“We Want Good Education for All of Us” – A Participatory Quality Improvement Approach

Introduction: In ever changing conditions, medical faculties must face the challenge of preparing their medical students as best as possible for the demands of their future work. This requires involving all stakeholders, especially medical students in the constant redefinition of medical curricula. Using the idea of “Communities of Practice” as conceptual framework, this study looks at semester spokespeople as an example for participatory quality management. Methods: We conducted focus-group interviews with semester spokespeople at a German Medical Faculty. Data was recorded, transcribed, and analysed using MAXQDA. The interviews were analysed using meaning condensation method. Results: Eleven out of 48 semester spokespeople took part. We found seven topics that fell within three main categories: (1) role of the semester spokesperson, (2) role of the fixed meeting, and (3) contact and commitment. Communities of Practice principles could be aligned to topics and categories. Discussion: The idea of semester spokespeople based on the concept of Communities of Practice are useful in the quality management processes of a medical school and lead to greater involvement of medical students, identifying their needs. The reciprocal commitment among all stakeholders fosters mutual understanding and collaboration. Future studies could investigate the underlying motivational factors of dedicated students and how to transfer these characteristics to a larger cohort

First-in-Human Dose Escalation Trial To Evaluate the Clinical Safety and Efficacy of an Anti-MAGEA1 Autologous Tcr-Transgenic T Cell Therapy in Relapsed and Refractory Solid Tumors

RATIONALE OF THE TRIAL: Although the use of engineered T cells in cancer immunotherapy has greatly advanced the treatment of hematological malignancies, reaching meaningful clinical responses in the treatment of solid tumors is still challenging. We investigated the safety and tolerability of IMA202 in a first-in-human, dose escalation basket trial in human leucocyte antigen A*02:01 positive patients with melanoma-associated antigen A1 (MAGEA1)-positive advanced solid tumors. TRIAL DESIGN: The 2+2 trial design was an algorithmic design based on a maximally acceptable dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) rate of 25% and the sample size was driven by the algorithmic design with a maximum of 16 patients. IMA202 consists of autologous genetically modified cytotoxic CD8 CONCLUSION: In conclusion, IMA202 had a manageable safety profile, and it was associated with biological and potential clinical activity of MAGEA1-targeting genetically engineered TCR-T cells in a poor prognosis, multi-indication solid tumor cohort

Real-world experience of CPX-351 as first-line treatment for patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract To investigate the efficacy and toxicities of CPX-351 outside a clinical trial, we analyzed 188 patients (median age 65 years, range 26–80) treated for therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML, 29%) or AML with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC, 70%). Eighty-six percent received one, 14% two induction cycles, and 10% received consolidation (representing 22% of patients with CR/CRi) with CPX-351. Following induction, CR/CRi rate was 47% including 64% of patients with available information achieving measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity (<10−3) as measured by flow cytometry. After a median follow-up of 9.3 months, median overall survival (OS) was 21 months and 1-year OS rate 64%. In multivariate analysis, complex karyotype predicted lower response (p = 0.0001), while pretreatment with hypomethylating agents (p = 0.02) and adverse European LeukemiaNet 2017 genetic risk (p < 0.0001) were associated with lower OS. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) was performed in 116 patients (62%) resulting in promising outcome (median survival not reached, 1-year OS 73%), especially in MRD-negative patients (p = 0.048). With 69% of patients developing grade III/IV non-hematologic toxicity following induction and a day 30-mortality of 8% the safety profile was consistent with previous findings. These real-world data confirm CPX-351 as efficient treatment for these high-risk AML patients facilitating allo-HCT in many patients with promising outcome after transplantation

Introduction to Surface Avatar: the First Heterogeneous Robotic Team to be Commanded with Scalable Autonomy from the ISS

Robotics is vital to the continued development toward Lunar and Martian exploration, in-situ resource utilization, and surface infrastructure construction. Large-scale extra-terrestrial missions will require teams of robots with different, complementary capabilities, together with a powerful, intuitive user interface for effective commanding. We introduce Surface Avatar, the newest ISS-to-Earth telerobotic experiment series, to be conducted in 2022-2024. Spearheaded by DLR, together with ESA, Surface Avatar builds on expertise on commanding robots with different levels of autonomy from our past telerobotic experiments: Kontur-2, Haptics, Interact, SUPVIS Justin, and Analog-1. A team of four heterogeneous robots in a multi-site analog environment at DLR are at the command of a crew member on the ISS. The team has a humanoid robot for dexterous object handling, construction and maintenance; a rover for long traverses and sample acquisition; a quadrupedal robot for scouting and exploring difficult terrains; and a lander with robotic arm for component delivery and sample stowage. The crew's command terminal is multimodal, with an intuitive graphical user interface, 3-DOF joystick, and 7-DOF input device with force-feedback. The autonomy of any robot can be scaled up and down depending on the task and the astronaut's preference: acting as an avatar of the crew in haptically-coupled telepresence, or receiving task-level commands like an intelligent co-worker. Through crew performing collaborative tasks in exploration and construction scenarios, we hope to gain insight into how to optimally command robots in a future space mission. This paper presents findings from the first preliminary session in June 2022, and discusses the way forward in the planned experiment sessions