A multicenter study of the awareness and attitudes of Egyptian faculty towards research ethics: a pilot study

The awareness and attitudes of faculty towards research ethics committees (RECs) and research ethics practices are largely unknown. Accordingly, we conducted a cross-sectional survey study involving various faculties (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dentistry) from four universities in Egypt. A large majority (> 85%) held positive attitudes towards RECs, but almost a third thought that RECs would delay research. More than half had not received prior training in research or medical ethics, but more than 90% thought that this subject matter should be taught to postgraduates. A large majority recognized the need for informed consent and confidentiality protections in research, but some held attitudes regarding certain research ethics practices that were questionable. We conclude that a curriculum in research ethics should be developed for university faculty and that further qualitative studies should explore the basis of several of the attitudes regarding practices in research ethics.     

Limitations on diversity in basic science departments

It has been over 30 years since the beginning of efforts to improve diversity in academia. We can identify four major stages: (1) early and continuing efforts to diversify the pipeline by increasing numbers of women and minorities getting advanced degrees, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); (2) requiring academic institutions to develop their own "affirmative action plans" for hiring and promotion; (3) introducing mentoring programs and coping strategies to help women and minorities deal with faculty practices from an earlier era; (4) asking academic institutions to rethink their practices and policies with an eye toward enabling more faculty diversity, a process known as institutional transformation. The thesis of this article is that research-intensive basic science departments of highly ranked U.S. medical schools are stuck at stage 3, resulting in a less diverse tenured and tenure-track faculty than seen in well-funded science departments of major universities. A review of Web-based records of research-intensive departments in universities with both medical school and nonmedical school departments indicates that the proportion of women and Black faculty in science departments of medical schools is lower than the proportion in similarly research-intensive university science departments. Expectations for faculty productivity in research-intensive medical school departments versus university-based departments may lead to these differences in faculty diversity.     

Faculty development in Canadian medical schools: a 10-year update

OBJECTIVE: To compare the current status of faculty development practices in Canadian medical schools with the status of such practices in 1986. DESIGN: Mail survey. SETTING: All 16 Canadian medical schools. PARTICIPANTS: Faculty development coordinators at the medical schools. OUTCOME MEASURES: Existence of faculty development committees, funding for faculty development activities, types of activities and recognition of faculty participation in such activities. RESULTS: Completed responses were received from all schools. They indicated a significant, positive evolution in faculty development since the previous survey, conducted in 1986. Most schools have established a faculty development committee and provide funds for such activities as workshops, sabbatical leaves and conference attendance. Although traditional development practices are prevalent, there is now widespread emphasis on computer technology, information retrieval, management skills and research. Experienced faculty and other experts are more widely used for consultation on teaching. Very little has been done to evaluate the impact of faculty development. CONCLUSION: Faculty development in Canadian medical schools has undergone a major, positive transition during the last 10 years.     

The Need for Continuing Medical Education

Continuing medical education is an essential feature of the practice of modern medicine since it furnishes the means to maintain the doctor''s ability to provide quality patient care.To ensure that continuing medical education is provided efficiently and in the best quality, and utilized fully, it is necessary that: (1) the medical faculty inculcate in the student the concept of lifelong learning; (2) the practitioner adopt less time-consuming patterns of practice, to free more of his time for learning; (3) community hospital-based clinical teaching be provided universally; and (4) research be conducted to determine the best of current teaching methods and develop better ones. Conflicting efforts to meet these needs by practitioners (whose primary responsibility it is) and by organized medicine, specialty societies, voluntary health agencies and others have led to inefficient use of medical faculty teachers. The key parties in continuing medical education—practitioner and teacher—can learn best in medical school-administered programs, which need be supported by all other interested organizations.     

Careers in Virology: Teaching at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution

A faculty position at a primarily undergraduate institution requires working with undergraduates in both the classroom and the research lab. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in such a career should understand that faculty at these institutions need to teach broadly and devise research questions that can be addressed safely and with limited resources compared to a research I university. Aspects of, and ways to prepare for, this career will be reviewed herein.     

Do faculty in Southern Indian medical colleges support animal use in postgraduate education more than in undergraduate education?

