Whose voices should shape global health education? Curriculum codesign and codelivery by people with direct expertise and lived experience

There are contrasting opinions of what Global Health (GH) curricula should contain and limited discussion on whose voices should shape it. In GH education, those with first-hand expertise of living and working in the contexts discussed in GH classrooms are often absent when designing curricula. To address this, we developed a new model of curriculum co-design called Virtual Roundtable for Collaborative Education Design (ViRCoED). This paper describes the rationale and outputs of the ViRCoED approach in designing a new section of the Global Health BSc curriculum at Imperial College London, with a focus on healthcare in the Syrian conflict. The team, importantly, involved partners with lived and/or professional experience of the conflict as well as alumni of the course, and educators in all stages of design and delivery through to marking and project evaluation. The project experimented with disrupting power dynamics and extending ownership of the curriculum beyond traditional faculty by co-designing and co-delivering module contents together with colleagues with direct expertise and experience of the Syrian context. An authentic approach was applied to assessment design using real-time syndromic healthcare data from the Aleppo and Idlib Governorates. We discuss the challenges involved in our collaborative partnership and describe how it may have enhanced the validity of our curriculum with students engaging in a richer representation of key health issues in the conflict. We observed an enhanced self-reflexivity in the students’ approach to quantitative data and its complex interpretation. The dialogic nature of this collaborative design was also a formative process for partners and an opportunity for GH educators to reflect on their own positionality. The project aims to challenge current standards and structures in GH curriculum development and gesture towards a GH education sector eventually led by those with lived experience and expertise to significantly enhance the validity of GH education

Studies of the anticorrosion property of a newly synthesized Green isoxazolidine for API 5L X60 steel in acid environment

tThe potential of an environmentally friendly novel synthesized and characterized isoxazoli-dine derivative namely 5-(4-dodecyloxy-3-methoxybenzyl)-2-methylisoxazolidine (DMBMI)as anticorrosion agent for carbon steel in 1 mol/L HCl solution was investigated using gravi-metric and electrochemical techniques. Kinetics parameters of the corrosion process andthe thermodynamic data of adsorption of the organic molecule on the carbon steel surfacewas also assessed in order to characterize the performance of the studied compound as acorrosion inhibitor. The solubility, toxicity and the state of the molecule at the acidic pH(1 mol/L HCl) was predicted. It was found that the synthesized compound is green (envi-ronmentally friendly) with an optimum solubility of 23.8 mg/L. Also the molecule exists100 percent in protonated form in 1 mol/L HCl (pH = 0). The molecule possesses anticorro-sion property against steel corrosion in acid environment. Corrosion retardation efficacy isdependent on concentration and temperature. DMBMI exhibited concentration dependentcorrosion inhibition ability influencing mainly anodic metal dissolution based on potentio-dynamic polarization data. Addition of KI through the mechanism of competitive adsorptionenhanced the inhibition efficiency considerably. The active sites for the interaction of DMBMIwith steel surface was calculated using quantum chemical method while the adsorptionenergy between the inhibitor and steel surface was derived via Monte Carlo simulations.Results from theoretical studies and surface analysis are in conformity and reveal that theO and N heteroatoms in the synthesized molecule are the interaction centers

Impact of Protracted War Crisis on Dental Students: A Comparative Multicountry Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: The impact of conflict and war crisis on dental students is poorly understood. Given the prolonged conflicts and political instability in the Arabic-speaking countries, it is crucial to investigate the effect of these conditions on dental students. This study aimed to assess the impact of protracted war on dental students by comparing the personal, university, and wider context challenges they face across war-affected and unaffected countries. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted including a convenience sample of dental students from 13 universities in 12 Arabic-speaking countries. Respondents were those at entry and exit points of their undergraduate dental training. A self-administered paper questionnaire collected anonymized data on sociodemographics, and personal, university, and wider context challenges that students were facing. Multivariable Poisson regression analyses were carried out. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 64.8%. The mean age was 21.2 (standard deviation = 2.1) years, with 68% of participants being female. After adjusting for age and sex, dental students in Arabic-speaking countries affected by protracted war crisis were significantly more likely to report wider context challenges compared to their counterparts in unaffected countries (n = 2448; beta = 1.12; 95% confidence interval: 1.10-1.13; P < 0.001). DISCUSSION: Dental students in Arabic-speaking countries affected by protracted war crisis were more likely to suffer from wider context challenges such as difficulties in attendance due to the deterioration of security and lack of flexibility of teaching time to accommodate the different circumstances induced by the war crisis. Supporting dental students in areas affected by protracted war crises is needed and may include developing online dental education programs

Обзор рентгенодиагностических on-line сервисов, основанных на искусственных нейронных сетях в стоматологии

