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The Doktaborse - an innovative online platform for research projects at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich.

ABSTRACT: Introduction: One of the most important extracurricular aspects of medical studies in Germany is a research thesis completed by most students. This research project often times conveys relevant competencies for the physician's role as scientist. Nevertheless, the choice of the right project remains a challenge. Reasons for this are among others, missing structures for a comprehensive overview of research groups and their respective projects. Description of the project: We developed the online platform Doktabörse as an online marketplace for doctoral research projects. The platform enables authorized researchers to create working groups and upload, deactivate and change research projects within their institute. For interested students, a front end with integrated search function displays these projects in a structured and well-arranged way. In parallel, the Doktabörse provides for a comprehensive overview of research at the medical faculty. We evaluated Researchers' and students' use of the platform. Results: 96,6% of students participating in the evaluation (n=400) were in favor of a centralized research platform at the medical faculty. The platform grew at a steady pace and included 120 research groups in June 2016. The students appreciated the structure and design of the Doktabörse. Two thirds of all uploaded projects matched successfully with doctoral students via the platform and over 94% of researchers stated that they did not need technical assistance with uploading projects and handling the platform. Discussion: The Doktabörse represents an innovative and well accepted platform for doctoral research projects. The platform is perceived positively by researchers and students alike. However, students criticized limited extent and timeliness of offered projects. In addition, the platform serves as databank of research at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich. The future potential of this platform is to provide for an integrated management solution of doctoral thesis projects, possibly beyond the medical field and faculty.

SUBMITTER: Nicolai L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5569987 | biostudies-other | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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The Doktabörse - an innovative online platform for research projects at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich.

Nicolai Leo L Gradel Maximilian M Antón Sofia S Pander Tanja T Kalb Anke A Köhler Lisa L Fischer Martin R MR Dimitriadis Konstantinos K von der Borch Philip P

GMS journal for medical education 20170815 3

<b>Introduction:</b> One of the most important extracurricular aspects of medical studies in Germany is a research thesis completed by most students. This research project often times conveys relevant competencies for the physician's role as scientist. Nevertheless, the choice of the right project remains a challenge. Reasons for this are among others, missing structures for a comprehensive overview of research groups and their respective projects. <b>Description of the project:</b> We developed ...[more]

PMID: 28890921

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Project description:In Germany medical students should gain proficiency and specific skills in the vaccination field. Especially important is the efficient communication of scientific results about vaccinations to the community, in order to give professional counseling with a complete overview about therapeutic options. AIM OF THE PROJECT: The aim of this project is to set up a vaccination-related curriculum in the Medical Faculty at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. The structure of the curriculum is based on the National catalogue for competency-based learning objectives in the field of vaccination (Nationaler Kompetenzbasierter Lernzielekatalog Medizin NKLM). Through this curriculum, the students will not only acquire the classical educational skills concerning vaccination in theory and practice, but they will also learn how to become independent in the decision-making process and counseling. Moreover, the students will become aware of consequences of action related to this specific topic.According to defined guidelines, an analysis was performed on courses, which are currently offered by the university. A separate analysis of the NKLM was carried out. Both analyses identified the active courses related to the topic of vaccination as well as the NKLM learning objectives. The match between the topics taught in current courses and the NKLM learning objectives identified gaps concerning the teaching of specific content. Courses were modified in order to implement the missing NKLM learning objectives.These analyses identified 24 vaccination-related courses, which are currently taught at the University. Meanwhile, 35 learning objectives on vaccination were identified in the NKLM catalogue. Four of which were identified as not yet part of the teaching program. In summary, this interdisciplinary work enabled the development of a new vaccination-related curriculum, including 35 learning objectives, which are now implemented in regular teaching courses by the Medical Faculty.This project successfully describes a method to develop and implement a competency-based teaching program on the topic of vaccination. Importantly, the process presented here can serve as a guide to develop and implement similar teaching programs on other subjects and Universities.

