and use of evidence in healthcare decision- and policy-making. This absence creates a need to broaden the responsibilities of healthcare providers to include knowledge brokering and advocacy in order to optimize knowledge translation to other stakeholders, especially policy-makers. However, this process requires practitioners and researchers to acquire certain types of knowledge and skills. This article introduces two innovative methods for capacity building in knowledge translation (KT).MethodsDuring a workshop aimed at preparing 21 trainers in evidence-based medicine, two innovative methods were used: (1) debate and (2) a knowledge translation project (KTP). The main objective of the debates approach was to strengthen participants' critical thinking abilities by requiring them to search for and appraise evidence and defend their arguments. The KTP was used to introduce participants to the essential steps of knowledge translation and to suggest an extended role for healthcare practitioners, i.e., using evidence to manage not only individual patients but also to a community of patients. Participants' performances were assessed according to a pre-designed scheme. At the end of the workshop, participants' opinions and experiences with the innovative teaching methods were evaluated based on their answers to a questionnaire and the results of small-group discussions.ResultsThe participants performed well in both the debate and KTP methods. During post-workshop group discussions, they indicated that the debate approach had added a new dimension to their evidence-based medicine skills by adding purpose and motivation. However, they felt that their performances would have been better if they had been offered practical demonstrations of how to conduct the debate. The participants indicated that the KTP enhanced their understanding of the relationships between evidence and implementation, and motivated them to investigate public health problems in addition to individual patient problems. However, some participants maintained that these issues fell outside the scope of their role as doctors.ConclusionDebates and evidence implementation through KTP are generally well accepted by healthcare practitioners as methods by which they can improve their skills in KT.
| S-EPMC3215958 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for online courses has increased enormously. Therefore, finding new methods to improve medical education is imperative. Objective The aim of this study was to compare the self-reports of the individual student-centered virtual teaching techniques (seminar versus fishbowl) in a group of medical students. Methods During the second semester of 2020, students in the clinical phase of the study (n = 144) participated in the optional subject of Sports Medicine. The students were divided into 2 groups. One group (n = 72) received the knowledge transfer in the form of a virtual seminar, the other group (n = 72) in the form of a virtual fishbowl. Results Virtual seminar and virtual fishbowl students gave insights into these teaching techniques. Most of the students from the virtual fishbowl group believed that the virtual fishbowl format allowed them to be more actively involved in learning. The mean quiz scores were statistically higher for students in the virtual fishbowl group than students in the virtual seminar group (p < 0. 001). Conclusion This study concluded that virtual seminars and virtual fishbowl formats could be served as structured learning and teaching formats. At the same time, the virtual fishbowl format can promote an active exchange of knowledge from students’ perspectives.
| S-EPMC9202876 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced students and teachers to rapidly adopt digital education methods. Proper guidance for and refinement of such methods is continuously required. Here, we report on the educational experience students and academic staff at the neurosurgical department of a German university hospital made with digital teaching modules (DTMs) that were newly developed due to the transition to digital teaching during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and on the insights gained therefrom. Nine newly created DTMs provided students the option to anonymously evaluate each module by assigning a score from 0 (worst value) to 5 (best value) to it. Access count, evaluation count, average evaluation, number of included (interactive) figures, number of presented cases, number of linked publications, and number of included multiple-choice questions for each DTM were recorded retrospectively. For each DTM, we aimed to correlate access count, evaluation count, and average evaluation with the number of included (interactive) figures, number of presented cases, number of linked publications, and number of included multiple-choice questions. E-mail responses from individual students as to the DTMs were collected. Among students, an anonymous, voluntary online survey regarding the DTMs was conducted. Number of figures and average evaluation per DTM were significantly positively correlated (Spearman's rho = 0.85; p = 0.0037). Number of figures and number of evaluations per DTM were also significantly positively correlated (Spearman's rho = 0.78; p = 0.0137). Responses from individual students indicated that illustrative cases and interactive figures might further increase DTM popularity. As a valuable adjunct in medical student education, DTMs should contain (interactive) figures, illustrative cases, a scoring option, and the option to give individual feedback towards the academic staff.
| S-EPMC8471382 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background:Transitioning from theoretical medicine to clinical practice is both an important and difficult process in dental education. Thus, there is an urgent need for teaching methods that can improve the ability of dental students to integrate dental theory with clinical practice. Methods:First, we conducted training for problem-based learning based on real clinical cases for dental students. The students were then assigned to dentist/patient roles to rehearse and perform simulated clinical scenarios. Finally, questionnaires, clinical patient care scores, and performance assessments were utilized to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of this training with that of traditional teaching methods. Results:Students' abilities to treat and communicate with patients markedly improved after using this reformed teaching method. Among the 30 enrolled students, 29 liked the method, found it time-efficient, and believed that it could help enhance their problem-solving confidence and interest in prosthodontics. They also believed that this teaching method could help them gain a good understanding of related theoretical material, generally thought that the reformed teaching method was more valuable than the traditional approach, and would like to introduce it to others. Conclusion:After the reformed teaching method was implemented, the students not only achieved better scholastically, but also demonstrated greater accuracy in diagnosing the conditions of patients and formulating treatment plans. They were also more frequently acknowledged by patients, indicating that this method is effective for dental students.
| S-EPMC7008813 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This position paper describes the legal framework requirements when crediting digital teaching formats towards the teaching load in higher education medical teaching, as exemplified by the Federal State of Bavaria in Germany. It reveals the need for precise rules adapted to the advances in technology, if the process of digitalisation in higher education (HE) is not to come to a halt. If HE institutions are to act as centres of innovation with respect to the implementation of digital teaching and learning formats, then structural and strategic positioning with regard to e- and blended learning above all is called for in addition to financial resources, as well as the distribution and sustainable incorporation of digital offerings in faculties and HE institutions. There is a great deal of insecurity however with respect to the legal framework requirements and how best to count digital teaching towards one's own teaching load. This results to some extent from the complexity of current laws and regulations partially overtaken by didactic and methodological changes in education, with decentralised educational federalism only adding to the complexity. Bearing in mind teaching and learning formats that are undergoing change or have already been transformed, ways of adapting the (legal) framework to the digital shift need to be found, last but not least in order to offer enthusiastic teaching staff incentives to develop and expand digital formats.
| S-EPMC6120158 | biostudies-other