Free open access medical education

Asynchronous learning continues to gain popularity in medical education. One medium to facilitate asynchronous learning is the podcast. Currently, there are a limited number of hematology/oncology (H/O) podcasts geared towards residents and fellows ("trainees"). To address this need, we created a series of podcasts covering fundamental H/O topics for H/O fellows and internal medicine residents rotating on H/O services. We evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in this pilot study. Between September 2022 and February 2023, residents received recommended episodes via email prior to their rotation...

BACKGROUND: Ciswomen constitute a disproportionately low percentage of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention (PrEP) users compared to men. Despite PrEP's effectiveness, women are 5.25 times less likely to take PrEP than men. Identifying women who have increased reasons for HIV prevention and educating and offering PrEP to these women is crucial to reducing HIV transmission and overall health equity. However, the best method of identifying women at highest risk of acquiring HIV remains unknown...

The Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) Series was created in 2014 to address the Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM) movement's decentralized nature and lack of inherent peer review. The AIR series provides a topic-based, curated list of online educational content vetted by academic emergency medicine (EM) faculty that meets individualized interactive instruction criteria for EM trainees. Relevant FOAM resources were identified from the top 50 FOAM websites using the Social Media Index and then scored by EM faculty using a validated instrument to identify the highest quality posts related to a topic...

BACKGROUND: Mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit pose a significant public health threat worldwide, causing more fatalities than any other animal. To effectively combat this issue, there is a need for increased public awareness and mosquito control. However, traditional surveillance programs are time-consuming, expensive, and lack scalability. Fortunately, the widespread availability of mobile devices with high-resolution cameras presents a unique opportunity for mosquito surveillance...

Magnetic resonance image formation is not trivial and remains a difficult subject for teaching. Therefore, we saw an urgent need to facilitate teaching by developing a practical and easily accessible MR image generator. Due to the increasing interest in X-nuclei MRI, sodium image generation is also offered. The tool is implemented as a web application that is compatible with all standard desktop browsers and is open source. The user interface focuses on the parameters needed for the creation and display of the resulting images...

BACKGROUND: HIV self-testing (HIVST) offers potential solutions to challenges associated with site-based HIV testing (SBHT). However, the effectiveness of HIVST as an HIV prevention strategy for men who have sex with men (MSM) discontinuing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) after the completion of PrEP demonstration project has rarely been assessed. METHODS: The China Real-world Study of Oral PrEP (CROPrEP) project was conducted in four cities in China. Participants were directed to community resources to continue their PrEP medication after the discontinuation of project-provided PrEP at the last CROPrEP visit...

BACKGROUND: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people face many obstacles in accessing health care, including discrimination, institutional bias, and clinician knowledge deficits. We developed a clinical skills and education module on gender-affirming care for pre-clinical medical students, in collaboration with a TGD-led civil society organisation. The module consisted of an educational session followed by preceptor-facilitated small group tutorials, led by TGD patient-educators (n = 22) who used their lived experience to explore medical history-taking and broader issues related to TGD healthcare with students (n = 199)...

INTRODUCTION: Open-source generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications are fast-transforming access to information and allow students to prepare assignments and offer quite accurate responses to a wide range of exam questions which are routinely used in assessments of students across the board including undergraduate dental students. This study aims to evaluate the performance of Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), a generative AI-based application, on a wide range of assessments used in contemporary healthcare education and discusses the implications for undergraduate dental education...

To improve medication education for patients with hearing loss, pharmacists must better understand hearing loss and provide and collect medication information based on patients' health literacy and communication abilities. However, no systematic educational e-learning systems for hearing loss are currently available. Therefore, an e-learning system based on instructional design, microlearning principles, and multimedia teaching materials was developed. The e-learning system used Moodle, an open-source e-learning system, and included two courses: one for self-directed learning by watching videos and answering quizzes, and another for evaluating medication education after learning...

The University of South Florida (USF)'s IDPodcasts features hundreds of comprehensive infectious diseases (ID)--related lectures freely accessible for medical learners and educators at all levels. Content is free and is shared via its flagship website, YouTube channel, podcast series, and an all-new IOS app. Updated app features improve in-app navigation, content accessibility, and overall user friendliness.

AIM: To analyze the effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI) compared to traditional health education among mothers in improving children's oral health and behavioral changes. REVIEW METHODS: The search strategy was framed using relevant MeSH terms and free text terms in PubMed, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar for the articles published in the English language between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2020...

