Promoting professionalism through an online professional development portfolio: successes, joys, and frustrations.

Medical educators strive to promote the development of a sound professional identity in learners, yet it is challenging to design, implement, and sustain fair and meaningful assessments of professionalism to accomplish this goal. The authors developed and implemented a program built around a Web-based Professional Development Portfolio (PDP) to assess and document professional development in medical students at New York University School of Medicine. This program requires students to regularly document their professional development through written reflections on curricular activities spanning preclinical and clinical years. Students post reflections, along with other documents that chronicle their professional growth, to their online PDP. Students meet annually with a faculty mentor to review their portfolios, assess their professional development based on predetermined criteria, and establish goals for the coming year. In this article, the authors describe the development of the PDP and share four years of experience with its implementation. We describe the experiences and attitudes of the first students to participate in this program as reported in an annual student survey. Students' experiences of and satisfaction with the PDP was varied. The PDP has been a catalyst for honest and lively debate concerning the meaning and behavioral manifestations of professionalism. A Web-based PDP promoted self-regulation on an individual level because it facilitated narrative reflection, self-assessment, and goal setting, and it structured mentorship. Therefore, the PDP may prepare students for the self-regulation of the medical profession--a privilege and obligation under the physician's social contract with society.     

Osseous regeneration after therapy in patients with head and neck tumors

Four patients with head and neck tumors were observed by serial computed tomography (CT) during treatment. Osseous regeneration was demonstrated at sites of initial osteolytic destruction in two patients who responded to therapy. This regeneration was observed at 4 and 7 months, respectively, after the start of therapy. No such regeneration could be seen in the other two patients who did not respond to treatment. CT may be useful not only in demonstrating initial osseous invasion, but also in monitoring treatment response.     

The serological diagnosis of St Louis encephalitis in a patient with the syndrome of opsoclonia,body tremulousness,and benign encephalitis

This report describes a 28-year-old man with serologically confirmed St Louis encephalitis who meets the criteria for the syndrome of opsoclonia, body tremulousness, and benign encephalitis.     

Interaction of phencyclidine with mouse neuroblastoma cells

Growth of mouse neuroblastoma (Nb) cells (clone Ml) was not affected by phencyclidine (PCP) concentrations of 10^?6M up to 2 × 10^?4M, whereas 10^?3 PCP caused a 100% inhibition of cell growth. Several PCP analogs, including the quaternary PCP methiodide, exerted effects similar to those of PCP. The uptake of [piperidyl-3,4-³H]PCP ([³H]PCP) by the Nb cells was studied using cell monolayers in Petri dishes. Non-specific entry of PCP into the cells was linear with added substrate but specific uptake exhibited saturation kinetics. The concentration for half-maximum specific uptake was 2 × 10^?5 M, and the capacity of the cells at saturation was 2–3 nmoles [³H]PCP/mg protein, at 22°. The uptake rate constant was 0.2 ± 0.05 × 10⁵ (M^?1min^?1) and the dissociation constant was 0.25 ± 0.05 (min^?1). Uptake was temperature dependent and was inhibited by 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP). This may indicate that this binding represents (at least in part) an active uptake process of PCP into the cells.