Faculty development to enhance humanistic teaching and role modeling: a collaborative study at eight institutions.

BackgroundThere is increased emphasis on practicing humanism in medicine but explicit methods for faculty development in humanism are rare.ObjectiveWe sought to demonstrate improved faculty teaching and role modeling of humanistic and professional values by participants in a multi-institutional faculty development program as rated by their learners in clinical settings compared to contemporaneous controls.DesignBlinded learners in clinical settings rated their clinical teachers, either participants or controls, on the previously validated 10-item Humanistic Teaching Practices Effectiveness (HTPE) questionnaire.ParticipantsGroups of 7-9 participants at 8 academic medical centers completed an 18-month faculty development program. Participating faculty were chosen by program facilitators at each institution on the basis of being promising teachers, willing to participate in the longitudinal faculty development program.InterventionOur 18-month curriculum combined experiential learning of teaching skills with critical reflection using appreciative inquiry narratives about their experiences as teachers and other reflective discussions.Main measuresThe main outcome was the aggregate score of the ten items on the questionnaire at all institutions.Key resultsThe aggregate score favored participants over controls (P = 0.019) independently of gender, experience on faculty, specialty area, and/or overall teaching skills.ConclusionsLongitudinal, intensive faculty development that employs experiential learning and critical reflection likely enhances humanistic teaching and role modeling. Almost all participants completed the program. Results are generalizable to other schools

Faculty Development to Enhance Humanistic Teaching and Role Modeling: A Collaborative Study at Eight Institutions

BACKGROUND: There is increased emphasis on practicing humanism in medicine but explicit methods for faculty development in humanism are rare. OBJECTIVE: We sought to demonstrate improved faculty teaching and role modeling of humanistic and professional values by participants in a multi-institutional faculty development program as rated by their learners in clinical settings compared to contemporaneous controls. DESIGN: Blinded learners in clinical settings rated their clinical teachers, either participants or controls, on the previously validated 10-item Humanistic Teaching Practices Effectiveness (HTPE) questionnaire. PARTICIPANTS: Groups of 7-9 participants at 8 academic medical centers completed an 18-month faculty development program. Participating faculty were chosen by program facilitators at each institution on the basis of being promising teachers, willing to participate in the longitudinal faculty development program. INTERVENTION: Our 18-month curriculum combined experiential learning of teaching skills with critical reflection using appreciative inquiry narratives about their experiences as teachers and other reflective discussions. MAIN MEASURES: The main outcome was the aggregate score of the ten items on the questionnaire at all institutions. KEY RESULTS: The aggregate score favored participants over controls (P = 0.019) independently of gender, experience on faculty, specialty area, and/or overall teaching skills. CONCLUSIONS: Longitudinal, intensive faculty development that employs experiential learning and critical reflection likely enhances humanistic teaching and role modeling. Almost all participants completed the program. Results are generalizable to other schools

A butterfly eye's view of birds

The striking color patterns of butterflies and birds have long interested biologists. But how these animals see color is less well understood. Opsins are the protein components of the visual pigments of the eye. Color vision has evolved in butterflies through opsin gene duplications, through positive selection at individual opsin loci, and by the use of filtering pigments. By contrast, birds have retained the same opsin complement present in early-jawed vertebrates, and their visual system has diversified primarily through tuning of the short-wavelength-sensitive photoreceptors, rather than by opsin duplication or the use of filtering elements. Butterflies and birds have evolved photoreceptors that might use some of the same amino acid sites for generating similar spectral phenotypes across approximately 540 million years of evolution, when rhabdomeric and ciliary-type opsins radiated during the early Cambrian period. Considering the similarities between the two taxa, it is surprising that the eyes of birds are not more diverse. Additional taxonomic sampling of birds may help clarify this mystery

A phase 3 Trial of RTS,S/AS01 Malaria Vaccine in African Infants.

\ud \ud The candidate malaria vaccine RTS,S/AS01 reduced episodes of both clinical and severe malaria in children 5 to 17 months of age by approximately 50% in an ongoing phase 3 trial. We studied infants 6 to 12 weeks of age recruited for the same trial. We administered RTS,S/AS01 or a comparator vaccine to 6537 infants who were 6 to 12 weeks of age at the time of the first vaccination in conjunction with Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) vaccines in a three-dose monthly schedule. Vaccine efficacy against the first or only episode of clinical malaria during the 12 months after vaccination, a coprimary end point, was analyzed with the use of Cox regression. Vaccine efficacy against all malaria episodes, vaccine efficacy against severe malaria, safety, and immunogenicity were also assessed. The incidence of the first or only episode of clinical malaria in the intention-to-treat population during the 14 months after the first dose of vaccine was 0.31 per person-year in the RTS,S/AS01 group and 0.40 per person-year in the control group, for a vaccine efficacy of 30.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 23.6 to 36.1). Vaccine efficacy in the per-protocol population was 31.3% (97.5% CI, 23.6 to 38.3). Vaccine efficacy against severe malaria was 26.0% (95% CI, -7.4 to 48.6) in the intention-to-treat population and 36.6% (95% CI, 4.6 to 57.7) in the per-protocol population. Serious adverse events occurred with a similar frequency in the two study groups. One month after administration of the third dose of RTS,S/AS01, 99.7% of children were positive for anti-circumsporozoite antibodies, with a geometric mean titer of 209 EU per milliliter (95% CI, 197 to 222). The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine coadministered with EPI vaccines provided modest protection against both clinical and severe malaria in young infants. (Funded by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative; RTS,S ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00866619.)