Mesenchymal Stem Cells Loaded with p5, Derived from CDK5 Activator p35, Inhibit Calcium-Induced CDK5 Activation in Endothelial Cells.

The potential use of stem cells as therapeutics in disease has gained momentum over the last few years and recently phase-I clinical trials have shown favourable results in treatment of a small cohort of acute stroke patients. Similarly, they have been used in preclinical models drug-loaded for the effective treatment of solid tumours. Here we have characterized uptake and release of a novel p5-cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) inhibitory peptide by mesenchymal stem cells and showed release levels capable of blocking aberrant cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) signaling pathways, through phosphorylation of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) and p53. These pathways represent the major acute mechanism stimulating apoptosis after stroke and hence its modulation could benefit patient recovery. This work indicates a potential use for drug-loaded stem cells as delivery vehicles for stroke therapeutics and in addition as anticancer receptacles particularly, if a targeting and/or holding mechanism can be defined

Medical students' perceptions of complementary and alternative medicine therapies: A pre- and post-exposure survey in Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia

Background: Evidently, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is increasingly a recognized medical practice that efficiently uses multiple treatment therapies and techniques in promoting the health  and wellbeing of people as well as preventing and managing a variety of human disorders. Research in CAM, which courses exposure to diverse healthcare professionals, is important from many perspectives including improvement in teaching skills of faculty, enhancing capacity building, and  innovative curriculum development. This pre- and post-design crosssectional study aimed to assess perceptions, training needs, personal usage, use in office practice, and knowledge of two batches of medical students toward CAM therapies in Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia.Materials and Methods: The second year medical students of the first (year 2012-13) and second (year 2013-2014) batch [n=26 & 39, respectively] were selected for this study. A reliable 16-item  self-administered questionnaire was distributed among all students for answering before and after the 48-hour specific 19 CAM therapies course, in terms of CAM therapies are clearly conventional or  alternative, training needs, effectiveness, personal use, use in practice, management of two clinical cases by CAM or conventional therapies, and views about which evidence based approach strongly support individual CAM modalities.Results: Medical students' knowledge and perceptions of CAM therapies significantly improved across some sub-items of CAM questionnaire with a positive trend in the rest of its items including their views about CAM therapies, need for further training, personal use of therapies and advising patients regarding CAM practices strongly supported by randomized clinical controlled trials and published case studies.Conclusion: CAM course tends to have positive impact on the knowledge and perceptions of medical students, in addition to need for further training, and personal use and use of CAM therapies in practice in line with strong evidence-based data regarding therapeutic efficacy. The preliminary results of this study call for further research in specific CAM modalities with a larger sample in academic settings across the nation. Key words: Medical students; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; CAM course; CAM therapies; pre-post design study; Saudi Arabia

Exploring assessment of medical students\u27 competencies in pain medicine - A review

Introduction: Considering the continuing high prevalence and public health burden of pain, it is critical that medical students are equipped with competencies in the field of pain medicine. Robust assessment of student expertise is integral for effective implementation of competency-based medical education. Objective: The aim of this review was to describe the literature regarding methods for assessing pain medicine competencies in medical students. Method: PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, ERIC, and Google Scholar, and BEME data bases were searched for empirical studies primarily focusing on assessment of any domain of pain medicine competencies in medical students published between January 1997 and December 2016. Results: A total of 41 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most assessments were performed for low-stakes summative purposes and did not reflect contemporary theories of assessment. Assessments were predominantly undertaken using written tests or clinical simulation methods. The most common pain medicine education topics assessed were pain pharmacology and the management of cancer and low-back pain. Most studies focussed on assessment of cognitive levels of learning as opposed to more challenging domains of demonstrating skills and attitudes or developing and implementing pain management plans. Conclusion: This review highlights the need for more robust assessment tools that effectively measure the abilities of medical students to integrate pain-related competencies into clinical practice. A Pain Medicine Assessment Framework has been developed to encourage systematic planning of pain medicine assessment at medical schools internationally and to promote continuous multidimensional assessments in a variety of clinical contexts based on well-defined pain medicine competencies

The need for national medical licensing examination in Saudi Arabia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medical education in Saudi Arabia is facing multiple challenges, including the rapid increase in the number of medical schools over a short period of time, the influx of foreign medical graduates to work in Saudi Arabia, the award of scholarships to hundreds of students to study medicine in various countries, and the absence of published national guidelines for minimal acceptable competencies of a medical graduate.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>We are arguing for the need for a Saudi national medical licensing examination that consists of two parts: Part I (Written) which tests the basic science and clinical knowledge and Part II (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) which tests the clinical skills and attitudes. We propose this examination to be mandated as a licensure requirement for practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The driving and hindering forces as well as the strengths and weaknesses of implementing the licensing examination are discussed in details in this debate.</p

MEDICAL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE THERAPIES: A PRE- AND POST-EXPOSURE SURVEY IN MAJMAAH UNIVERSITY, SAUDI ARABIA