In India, animal experiments play an integral role in both undergraduate medical education (UGME) and postgraduate medical education (PGME) in the discipline of Pharmacology. Therefore, we aimed to compare the perceptions of pharmacology faculty members in southern India with regard to the use of animal experiments and alternatives in UGME and in PGME. We also determined the association between these perceptions and the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Pharmacology faculty members in 15 medical colleges located in southern India answered a 27-statement, 5-domain questionnaire with a total score of 108. The means of the total, domain and statement scores were analysed by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The mean total score obtained for faculty members (n = 52) was significantly higher (p < 0.001) for PGME (61.2/108) than that for UGME (51.9/108). Significant differences were observed in the mean total and in the domain scores for PGME when compared to UGME in all of the socio-demographic groups, except for male faculty members and those without an MD or doctoral degree. The mean individual statement scores also indicated that there is more support for animal use in PGME. Overall, it was apparent that pharmacology faculty members in southern Indian medical colleges support animal use in PGME more than in UGME. Increased awareness is required among faculty members concerning alternatives to animal experiments in medical education, especially in PGME.     

Implementing academic detailing for breast cancer screening in underserved communities

Background

Canadian funding agencies are no longer content to support research that solely advances scientific knowledge, and key directives are now in place to promote research transfer to policy- and decision-makers. Therefore, it is necessary to improve our understanding of how researchers are trained and supported to facilitate knowledge translation activities. In this study, we investigated differences in health researcher characteristics and knowledge translation activities.

Methods

Our sample consisted of 240 health researchers from three Alberta universities. Respondents were classified by research domain [basic (n = 72) or applied (n = 168)] and faculty [medical school (n = 128) or other health science (n = 112)]. We examined our findings using Mode I and Mode II archetypes of knowledge production, which allowed us to consider the scholarly and social contexts of knowledge production and translation.

Results

Differences among health researcher professional characteristics were not statistically significant. There was a significant gender difference in the applied researcher faculty group, which was predominantly female (p <.05). Research domain was linked to translation activities. Applied researchers reported engaging in significantly more Mode II activities than basic researchers (p <.001), and scored higher than basic researchers regarding the perceived importance of translation activities (Mode I, p =.01; Mode II, p <.001). Main effects of faculty were limited to engaged dissemination (medical school < other faculties; p =.025) and number of publications (medical school > other faculties; p =.004). There was an interaction effect for research domain and faculty group for number of publications (p =.01), in that applied researchers in medical faculties published more than their peers in other faculty groups.

Conclusion

Our findings illustrate important differences between health researchers and provide beginning insights into their professional characteristics and engagement in Mode I and Mode II activities. A future study designed to examine these dimensions in greater detail, including potential covariates across more varied institutions, would yield richer insights and enable an examination of relative influences, needs and costs of each mode of activity.     

Promoting collaborations between biomedical scholars in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa

The premise of this piece is that a priority of international health should be to increase the number of investigators in the US and other developed countries who engage in research and other kinds of scholarly work in underdeveloped parts of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa where the overall disease burden is the highest and the gap in biomedical research infrastructure is the widest. The author's aim is to encourage medical students, resident doctors, and medical school faculty to devote a part of their career to teach, acquire clinical skills, or participate in research with health professionals at teaching hospitals in Africa. After briefly describing the thinking that led the author to Nigeria 30 years ago to teach and study biochemical aspects of health problems in rural and urban areas, he discusses some of the factors one needs to consider before entering into an international partnership, including identifying the right foreign collaborators, selecting a suitable research site, setting realistic goals, learning the local culture and indigenous language, and defining a theme for your program. Lastly, the piece points out potential pitfalls and problems that are often overlooked or underestimated in the early phases of planning an international partnership, including lukewarm institutional support at home, inflexible institutional review boards, dominance of the program by the US partner, maintaining continuity, and striking the right balance between scholarly work and humanitarian efforts. My hope is that US students and faculty in the health professions who read this piece will be stimulated and encouraged to consider how they might integrate into their curriculum or academic life visits lasting several months or more each year during which they would teach or train others or engage in research at a teaching hospital in some country in Africa.     

Research in general practice. Sources of advice.

Regional advisers, faculty secretaries of the Royal College of General Practitioners, heads of academic departments of general practice and primary care, and heads of RCGP research units were invited to complete a semistructured questionnaire to determine the nature and availability of current sources of advice for general practitioners participating in research activities and the demands placed on the available sources in the United Kingdom. The principal source for research advice was university departments of general practice, yet these have insufficient resources to cope with requests and few have spare capacity to stimulate research. Regional advisers and faculty secretaries do not seem to be kindling a spirit of inquiry and they seem somewhat complacent about both the lack of requests for research advice from general practitioners and the difficulties of academic departments. Proper development of research capability in general practice and primary care is unlikely to occur without more resources to create training posts in academic departments and a greater spirit of inquiry in vocational training programmes, which should lead to both review (audit) and research.     