Aim. This review is devoted to the analysis of available on-line services and programs using artificial neural networks (ANNs) in dentistry, especially for cephalometric analysis.Materials and methods. We searched for scientific publications in the information and analytical databases PubMed, Google Scholar and eLibrary using combinations of the following keywords: artificial intelligence, deep learning, computer vision, neural network, dentistry, orthodontics, cephalometry, cephalometric analysis. 1612 articles were analyzed, of which 23 publications were included in our review.Results. Deep machine learning based on ANN has been successfully used in various branches of medicine as an analytical tool for processing various data. ANNs are especially successfully used for image recognition in radiology and histology. In dentistry, computer vision is used to diagnose diseases of the maxillofacial region, plan surgical treatment, including dental implantation, as well as for cephalometric analysis for the needs of orthodontists and maxillofacial surgeons.Conclusion. Currently, there are many programs and on-line services for cephalometric analysis. However, only 7 of them use ANNs for automatic landmarking and image analysis. Also, there is not enough data to evaluate the accuracy of their work and convenience.Цель исследования: анализ доступных on-line сервисов и программ, использующих искусственные нейронные сети (ИНС), в стоматологии, в особенности для цефалометрического анализа.Материал и методы. Проведен поиск научных публикаций в информационно-аналитических системах PubMed, Google Scholar и eLibrary без ограничения по срокам публикации по комбинациям из следующих ключевых слов: artificial intelligence, deep learning, computer vision, neural network, dentistry, orthodontics, cephalometry, cephalometric analysis. Были проанализированы 1612 статей, из которых 23 публикации использованы для составления обзора.Результаты. Глубокое машинное обучение на основе ИНС успешно применяется в различных разделах медицины в качестве аналитического инструмента для обработки различных данных. Особенно успешно ИНС применяются для распознавания изображений в рентгенологии и гистологии. В частности, в стоматологии компьютерное зрение используется для диагностики заболеваний челюстно-лицевой области, планирования оперативного лечения, в том числе имплантации, а также для цефалометрического анализа для нужд врачей-ортодонтов и челюстно-лицевых хирургов.Заключение. В настоящее время существует множество программ и on-line сервисов для цефалометрического анализа. Однако лишь 7 из них используют ИНС для автоматической разметки и анализа снимков. Также недостаточно данных для оценки точности их работы и удобства

A Systematic Review of Vaccination Guidance for Humanitarian Responses

Delivering vaccines in humanitarian response requires rigourous and continuous analysis of evidence. This systematic review mapped the normative landscape of vaccination guidance on vaccine-preventable diseases in crisis-affected settings. Guidance published between 2000 and 2022 was searched for, in English and French, on websites of humanitarian actors, Google, and Bing. Peer-reviewed database searches were performed in Global Health and Embase. Reference lists of all included documents were screened. We disseminated an online survey to professionals working in vaccination delivery in humanitarian contexts. There was a total of 48 eligible guidance documents, including technical guidance (n = 17), descriptive guidance (n = 16), operational guidance (n = 11), evidence reviews (n = 3), and ethical guidance (n = 1). Most were World Health Organization documents (n = 21) targeting children under 5 years of age. Critical appraisal revealed insufficient inclusion of affected populations and limited rigour in guideline development. We found limited information on vaccines including, yellow fever, cholera, meningococcal, hepatitis A, and varicella, as well as human papilloma virus (HPV). There is a plethora of vaccination guidance for vaccine-preventable diseases in humanitarian contexts. However, gaps remain in the critical and systematic inclusion of evidence, inclusion of the concept of “zero-dose” children and affected populations, ethical guidance, and specific recommendations for HPV and non-universally recommended vaccines, which must be addressed

Collaborative educational design: exploring a more authentic co-design approach in Global Health education

There are contrasting opinions of what Global Health (GH) curricula should contain and limited discussion on whose voices should shape it. In GH education, those with first-hand expertise of living and working in the contexts discussed in GH classrooms are often absent when designing curricula. To address this, we developed a new model of curriculum co-design called Virtual Roundtable for Collaborative Education Design (ViRCoED). This paper describes the rationale and outputs of the ViRCoED approach in designing a new section of the Global Health BSc curriculum at Imperial College London, with a focus on healthcare in the Syrian conflict. The team, importantly, involved partners with lived and/or professional experience of the conflict as well as alumni of the course, and educators in all stages of design and delivery through to marking and project evaluation. The project experimented with disrupting power dynamics and extending ownership of the curriculum beyond traditional faculty by co-designing and co-delivering module contents together with colleagues with direct expertise and experience of the Syrian context. An authentic approach was applied to assessment design using real-time syndromic healthcare data from the Aleppo and Idlib Governorates. We discuss the challenges involved in our collaborative partnership and describe how it may have enhanced the validity of our curriculum with students engaging in a richer representation of key health issues in the conflict. We observed an enhanced self-reflexivity in the students’ approach to quantitative data and its complex interpretation. The dialogic nature of this collaborative design was also a formative process for partners and an opportunity for GH educators to reflect on their own positionality. The project aims to challenge current standards and structures in GH curriculum development and gesture towards a GH education sector eventually led by those with lived experience and expertise to significantly enhance the validity of GH education