Twelve tips for implementing a community of practice for faculty development

Abstract

Teaching and learning practices often fail to incorporate new concepts in the ever-evolving field of medical education. Although medical education research provides new insights into curricular development, learners’ engagement, assessment methods, professional development, interprofessional education, and so forth, faculty members often struggle to modernize their teaching practices. Communities of practice (CoP) for faculty development offer an effective and sustainable approach for knowledge management and implementation of best practices. A successful CoP creates and shares knowledge in the context of a specific practice toward the development of expertise. CoPs’ collaborative nature, based on the co-creation of practical solutions to daily problems, aligns well with the goals of applying best practices in health professions education and training new faculty members. In our article, we share 12 tips for implementing a community of practice for faculty development. The tips were based on a comprehensive literature review and the authors’ experiences.     

Reconstruction for axillary hidradenitis suppurativa using one‐stage local tissue rearrangement: A retrospective analysis of 53 cases

Wide local excision offers a potential cure for severe axillary hidradenitis suppurativa. However, the gold standard for reconstruction has yet to be defined. Here, we describe our rotation advancement flap technique, which allows for one‐stage closure of large axillary defects, with minimal functional morbidity to the axilla. We performed a retrospective review of all patients who underwent one‐stage surgical management for axillary hidradenitis suppurativa at a single‐centre tertiary care hospital from 2009 to 2018. We identified 34 patients, with a total of 53 operative sites. The majority were female (85%) with a mean age of 31 years and body mass index 35 kg/m². The median defect size was 84 cm² and the majority were treated using the rotation advancement flap technique (86%). A quarter of operative sites experienced minor complications with only one requiring re‐operation. At a median follow‐up of 32 months, two (4%) sites showed decreased range of motion. However, all patients had achieved remission without any further recurrence of disease. We describe a one‐stage rotation advancement flap technique for management of moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa that achieves a high local cure rate, minimal functional morbidity, and acceptable wound complication rates.     

Folliculotropic mycosis fungoides in a pediatric patient mimicking black dot tinea capitis

Immunosuppression following organ transplantation is a known risk factor for the development of lymphoproliferative disorders. Mycosis fungoides, a rare entity in pediatric patients, has seldom been reported as a post‐transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. We report a case of folliculotropic mycosis fungoides in a pediatric patient following liver transplantation that was initially diagnosed as tinea capitis.     

Human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) levels inversely correlate with lung function improvement (delta FEV1) in cystic fibrosis patients receiving ivacaftor treatment

Background

We have recently shown that human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) levels correlate with the severity of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. However, there are no data on how HE4 levels alter in patients receiving CFTR modulating therapy.