Career development of McMaster University medical graduates and its implications for Canadian medical manpower.

A study was undertaken of the career paths and decisions, and the factors influencing the decisions, of the first six graduating classes of McMaster University''s medical school. Climate and geography, preference for urban or rural living and influence of spouse were the factors that most influenced the location of practice, although the graduates who moved to the United States considered economic factors important too. Nearly one third of the specialists were practising in the United States. Personal challenge and positive clinical experience in the field were the major influences on choice of medical field. Graduates entering a specialty were more likely than those entering primary care to consider encouragement of others, a positive example set by medical school faculty members, working hours and research experience in the field as important influences on their choice of medical field. Data are needed on the career decisions, and the factors affecting them, of the graduates of all Canadian medical schools if Canadian medical manpower planning is to be realistic.     

UNDERGRADUATE PSYCHIATRIC EDUCATION—Senior Medical Students Study Patients with the Clinical Team

A course in psychiatry for senior medical students, designed to give all members of the class some direct experience, particularly in therapeutic interviewing as well as in total psychiatric study of patients by the clinically integrated work of medical specialists, psychiatric social workers, and clinical psychologists in collaboration with psychotherapeutically trained and experienced psychiatrists is conducted in the following manner: A third of the class, about 25 students, is divided into four sections of six or seven members, and each section attends five hours one forenoon a week for approximately three months. Each student, after an initial demonstration interview by the instructor, sees weekly the same two clinic patients alone, for 45-minute individual interviews, followed by a one and a half hour supervisory session. After this a 50-minute seminar or treatment review conference is followed by a similar period for writing records of interviews and summaries of the therapeutic work. Of four seminars, two are conducted by the psychiatric faculty, and one each by the social worker and the psychologist. Each student reads a written summary of all his interviews with one patient for discussion by his colleagues in the section and by the faculty from all three disciplines.     

Effects of assessing the productivity of faculty in academic medical centres: a systematic review

Background:

Many academic medical centres have introduced strategies to assess the productivity of faculty as part of compensation schemes. We conducted a systematic review of the effects of such strategies on faculty productivity.

Methods:

We searched the MEDLINE, Healthstar, Embase and PsycInfo databases from their date of inception up to October 2011. We included studies that assessed academic productivity in clinical, research, teaching and administrative activities, as well as compensation, promotion processes and satisfaction.

Results:

Of 531 full-text articles assessed for eligibility, we included 9 articles reporting on eight studies. The introduction of strategies for assessing academic productivity as part of compensation schemes resulted in increases in clinical productivity (in six of six studies) in terms of clinical revenue, the work component of relative-value units (these units are nonmonetary standard units of measure used to indicate the value of services provided), patient satisfaction and other departmentally used standards. Increases in research productivity were noted (in five of six studies) in terms of funding and publications. There was no change in teaching productivity (in two of five studies) in terms of educational output. Such strategies also resulted in increases in compensation at both individual and group levels (in three studies), with two studies reporting a change in distribution of compensation in favour of junior faculty. None of the studies assessed effects on administrative productivity or promotion processes. The overall quality of evidence was low.

Interpretation:

Strategies introduced to assess productivity as part of a compensation scheme appeared to improve productivity in research activities and possibly improved clinical productivity, but they had no effect in the area of teaching. Compensation increased at both group and individual levels, particularly among junior faculty. Higher quality evidence about the benefits and harms of such assessment strategies is needed.Academic productivity can be defined as a measurable output of a faculty member related to clinical, research, education or administrative activities. Achieving the best possible academic productivity is essential for academic medical centres to maintain or nurture recognition and good reputation.¹ Furthermore, clinical productivity is essential for the survival of academic departments given the economic realities in medicine.²Strategies for productivity assessment help in identifying highly productive faculty, determining areas for faculty and departmental improvement,³ and implementing processes for promotion and tenure.⁴ When coupled with reward schemes, these strategies may improve productivity and compensation at both individual and departmental levels. In the long-term, they may enhance the ability to recruit and retain high-quality faculty and achieve the academic mission of the department. However, these strategies may have some unintended effects such as using time dedicated to education to do more clinical work.³ In addition, they may be challenging to implement.³We conducted a systematic review of the effects of strategies introduced in academic medical centres to assess faculty productivity, compensation, promotion processes and satisfaction.     