Background: Evidently, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is increasingly a recognized medical practice that efficiently uses multiple treatment therapies and techniques in promoting the health and wellbeing of people as well as preventing and managing a variety of human disorders. Research in CAM, which courses exposure to diverse healthcare professionals, is important from many perspectives including improvement in teaching skills of faculty, enhancing capacity building, and innovative curriculum development. This pre- and post-design crosssectional study aimed to assess perceptions, training needs, personal usage, use in office practice, and knowledge of two batches of medical students toward CAM therapies in Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: The second year medical students of the first (year 2012-13) and second (year 2013-2014) batch [n=26 & 39, respectively] were selected for this study. A reliable 16-item self-administered questionnaire was distributed among all students for answering before and after the 48-hour specific 19 CAM therapies course, in terms of CAM therapies are clearly conventional or alternative, training needs, effectiveness, personal use, use in practice, management of two clinical cases by CAM or conventional therapies, and views about which evidence based approach strongly support individual CAM modalities. Results: Medical students' knowledge and perceptions of CAM therapies significantly improved across some sub-items of CAM questionnaire with a positive trend in the rest of its items including their views about CAM therapies, need for further training, personal use of therapies and advising patients regarding CAM practices strongly supported by randomized clinical controlled trials and published case studies. Conclusion: CAM course tends to have positive impact on the knowledge and perceptions of medical students, in addition to need for further training, and personal use and use of CAM therapies in practice in line with strong evidence-based data regarding therapeutic efficacy. The preliminary results of this study call for further research in specific CAM modalities with a larger sample in academic settings across the nation

Do medical students who are multilingual have higher spatial and verbal intelligence and do they perform better in anatomy examinations?

We have already reported that medical students who have prior knowledge of classical Greek and Latin perform better in anatomy examinations. It has also been shown that fluency in more than one language can influence spatial and verbal intelligence and here we hypothesize that medical students who have linguistic skills develop higher spatial and verbal intelligence compared with monolingual students, that there are gender differences, and that there are positive effects on performance in anatomy examinations. One hundred and seventy‐three second year medical students at Cardiff University responded to spatial and verbal intelligence questions that were adapted from the British MENSA website. This is a 63% response rate for the student cohort. The students were then categorized into different groups depending upon their linguistic knowledge and skills. Across all groups, no gender differences were discerned for either spatial or verbal intelligence. Students who were categorized as monolingual (with only skills in English) had lower spatial and verbal intelligence than those who were multilingual. Medical students who had fluency in English and non‐European languages showed greater spatial and verbal intelligence than other groups. However, there was no significant improvement in their examination marks for anatomy, although the examination performance might be complicated by cultural considerations. A further finding from our study was that, where an anatomy test required spatial recognition using cadaveric specimens, students with low spatial intelligence had significantly poorer performances. Furthermore, where tests used multiple choice questions, the level of spatial and verbal intelligences had no influence. We would advocate that, when all newly‐recruited medical students are tutored in medical terminologies to help them develop the extensive vocabulary required for their professional careers, they should also be made aware of any deficiencies in spatial and verbal skills that could affect their learning abilities. Given that we would expect students to benefit in their careers from developing spatial and verbal skills, we also recommend that examination tests in anatomy should avoid the exclusive use of multiple choice questions

Hypertension control and co-morbidities in primary health care centers in Riyadh

Background: The prevalence of hypertension in Saudi Arabia has been assessed only in preliminary reports. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of control of blood pressure and the prevalence of common hypertension co-morbidities among hypertensive patients at-tending primary healthcare (PHC) centers in Riyadh. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by reviewing medi-cal records of hypertensive patients during May and June 2001. Two hundred fifty-five medical records were selected by a stratified random-ization process according to the distribution of the 73 PHC centers in the city and the total number of hypertensive patients registered in the mini-clinic of each PHC center. Trained mini-clinic nurses collected data using a data collection form developed for this purpose. Results: Of 255 patients, 121 (47.5&#x0025;) were males and 134 (52.5&#x0025;) were females; the mean age was 57.2&#177;11.1 years and 8.3&#x0025; were smokers. The majority, 204 (85.7&#x0025;), had greater than normal body weight. Only 101 (40.4&#x0025;) had controlled systolic BP and 129 (51.6&#x0025;) had controlled dia-stolic BP. The most common co-morbidity was diabetes mellitus, found in 98 (38.4&#x0025;), followed by dyslipidemia in 50 (19.6&#x0025;), bronchial asthma in 28 (11.0&#x0025;) and renal diseases in 12 (4.7&#x0025;). Except for osteoporosis, which was reported by females only (P=0.003), the occurrence of hypertensive co-morbidities did not vary from other demographic characteristics. Conclusion: This study demonstrated poor blood pressure control in the mini-clinics in PHC centers. To improve the quality of care for hy-pertensive patients, we recommend an improvement in PHC physician knowledge of and attitudes toward the importance of achieving targeted blood pressure levels