A Cohort Study Assessing the Impact of Anki as a Spaced Repetition Tool on Academic Performance in Medical School

Introduction Anki is an application that capitalizes upon the techniques of spaced repetition and is increasingly utilized by medical students for examination preparation. This study examines the impact of Anki usage in a medical school curriculum on academic performance. Secondary objectives analyzed individual Anki utilization and a qualitative assessment of Anki use. Methods A cohort-control study was conducted at Boonshoft School of Medicine. One hundred thirty first-year medical students were enrolled in an Anki utilization training program from July 2021 to September 2021. Training included educational Anki courses and subsequent survey data collection over Anki usage. Data variables included all course final examinations, the Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE), individual Anki user statistics, nationally standardized exams scores, and Qualtrics surveys on student perceived ease of use. Results Seventy-eight students reported using Anki for at least one of the exams, and 52 students did not use Anki for any exam. Anki users scored significantly higher across all four exams: Course I (6.4%; p \u3c 0.001); Course II (6.2%; p = 0.002); Course III (7.0%; p = 0.002); and CBSE (12.9%; p = 0.003). Students who reported higher dependency on Anki for studying performed significantly better on the Course I, II, and CBSE exams. Conclusion Anki usage may be associated with an increase in standardized examination scores. This supports Anki as an evidence-based spaced repetition and active retrieval learning modality for medical school standardized examinations. There was little correlation between its specific statistical markers and examination performance. This is pertinent to physicians and medical students alike as the learning and preservation of biomedical knowledge is required for examinations and effective clinical care

Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis Following an mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Recent Oral Contraceptive Use

Rising concerns of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and other forms of venous thromboembolism have been associated with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. Adverse effects with vector-based vaccines are well documented in the literature, while less is known about the mRNA vaccines. This report documents a case of CVST in a 32-year-old female patient who received her second Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccination 16 days prior to hospital admission and had started oral combined contraceptives approximately 4 months beforehand. Clinicians should be cognizant of the possibility that mRNA vaccines, when combined with other risk factors like oral contraceptive pill use, may enhance one’s hypercoagulable status

Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis Following an mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Recent Oral Contraceptive Use

Rising concerns of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and other forms of venous thromboembolism have been associated with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. Adverse effects with vector-based vaccines are well documented in the literature, while less is known about the mRNA vaccines. This report documents a case of CVST in a 32-year-old female patient who received her second Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccination 16 days prior to hospital admission and had started oral combined contraceptives approximately 4 months beforehand. Clinicians should be cognizant of the possibility that mRNA vaccines, when combined with other risk factors like oral contraceptive pill use, may enhance one’s hypercoagulable status

A Cohort Study Assessing the Impact of Anki as a Spaced Repetition Tool on Academic Performance in Medical School

Introduction Anki is an application that capitalizes upon the techniques of spaced repetition and is increasingly utilized by medical students for examination preparation. This study examines the impact of Anki usage in a medical school curriculum on academic performance. Secondary objectives analyzed individual Anki utilization and a qualitative assessment of Anki use. Methods A cohort-control study was conducted at Boonshoft School of Medicine. One hundred thirty first-year medical students were enrolled in an Anki utilization training program from July 2021 to September 2021. Training included educational Anki courses and subsequent survey data collection over Anki usage. Data variables included all course final examinations, the Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE), individual Anki user statistics, nationally standardized exams scores, and Qualtrics surveys on student perceived ease of use. Results Seventy-eight students reported using Anki for at least one of the exams, and 52 students did not use Anki for any exam. Anki users scored significantly higher across all four exams: Course I (6.4%; p \u3c 0.001); Course II (6.2%; p = 0.002); Course III (7.0%; p = 0.002); and CBSE (12.9%; p = 0.003). Students who reported higher dependency on Anki for studying performed significantly better on the Course I, II, and CBSE exams. Conclusion Anki usage may be associated with an increase in standardized examination scores. This supports Anki as an evidence-based spaced repetition and active retrieval learning modality for medical school standardized examinations. There was little correlation between its specific statistical markers and examination performance. This is pertinent to physicians and medical students alike as the learning and preservation of biomedical knowledge is required for examinations and effective clinical care

Extensive identification of genes involved in congenital and structural heart disorders and cardiomyopathy

Clinical presentation of congenital heart disease is heterogeneous, making identification of the disease-causing genes and their genetic pathways and mechanisms of action challenging. By using in vivo electrocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography and microcomputed tomography imaging to screen 3,894 single-gene-null mouse lines for structural and functional cardiac abnormalities, here we identify 705 lines with cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial hypertrophy and/or ventricular dilation. Among these 705 genes, 486 have not been previously associated with cardiac dysfunction in humans, and some of them represent variants of unknown relevance (VUR). Mice with mutations in Casz1, Dnajc18, Pde4dip, Rnf38 or Tmem161b genes show developmental cardiac structural abnormalities, with their human orthologs being categorized as VUR. Using UK Biobank data, we validate the importance of the DNAJC18 gene for cardiac homeostasis by showing that its loss of function is associated with altered left ventricular systolic function. Our results identify hundreds of previously unappreciated genes with potential function in congenital heart disease and suggest causal function of five VUR in congenital heart disease