Medical ethics : a study of moral developments in medical students at Kuwait University

There are few in depth attempts to address the question: why teach ethics to medical students? This thesis argues that, identifying moral growth and development as the primary goal in teaching medical ethics is essential. Lawrence Kohlberg's moral development theory is the starting point for this research. This is important to understand the work of the researcher at the Medial School in Kuwait. The instrument used in assessing the moral reasoning of medical students at Kuwait University is the Defining Issues Test (DIT), which was devised at the University of Minnesota. The study hypothesis is that the rigid, authoritarian medical education in Kuwait University that lacks any emphasis on medical ethics will inhibit the expected growth in moral development of medical students. With a disappointing response rate of only 27.8%, it was found that normally expected growth did not occur in the first four years of medical education, suggesting that the educational experience somehow inhibited student's moral reasoning ability rather than facilitating it. The results of this study cannot be understood in isolation from the general understanding of the fabric of the researcher society, which was detailed in Chapter Five. The implication of this study is basically that medical education that ignores the moral nature of medicine will fail its own purpose, the needs of its students and the welfare of society

The Association between Dominant Macular Drusen and Central Retinal Artery Occlusion in Young Females with Cardiac Valve Disease

To describe uncommon association between central retinal artery obstruction and dominant macular drusen in two young female patients. First patient, a 22-year-old female was presented with right central artery obstruction associated with bilateral dominant macular drusen. Systemic evaluation disclosed the presence of mitral valve regurge. Second patient, a 34-year-old female with a previous history of right central retinal artery obstruction diagnosed elsewhere. Fundus exam showed bilateral dominant macular drusen and her systemic evaluation revealed severe rheumatic valve stenosis, moderate aortic regurge with moderate to severe tricuspid regurge and she underwent mitral valve replacement. To the best of our knowledge, the association between central retinal artery obstruction and dominant macular drusen was not previously reported

Automated detection of diabetic retinopathy: results of a screening study

Background: This study evaluated the operating characteristics of a reading software (Retinalyze® System, Retinalyze A/S, Hørsholm, Denmark) for automated prescreening of digital fundus images for diabetic retinopathy. Methods: Digital fundus images of patients with diabetes were retrospectively selected from the Bro Taf diabetic retinopathy screening program in Wales, UK in the period of 2002–2004, which has been superseded by the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service for Wales. A gold standard reference was defined by classifying each patient as having or not having diabetic retinopathy based on overall visual grading of the digitized images using the Bro Taf reading protocol. Automated grading was applied using automated red or bright lesion detection at varying detection sensitivities and adjusting for image quality. Operating characteristics included sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV, respectively). Results: Automated analysis of four hundred fundus photographs of 192 eyes from 96 patients with diabetes was performed. The automated red lesion detection had a sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 75%, PPV of 41%, and NPV of 95%. Combined automated red and bright lesion detection yielded a sensitivity of 88%, specificity of 52%, PPV of 28%, and NPV of 95%. Performance of the combined red and bright lesion detection at elevated thresholds in images of good quality demonstrated a sensitivity of 93%, specificity of 78%, PPV of 46%, and NPV of 98%. Conclusions: Prescreening for diabetic retinopathy by automated detection of single fundus lesions seem to be achieved with minimal false negativity and can help to decrease the burden of manual diabetic retinopathy screening

Measuring the extent and nature of use of Social Networking Sites in Medical Education (SNSME) by university students: Results of a multi-center study

There is a sharp rise in the use of social networking sites (SNSs) by university students for various purposes. However, little is known about the use of SNSs for educational purposes. This study aims to determine educational use of SNSs by the medical students of two Saudi and a Kuwaiti medical school. A cross-sectional study was conducted by administering a 20-statement questionnaire to the undergraduate medical and allied health sciences students of two Saudi universities: Taibah University (TU) and Imam Abdulrahman AlFaisal University (IAFU), and one Kuwaiti university, Kuwait University (KU). The data were collected and analyzed by SPSS 20. Of a total of 1312 respondents, 1181 (90%) students used SNSs and 131 (10%) did not use SNSs for any reason. Further, only 442/1181 (37%, p < 0.00) students used SNSs for education and found these sites to be useful. As many as 357 (27%) students used SNSs for sharing education-related information once a day, 306 (23%) 3–5 times a day, and 331 (25%) once a week. A maximum of 678 (52%) used Facebook for educational purpose and most of the students, 469 (38%), used SNSs for sharing lectures. There were significant variations in responses among genders and year of schooling. The use of online social media in medical education is a rapidly evolving arena of scholarship. Low use of SNSs for sharing information and significant variations in perceptions of medical students about social media should draw attention of policy-makers for promoting awareness and educational reforms