Doctors with dyslexia: a world of stigma, stonewalling and silence, still?

Introduction: Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty, affecting 10% of the UK and worldwide populations. It is also becoming increasingly recognised within medical education. There is little research into the experiences of doctors with dyslexia. This paper forms part five of a programme of research from the authors into the experiences of UK medical students and junior doctors with dyslexia. Our research question is: “what are the lived experiences of medical students and junior doctors with dyslexia?” Methods: This is an Interpretive Phenomenological (qualitative) study. Dyslexic doctors were recruited from a single UK Foundation School. Participants were interviewed, in-depth, by telephone. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. These underwent a thematic Template Analysis, which was verified in an iterative manner by both researchers. Results: Eight participants were interviewed. Core themes emerging for junior doctors’ experiences were: Their “disease”; perception from others; stonewalling; emotional responses; disclosure; influence on career pathway; and working life as the real word. Conclusions: Our results highlight a world of stigma, stonewalling, bullying and a reluctance to disclose. These results may suggest a need for education and public information about dyslexia, to begin to tackle this prejudice. Making adjustments to time in undergraduate exams may also not be enough. One of the most startling findings was the fear of being identified as “dyslexic”. Keywords: Dyslexia, Interpretive Phenomenology, Specific Learning Difficulties, Junior Doctors, Lived Experience

Twelve tips for teaching medical students with dyslexia

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty. As a result of SS' own experiences as a medical student with dyslexia, we have been researching and teaching on this topic for the past two years. Here, we present twelve tips for teaching medical students with dyslexia. These are gathered from our personal experiences and research, discussions with other educators, and wider literature on the topic. This article aims to shed some light on dyslexia, and also to make practical suggestions. Teaching students with dyslexia should not be a daunting experience. Small changes to existing methods, at minor effort, can make a difference - for example, adding pastel colors to slide backgrounds or avoiding Serif fonts. These tips can help educators gain more insight into dyslexia and incorporate small, beneficial adaptations into their teaching

Doctors with dyslexia: a world of stigma, stonewalling and silence, still?

Abstract Introduction

How Race Affects Dismissals of College Football Coaches

We employ a discrete-time hazard model and a Blinder-decomposition approach to explore the possibility of racial discrimination in the dismissal and retention of college-football coaches by university administrations. A rich data set consisting of 81 institutions over an 11-year period (1990-2000) that contains, in addition to a coach\u27s race, variables on cumulative winning records, annual on-the-field improvements, and pre-/post-season game participation by institutions and their coaches is employed. Our study finds that black coaches, on average, face a dismissal probability that is 9.6 percentage points below that of their nonblack counterparts, ceteris paribus, suggesting that black head coaches may be the beneficiaries of favorable treatment by university administrators. Such a result likely stems from universities\u27 approach to social concerns involving race and gender issues. This finding also fits a construct that considers workplace discrimination as multi-dimensional. For example, black representation in the college football coaching ranks may be disproportionately low, possibly as a result of discrimination. However, once hired, black coaches are given more time to succeed than nonblacks, other things constant

Multidisciplinary management of anal intraepithelial neoplasia and rate of progression to cancer: A retrospective cohort study

Purpose: To describe the regional burden of AIN and rate of progression to cancer in patients managed in specialist and non-specialist clinic settings. Methods: Patients with a histopathological diagnosis of AIN between 1994 and 2018 were retrospectively identified. Clinicopathological characteristics including high-risk status (chronic immunosuppressant use or HIV positive), number and type of biopsy (punch/excision) and histopathological findings were recorded. The relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and progression to cancer was assessed using logistic regression. Results: Of 250 patients identified, 207 were eligible for inclusion: 144 from the specialist and 63 from the non-specialist clinic. Patients in the specialist clinic were younger (<40 years 31% vs 19%, p = 0.007), more likely to be male (34% vs 16%, p = 0.008) and HIV positive (15% vs 2%, p = 0.012). Patients in the non-specialist clinic were less likely to have AIN3 on initial pathology (68% vs 79%, p = 0.074) and were more often followed up for less than 36 months (46% vs 28%, p = 0.134). The rate of progression to cancer was 17% in the whole cohort (20% vs 10%, p = 0.061). On multivariate analysis, increasing age (OR 3.02, 95%CI 1.58–5.78, p < 0.001), high risk status (OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.43–8.74, p = 0.006) and increasing number of excisions (OR 4.88, 95%CI 2.15–11.07, p < 0.001) were related to progression to cancer. Conclusion: The specialist clinic provides a structured approach to the follow up of high-risk status patients with AIN. Frequent monitoring with specialist assessments including high resolution anoscopy in a higher volume clinic are required due to the increased risk of progression to anal cancer