Training Orthopaedic Residents to Formulate Evidence-Based Questions

Background: Formulating questions that are both focused and answerable is an essential clinical skill for evidence-based practice (EBP). Possessing this skill can successfully launch research projects. Yet studies have depicted mixed results pertaining to the teaching of question formulation. This report describes introducing orthopaedic residents to question formulation and showcases an accompanying evaluation rubric originally developed for training second-year medical students. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, a total of 23 orthopaedic residents at The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center participated in a 1-hour training. The study included application exercises using an evaluation rubric for learners to assess each other’s formulated questions followed by faculty members’ feedback. A Likert scale was used to evaluate participant responses. Results: Anonymous student evaluations rated the training and application exercises highly (\u3e4.0 of 5.0 on the Likert scale). Conclusions: Future collaborations with other residency programs could foster increased success rates in teaching question formulation skills. With these skills, orthopaedic residents could better integrate EBP into their daily clinical service and likely develop better clinical research questions

Search Strategies: Vegetable Foreign Body Mimicking as a Suspicious Pulmonary Nodule in an Adult Patient with a History of Lung Cancer; Microscopic Diagnosis of Vegetable Aspiration

To search in the PubMed and Web of Science databases to identify similar reports and submit this interesting case report in the postgraduate educational corner\u27 of the CHEST journal.\u2

Valued Information Resources when making Diagnoses: The experiences of Medical Students in a Clinical Reasoning Course

OBJECTIVES: The clinical reasoning process, aimed at making an accurate diagnosis, represents a complex activity. No studies to date have reported on how medical students harness existing information resources in their clinical reasoning courses to arrive at correct diagnoses. This study fills that gap. METHODS: Cross Sectional Study. An anonymous survey asked students to recall their most useful information resources halfway through their three clinical reasoning courses. Students then were asked to evaluate the comparative usefulness of these selected resources. Finally, students reported on those resources that they no longer found useful. This survey sought to learn what information resources medical students value so that librarians can provide the best possible instructional and collection resources. RESULTS: 69 of the 107 students enrolled in the Clinical Reasoning 2 course completed the three-part survey (64.5% response rate). Students frequently mentioned finding point-of-care tools, general web browsers, journal articles, course materials, and textbooks to be useful. When forced to rank their preferences students added medical society websites and the diagnostic tool Diagnosaurus in AccessMedicine. Students halfway through their three courses no longer found medical licensure exam review guides, patient-oriented sources, or course lecture notes to be helpful. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students halfway their three clinical reasoning courses provided surprising results as well as some expected results in this cross sectional study

MLA Research Agenda. Systematic Review Project. Team Updates Presentation. MLA Annual Meeting Supplement. May 17, 2015

Most of the 15 systematic review teams provided one-page summaries of their progress to date in compiling systematic reviews on one of 15 top-ranked important research projects. This builds upon an earlier Delphi study that was reported here: Eldredge JD, Ascher MT, Holmes HN, Harris MR. The new Medical Library Association research agenda: final results from a three-phase Delphi study. J Med Libr Assoc. 2012 Jul;100(3):214-8. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.100.3.012. PubMed PMID: 22879811; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3411260

Systematic Literature Search for MSCR Thesis: Intrathecal Pain Pumps for the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

This search strategy sought to construct an evidence-based position on the use of intrathecal pumps. We identified literature pertaining to the safety and efficacy of intrathecal pumps for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Articles obtained using this search strategy provided the background information for our thesis manuscript, which sought to determine if delivering opioids via the secure, non-tamperable intrathecal pain pump, in combination with other synergistic medications, would show improved pain scores and reduced side effects in patients with chronic neuropathic pain

The effects of boundary topography on convection in Earth′s core

We present the first investigation that explores the effects of an isolated topographic ridge on thermal convection in a planetary core-like geometry and using core-like fluid properties (i.e. using a liquid metal-like low Prandtl number fluid). The model′s mean azimuthal flow resonates with the ridge and results in the excitation of a stationary topographic Rossby wave. This wave generates recirculating regions that remain fixed to the mantle reference frame. Associated with these regions is a strong longitudinally dependent heat flow along the inner core boundary; this effect may control the location of melting and solidification on the inner core boundary. Theoretical considerations and the results of our simulations suggest that the wavenumber of the resonant wave, LR, scales as Ro−1/2, where Ro is the Rossby number. This scaling indicates that small-scale flow structures [wavenumber ] in the core can be excited by a topographic feature on the core-mantle boundary. The effects of strong magnetic diffusion in the core must then be invoked to generate a stationary magnetic signature that is comparable to the scale of observed geomagnetic structures [