OBJECTIVE: Synthea is a synthetic patient generator that creates synthetic medical records, including medication profiles. Prior to our work, Synthea produced unrealistic medication data that did not accurately reflect prescribing patterns. This project aimed to create an open-source synthetic medication database that could integrate with Synthea to create realistic patient medication profiles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Medication Diversification Tool (MDT) created from this study combines publicly available prescription data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and standard medication terminology/classifications from RxNorm/RxClass to produce machine-readable information about medication use in the United States...

INTRODUCTION: The free open access medical education (#FOAMed, or FOAM) movement creates educational content intended to inform medical education and clinical practice and is distributed in an unrestricted fashion (e.g., open access website). The who, what, and in particular the how of FOAM has raised important questions about the sustainability of the movement. METHODS: We recruited a diverse research team that included educational researchers, FOAM contributors, a business academician, and medical trainees to design and conduct a qualitative study exploring the work of FOAM creators...

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the adoption of virtual learning in medical education, including departmental grand rounds lectures in radiology. This retrospective study sought to assess the impact of an open access virtual grand rounds program. We tested the hypothesis that virtual grand rounds would advance learning equity by increasing access to learners outside of our institution. METHODS: Twenty-two open access virtual grand rounds lectures were presented and recorded using an online videoconferencing platform...

PURPOSE: The proportion of cancer patients who participate in clinical trials (CTs) remains low, despite an understanding of barriers to enrollment. The barrier of rural residence is relevant to Veterans, who more commonly live in rural areas than non-Veterans. In this exploratory study, we aimed to examine geographic factors that could impede CT enrollment and to improve access to CTs for Veterans. METHODS: To assess the influence of rurality on the availability of CTs, we performed simulated searches using The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Clinical Trial Support Center (LLS CTSC) database...

Anxiety levels in medical students have been reported as higher than the aged-matched general population, yet medical students are less likely to seek care for mental health issues. Medical students carry high levels of self-stigma about their own mental health and fear the negative consequences of seeking care. The purpose of this study was to examine the student population at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (UofSC SOMG) for anxiety levels and determine the self-stigma attitudes this population carries...

BACKGROUND: It is not known how learners feel about free open access medical education (FOAMed) as they progress through their training from medical school to fellowship. Love and breakup letter methodology (LBM), a technique that has been used extensively in user experience technology-based research, but has not previously been utilized in evaluating medical education tools. LBM asks participants to creatively write a "love" or "breakup" letter to a product under study to capture their thoughts and emotions when engaging with it...

A survey with 100 multiple choice and open-ended questions was proposed by free access to working dogs' handlers. One hundred and nine respondents were recorded and their dates processed. The most represented breeds were: Belgian Malinois, Labrador, Border Collie and German Shepherds. Of these, 71.6% were intact dogs and 28.4% were spayed or neutered, with a median age range of 3-4 years. Furthermore, 55.5% had undergone early radiographic examinations for hip or elbow dysplasia diagnosis. The dogs performed the following activities: search and rescue on surface (59%), search and rescue on rubble (37%), Internationale Gebrauchshund Pruefung (IGP) (9%), man trailing (5%), sled dog (5%), search on avalanche (4%), dog towing (3%), canine shows (3%), hunting (2%), water rescue (1%), pet therapy (1%), wildlife conservation dog (1%), Mondioring (1%)...

Homeless cats are a major problem in Europe, with hundreds of thousands abandoned every year. While many die, others can adapt to a lifestyle of roaming freely and establish community cat populations that tend to cluster together in groups. These groups of cats are typically found in urban areas that offer food and shelter to the cats. Animal welfare organizations often care for these cats, providing them with food, shelter, and medical attention. Despite this, conflicts can arise due to the presence of free-roaming cats, with some individuals advocating for drastic measures such as trapping and killing the cats to reduce their populations...

OBJECTIVE: This scoping review identifies evidence for design, models and evaluation of integrated care service provision for families and children in the first 2000 days, in the context of community-based specialised health, education and welfare services. DESIGN: Scoping review following the Joanna Briggs scoping review method. DATA SOURCES: Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane and PsycINFO. Grey literature used a manual search of original articles, and snowball technique to identify government and policy documents relevant to Australia...