Academic Performance on First-Year Medical School Exams: How Well Does It Predict Later Performance on Knowledge-Based and Clinical Assessments?

Number of appearances in the bottom quartile of 1st-year medical school exams were used to represent the extent to which students were having academic difficulties. Medical educators have long expressed a desire to have indicators of medical student performance that have strong predictive validity. Predictors traditionally used fell into 4 general categories: demographic (e.g., gender), other background factors (e.g., college major), performance/aptitude (e.g., medical college admission test scores), and noncognitive factors (e.g., curiosity). These factors, however, have an inconsistent record of predicting student performance. In comparison to traditional predictive factors, we sought to determine the extent to which academic performance in the 1st-year of medical school, as measured by examination performance in the bottom quartile of the class in 7 required courses, predicted later performance on a variety of assessments, both knowledge based (e.g., United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 and Step IICK) and clinical skills based (e.g., clerkship grades and objective structured clinical exam performance). Of all predictors measured, number of appearances in the bottom quartile in Year 1 was the most strongly related to performance in knowledge-based assessments, as well as clinically related outcomes, and, for each outcome, bottom-quartile performance accounted for additional variance beyond that of the traditional predictors. Low academic performance in the 1st year of medical school is a meaningful risk factor with both predictive validity and predictive utility for low performance later in medical school. The question remains as to how we can incorporate this indicator into a system of formative assessment that effectively addresses the challenges of medical students once they have been identified.     

Walks4work: Rationale and study design to investigate walking at lunchtime in the workplace setting

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Following recruitment of a private sector company, an 8 week lunchtime walking intervention was implemented to examine the effect of the intervention on modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors, and further to see if walking environment had any further effect on the cardiovascular disease risk factors. METHODS: For phase 1 of the study participants were divided into three groups, two lunchtime walking intervention groups to walk around either an urban or natural environment twice a week during their lunch break over an 8 week period. The third group was a waiting-list control who would be invited to join the walking groups after phase 1. In phase 2 all participants were encouraged to walk during their lunch break on self-selecting routes. Health checks were completed at baseline, end of phase 1 and end of phase 2 in order to measure the impact of the intervention on cardiovascular disease risk. The primary outcome variables of heart rate and heart rate variability were measured to assess autonomic function associated with cardiovascular disease. Secondary outcome variables (Body mass index, blood pressure, fitness, autonomic response to a stressor) related to cardiovascular disease were also measured. The efficacy of the intervention in increasing physical activity was objectively monitored throughout the 8-weeks using an accelerometer device. DISCUSSION: The results of this study will help in developing interventions with low researcher input with high participant output that may be implemented in the workplace. If effective, this study will highlight the contribution that natural environments can make in the reduction of modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors within the workplace.     

Verification of scale sub-domains in elderly patients with dementia: a confirmatory factor-analytic approach.

OBJECTIVE: Use of cognitive, psychiatric and behavioral domains to assess the effectiveness of a pharmacological or behavioral intervention in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., Alzheimer disease) aids the identification of specific types of impairment or distress in behavioral status and quality-of-life issues in this population. With confirmatory approaches to subscale development readily available, we can obtain a more precise understanding of the sub-components of a scale, potentially providing the basis for selecting behavioral and/or quality-of-life outcome measures that may be more sensitive to the effects of pharmacological or behavioral interventions. METHODS: The authors illustrate the use of a confirmatory factor-analytic approach to verify scale sub-domains of the Neurobehavioral Rating Scale (NBRS) in elderly patients with dementia. With data collected from two groups of patients being treated for significant psychiatric and behavioral symptoms, authors investigated the relationships among scale items in order to test several competing models, including a general one-factor model, a first-order multifactor model, and a second-order factor model. RESULTS: The first-order model, with seven factors, provided the best fit to the correlations among items in the NBRS, indicating the multidimensionality of problematic behaviors and symptoms exhibited by dementia patients. CONCLUSION: Authors advocate the use of a confirmatory factor-analytic approach to verify scale sub-domains in other, more widely used rating scales for patients with dementia.     

Integrating medical and psychological treatment for sexual problems: the psyche and the soma

I approach the integration of medical and psychological treatment for sexual problems from the perspective of a medical graduate for 41 years, and as a specialist obstetrician, gynaecologist and sexologist I learned that medical practitioners do not have all the answers, but neither do psychologists or all the other ‘-ologists’, but that together we can get so many of the answers. The emergence of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynaecology suited my developing thirst for knowledge in this area to try and make me more effective in managing among other things patients' psychosexual difficulties. Combining this with learning about the actual therapeutic process, what doctoring actually does and how in many instances we can be effective just with the counselling process, not prescribing a ‘silver bullet’ or using the scalpel along the way, as in the Balint model of being a medical instrument. Abnormal illness behaviour, its offshoot – pain behaviour and abnormal treatment behaviour, concepts still not covered in medical schools, will be discussed. A case will be made for using the biopsychological model rather than the traditional medical illness model in the management of sexual dysfunctions.