New tools for systematic evaluation of teaching qualities of medical faculty: results of an ongoing multi-center survey

Background

Tools for the evaluation, improvement and promotion of the teaching excellence of faculty remain elusive in residency settings. This study investigates (i) the reliability and validity of the data yielded by using two new instruments for evaluating the teaching qualities of medical faculty, (ii) the instruments'' potential for differentiating between faculty, and (iii) the number of residents'' evaluations needed per faculty to reliably use the instruments.

Methods and Materials

Multicenter cross-sectional survey among 546 residents and 629 medical faculty representing 29 medical (non-surgical) specialty training programs in the Netherlands. Two instruments—one completed by residents and one by faculty—for measuring teaching qualities of faculty were developed. Statistical analyses included factor analysis, reliability and validity exploration using standard psychometric methods, calculation of the numbers of residents'' evaluations needed per faculty to achieve reliable assessments and variance components and threshold analyses.

Results

A total of 403 (73.8%) residents completed 3575 evaluations of 570 medical faculty while 494 (78.5%) faculty self-evaluated. In both instruments five composite-scales of faculty teaching qualities were detected with high internal consistency and reliability: learning climate (Cronbach''s alpha of 0.85 for residents'' instrument, 0.71 for self-evaluation instrument, professional attitude and behavior (0.84/0.75), communication of goals (0.90/0.84), evaluation of residents (0.91/0.81), and feedback (0.91/0.85). Faculty tended to evaluate themselves higher than did the residents. Up to a third of the total variance in various teaching qualities can be attributed to between-faculty differences. Some seven residents'' evaluations per faculty are needed for assessments to attain a reliability level of 0.90.

Conclusions

The instruments for evaluating teaching qualities of medical faculty appear to yield reliable and valid data. They are feasible for use in medical residencies, can detect between-faculty differences and supply potentially useful information for improving graduate medical education.     

A review of play in the genusMacaca: Social correlates

A review of the literature on macaque play, emphasizing the social correlates of such behavior, is presented and summarized. In general, males are more playful than females, adults are relatively nonplayful, and nurturant behavior is negatively correlated with play. However, the currently inadequate definitions, conceptualizations, and experimental treatments of play make generalizations tentative. Supported in part by faculty research grant D-552, University of California, Davis, and by RR00169 to the California Primate Research Center.     

Are online student evaluations of faculty influenced by the timing of evaluations?

Student evaluations of faculty are important components of the medical curriculum and faculty development. To improve the effectiveness and timeliness of student evaluations of faculty in the physiology course, we investigated whether evaluations submitted during the course differed from those submitted after completion of the course. A secure web-based system was developed to collect student evaluations that included numerical rankings (1-5) of faculty performance and a section for comments. The grades that students received in the course were added to the data, which were sorted according to the time of submission of the evaluations and analyzed by Pearson's correlation and Student's t-test. Only 26% of students elected to submit evaluations before completion of the course, and the average faculty ratings of these evaluations were highly correlated [r(14) = 0.91] with the evaluations submitted after completion of the course. Faculty evaluations were also significantly correlated with the previous year [r(14) = 0.88]. Concurrent evaluators provided more comments that were statistically longer and subjectively scored as more "substantive." Students who submitted their evaluations during the course and who included comments had significantly higher final grades in the course. In conclusion, the numeric ratings that faculty received were not influenced by the timing of student evaluations. However, students who submitted early evaluations tended to be more engaged as evidenced by their more substantive comments and their better performance on exams. The consistency of faculty evaluations from year to year and concurrent versus at the end of the course suggest that faculty tend not to make significant adjustments to student evaluations.     

Willingness to spare animals in undergraduate medical education in Southern India: a preliminary questionnaire-based investigation

Animal experiments continue to play an integral role in Indian undergraduate medical education, even though alternatives are becoming increasingly available. In this context, this study aimed to assess the perceptions of pharmacology faculty members from medical colleges in southern India regarding the use of animals and alternatives in experimental pharmacology, and to determine the association between these perceptions and the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Data were collected from 59 faculty members of 15 medical colleges in southern India. The response rate was 84.3%. A 30-statement, five-domain questionnaire was used, with a global score of 120. The mean ± SD global score was 60.9 ± 17.3. Significant differences were observed in domain scores and individual statement scores with respect to the extent of teaching experience. There were no statistically significant differences in perceptions with respect to age, gender or educational qualifications. All the participating colleges were conducting at least 3-8 animal experiments per year on the rabbit, rat, mouse and frog/toad. The pharmacology faculty members in the southern India medical colleges included in the study (especially the more experienced teachers) supported animal use in undergraduate medical education, in spite of being aware of the drawbacks of animal experiments and the availability of alternatives.     