Project description:BackgroundResearch misconduct is a global concern in biomedical science. There are no comprehensive data regarding the perception and situation of scientific misconduct among the Iranian medical faculty members. We conducted a nationwide survey to assess the research misconduct among the medical faculty members in Iran.MethodsWe used the Persian version of the research misconduct questionnaire (PRMQ) on the Google Forms platform. We sent the survey link to a systematic random sample of medical faculty members in Iran (N = 4986). Descriptive analyses were performed on the individual items of the PRMQ, with frequencies and percentages for categorical and Likert-type response items, and means and standard deviation (S.D.) for continuous variables. Chi-square analysis was conducted to test hypotheses examining differences in the frequency of responses related to factors influencing misconduct. We also defined four tenure categories (TC) based on the working years of the participants as tenured faculty members. All the analyses were performed using R 3.6.0.ResultsThe response rate was 13.8% (692 responses). Nearly 70% of the respondents agreed that their publication output would be of higher quality if there were no publication pressure. Approximately three-quarters (N =499, 72.1%) of the respondents had been aware of some instances of research misconduct during the previous year according to their understanding of misconduct. Among the participants, 18.5% perceived the effectiveness of their associated organisation's rules for reducing research misconduct to be high or very high. Pressure for tenure was identified as the item most frequently perceived with a strong behavioural influence on engaging in research misconduct (80.2%).ConclusionsThis study confirms that research misconduct needs to be actively addressed among the medical faculty members. Making policies with a focus on boosting awareness regarding the occasions of scientific misconduct and its management seems to be indispensable in the future in Iran.

Project description:While Monte Carlo particle transport has proven useful in many areas (treatment head design, dose calculation, shielding design, and imaging studies) and has been particularly important for proton therapy (due to the conformal dose distributions and a finite beam range in the patient), the available general purpose Monte Carlo codes in proton therapy have been overly complex for most clinical medical physicists. The learning process has large costs not only in time but also in reliability. To address this issue, we developed an innovative proton Monte Carlo platform and tested the tool in a variety of proton therapy applications.Our approach was to take one of the already-established general purpose Monte Carlo codes and wrap and extend it to create a specialized user-friendly tool for proton therapy. The resulting tool, TOol for PArticle Simulation (TOPAS), should make Monte Carlo simulation more readily available for research and clinical physicists. TOPAS can model a passive scattering or scanning beam treatment head, model a patient geometry based on computed tomography (CT) images, score dose, fluence, etc., save and restart a phase space, provides advanced graphics, and is fully four-dimensional (4D) to handle variations in beam delivery and patient geometry during treatment. A custom-designed TOPAS parameter control system was placed at the heart of the code to meet requirements for ease of use, reliability, and repeatability without sacrificing flexibility.We built and tested the TOPAS code. We have shown that the TOPAS parameter system provides easy yet flexible control over all key simulation areas such as geometry setup, particle source setup, scoring setup, etc. Through design consistency, we have insured that user experience gained in configuring one component, scorer or filter applies equally well to configuring any other component, scorer or filter. We have incorporated key lessons from safety management, proactively removing possible sources of user error such as line-ordering mistakes. We have modeled proton therapy treatment examples including the UCSF eye treatment head, the MGH stereotactic alignment in radiosurgery treatment head and the MGH gantry treatment heads in passive scattering and scanning modes, and we have demonstrated dose calculation based on patient-specific CT data. Initial validation results show agreement with measured data and demonstrate the capabilities of TOPAS in simulating beam delivery in 3D and 4D.We have demonstrated TOPAS accuracy and usability in a variety of proton therapy setups. As we are preparing to make this tool freely available for researchers in medical physics, we anticipate widespread use of this tool in the growing proton therapy community.

Project description:The ubiquitous use of mobile phones in sending and receiving text messages has become a norm for young people. Undeniably, text messaging has become a new and important communication medium not only in the social realm but in education as well. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using text messaging as a means to collect data for a medical research project.A cross sectional study was carried out during a double blind, randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of a probiotic in the management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The study aim was to assess the response rate of weekly symptom reports via Short Message Service (SMS). The subjects were undergraduates in a private medical university in Malaysia. They were identified through a previous university wide study as suffering from IBS based on Rome III criteria. The subjects were randomly assigned to either the treatment arm receiving a daily probiotic, or the placebo arm. They were required to score their symptoms using eight-item-questionnaires at baseline, and thereafter weekly, for a total of 8 weeks. All subjects were given the choice to communicate their symptom scores by text messaging via mobile phones or by email. SMS text messages were sent to remind trial subjects to attend face-to-face visits and to complete a paper based 34-item-questionnaires on IBS quality of life assessment at baseline and at end of 8 weeks.The response rate of weekly symptom scores via Short Message Service (SMS) from a total of 38 subjects was 100%. Through the study, 342 reports were submitted: 33.3% of these were received on the due date without reminder, 60.0% one day after the deadline, after a single reminder, 6.1% 2-3 days after the deadline, after 2-3 reminders and 0.6% 5 days after the deadline, after SMS, phone reminder and face-to-face encounter. All SMS symptom reports, whether on time or late, were complete. With the help of SMS reminder, all trial subjects completed the paper based IBS quality of life assessment at baseline and at end of study.This study found using text messaging via mobile phone an excellent instrument for collecting weekly symptom reports in response to trial medication, reminding trial subjects to attend face to face visits and completing more complex paper based evaluation. The 100% response rate of weekly symptom reports was facilitated by using simple number codes for SMS submission.Not appropriate.

Project description:BackgroundClinical research has frequently not been taught in a practical way, often resulting in a very didactic approach rendering it not very accessible for medical undergraduates. Simulation can provide an immersive, interactive, and reflective experience and may be applied to the clinical research curriculum.MethodsA 7-step model, modified from Kern's six-step approach and Khamis's stepwise model, was used to develop the curriculum. A questionnaire survey on undergraduates' attitude towards, knowledge and practice of clinical research and simulation education was conducted to generate a targeted needs assessment. The simulation framework was integrated into the development of educational strategies. Experts were consulted to assess the curriculum prior to implementation.ResultsTalent construction in China needs an innovative capability-enhanced clinical research curriculum. Sixty-six clinical undergraduates in our school completed the survey. 89.39% (59/66) of them hadn't participated in clinical research, while 93.94% (62/66) would like to conduct clinical trials if possible. 75.76% of respondents didn't have knowledge of or practical abilities in clinical trials. The mean score for practical ability (2.02 ± 0.92) was lower than that of knowledge (2.20 ± 0.93) (P < 0.01). The dimension of case report form got the lowest score among the five dimensions. Participating in clinical research (P = 0.04) and learning for themselves (P < 0.01) by a few students may have increased the total score. The curriculum was designed to simulate the whole process from protocol writing, registration, ethical approval, implementation, and data analysis to reporting based on one case study, and was divided into two parts to simulate different types of research: randomized controlled trials and observational studies. It was conducted in semesters 5 and 7 respectively, both including 16 sessions. After expert consultation, one session having a 29.01% coefficient of variation was adjusted and replaced. The final simulation class design scenario scripts are provided for reference.ConclusionsThe targeted needs assessment exposed medical undergraduates' poor knowledge of and abilities in clinical research. This is the first report of a simulation-based clinical research curriculum developed in China, and adds curriculum development and design details to the limited related published studies.

Project description:BackgroundThe rise of the internet and social media has boosted online crowdfunding as a novel strategy to raise funds for kick-starting projects, but it is rarely used in science.ObjectiveWe report on an online crowdfunding campaign launched in the context of the neuroscience project HORAO. The aim of HORAO was to develop a noninvasive real-time method to visualize neuronal fiber tracts during brain surgery in order to better delineate tumors and to identify crucial cerebral landmarks. The revenue from the crowdfunding campaign was to be used to sponsor a crowdsourcing campaign for the HORAO project.MethodsWe ran a 7-week reward-based crowdfunding campaign on a national crowdfunding platform, offering optional material and experiential rewards in return for a contribution toward raising our target of Swiss francs (CHF) 50,000 in financial support (roughly equivalent to US $50,000 at the time of the campaign). We used various owned media (websites and social media), as well as earned media (press releases and news articles) to raise awareness about our project.ResultsThe production of an explanatory video took 60 hours, and 31 posts were published on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). The campaign raised a total of CHF 69,109. Approximately half of all donations came from donors who forwent a reward (CHF 28,786, 48.74%); the other half came from donors who chose experiential and material rewards in similar proportions (CHF 14,958, 25.33% and CHF 15,315.69, 25.93%, respectively). Of those with an identifiable relationship to the crowdfunding team, patients and their relatives contributed the largest sum (CHF 17,820, 30.17%), followed by friends and family (CHF 9288, 15.73%) and work colleagues (CHF 6028, 10.21%), while 43.89% of funds came from donors who were either anonymous or had an unknown relationship to the crowdfunding team. Patients and their relatives made the largest donations, with a median value of CHF 200 (IQR 90).ConclusionsCrowdfunding proved to be a successful strategy to fund a neuroscience project and to raise awareness of a specific clinical problem. Focusing on potential donors with a personal interest in the issue, such as patients and their relatives in our project, is likely to increase funding success. Compared with traditional grant applications, new skills are needed to explain medical challenges to the crowd through video messages and social media.

Dataset Information

The Doktaborse - an innovative online platform for research projects at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich.

Publications

The Doktabörse - an innovative online platform for research projects at the medical faculty of the LMU Munich.

Similar Datasets

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