Creating a surgery clerkship in a changing environment: reality, simulation, and the rules of engagement

This review describes the current challenges associated with creating a successful surgical clerkship and the ways in which teacher-focused and curriculum-focused initiatives can address these challenges. The challenges are both systemic (reflected by changes in our health care system and training programs) and institutional (reflected by factors that affect curriculum design and faculty advancement). Particular attention is paid to residents as teachers, faculty as mentors, the educational impact of the operating room, and the role of simulation. Strategies for engaging students, residents, and faculty are explored. The premise and impact of a comprehensive simulation course on the clinical education of medical students is detailed. Emphasis is placed on the educational validity of accountability and engagement of both the teachers and the learners.     

Graphical aid for determining power of clinical trials involving two groups.

Physicians need to evaluate clinical research critically, and determining the power of a study is an essential component of research evaluation. This report presents a graphical aid that permits rapid power determination for clinical trials with two groups. Power curves were developed for dichotomous outcomes by setting two tail alpha at 0.05 and varying the sample size, the control group response rate, and the clinically important difference between control and experimental groups as defined by the user. Use of the graphical aid was demonstrated to a group of 18 medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty in a 15 minute session. Evaluation of the trainees'' application of the aid showed a small average bias of -0.0003 and an average variance of 0.006. Ninety percent of power estimates were within 0.05 of the true value determined by formula. This graphical aid is recommended as a rapid and accurate method for determining power in the critical appraisal of clinical research.     

Treatment of specific macrovascular beds in patients with diabetes mellitus

Background

A ubiquitous dilemma in medical education continues to be whether and how to integrate research competencies into the predoctoral curriculum. Understanding research concepts is imbedded in the six core competencies for physicians, but predoctoral medical education typically does not explicitly include research education. In an effort to quickly report academic research findings to the field, this is the second in a series of articles reporting the outcomes of a research education initiative at one college of osteopathic medicine. The first article described the competency model and reported baseline performance in applied understanding of targeted research concepts. This second article reports on the learning outcomes from the inaugural year of a course in basic biomedical research concepts.

Methods

This course consisted of 24 total hours of classroom lectures augmented with web-based materials using Blackboard Vista, faculty moderated student presentations of research articles, and quizzes. To measure changes in applied understanding of targeted research concepts in the inaugural year of the course, we administered a pretest and a posttest to second year students who took the course and to first year students who took an informatics course in the same academic year.

Results

We analyzed 154 matched pretests and posttests representing 56% of the 273 first and second year students. On average, the first year (53) and second year students (101) did not differ in their mean pretest scores. At posttest the second year students showed significant improvement in their applied understanding of the concepts, whereas the first year students' mean posttest score was lower than their mean pretest score.

Conclusions

This biomedical research course appears to have increased the second year students' applied understanding of the targeted biomedical research concepts. This assessment of learning outcomes has facilitated the quality improvement process for the course, and improved our understanding of how to measure the benefits of research education for medical students. Some of the course content and methods, and the outcome measures may need to be approached differently in the future to more effectively lay the foundation for osteopathic medical students to utilize these concepts in the clinical setting.     

Organizing core facilities as force multipliers: strategies for research universities

Force multipliers are attributes of an organization that enable the successful completion of multiple essential missions. Core facilities play a critical role in the research enterprise and can be organized as force multipliers. Conceiving of cores in this way influences their organization, funding, and research impact. To function as a force multiplier for the research enterprise, core facilities need to do more than efficiently provide services for investigators and generate revenue to recover their service costs: they must be aligned with the strategic objectives of a research university. When core facilities are organized in this way, they can facilitate recruitment of faculty and trainees; serve to retain talented faculty; drive, acquire, and maintain cutting-edge research platforms; and promote interaction and collaboration across the institution. Most importantly, cores accelerate the discovery and sharing of knowledge that are the foundation of a modern research university. This idea has been systematically implemented through the Emory Integrated Core Facilities (cores.emory.edu), which include 16 distinct core facilities and the Division of Animal Resources. Force multiplier core facilities can significantly contribute to the many essential missions necessary for the success of the research enterprise at research universities.