Catering for diversity in the digital age: Reconsidering equity in assessment practices

While the affordance of the digital age certainly enable more diver e students to access higher education, higher education assessment is often under-­pinned by notion of equality rather than equity. Drawing together key literature and data from interviews with 53 first year undergraduate student from low socio­economic status background, this chapter identifies three potential causes of assessment inequity which appear to persist into the digital age: student assessment elf-efficacy, prior preparation. and external pressures. It then identifies how the affordance of modern technology can be used to help combat these challenges

Advances in the diagnosis and classification of gastric and intestinal motility disorders

Disturbances of gastric, intestinal and colonic motor and sensory functions affect a large proportion of the population worldwide, impair quality of life and cause considerable health-care costs. Assessment of gastrointestinal motility in these patients can serve to establish diagnosis and to guide therapy. Major advances in diagnostic techniques during the past 5-10 years have led to this update about indications for and selection and performance of currently available tests. As symptoms have poor concordance with gastrointestinal motor dysfunction, clinical motility testing is indicated in patients in whom there is no evidence of causative mucosal or structural diseases such as inflammatory or malignant disease. Transit tests using radiopaque markers, scintigraphy, breath tests and wireless motility capsules are noninvasive. Other tests of gastrointestinal contractility or sensation usually require intubation, typically represent second-line investigations limited to patients with severe symptoms and are performed at only specialized centres. This Consensus Statement details recommended tests as well as useful clinical alternatives for investigation of gastric, small bowel and colonic motility. The article provides recommendations on how to classify gastrointestinal motor disorders on the basis of test results and describes how test results guide treatment decisions

The Early Treatment for Retinopathy Of Prematurity Study: structural findings at age 2 years

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether earlier treatment of high‐risk, prethreshold retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) improves retinal structural outcome at 2 years of age. METHODS: Infants with bilateral high‐risk prethreshold ROP had one eye randomly assigned to treatment with peripheral retinal ablation. The fellow eye was managed conventionally, and either treated at threshold ROP or observed if threshold was never reached. In patients with asymmetrical disease, the high‐risk, prethreshold eye was randomised to earlier treatment or to conventional management. At 2 years of age, children were examined comprehensively by certified ophthalmologists to determine structural outcomes for their eyes. For the purposes of this study, an unfavourable structural outcome was defined as (1) a posterior retinal fold involving the macula, (2) a retinal detachment involving the macula or (3) retrolental tissue or “mass” obscuring the view of the posterior pole. Results of the 2‐year examination were compared with those from the 9 months examination. RESULTS: Data were available on 339 of 374 (90.6%) surviving children. Unfavourable structural outcomes were reduced from 15.4% in conventionally managed eyes to 9.1% in earlier‐treated eyes (p = 0.002) at 2 years of age. Ophthalmic side effects (excluding retinal structure) from the ROP or its treatment were similar in the earlier‐treated eyes and the conventionally managed eyes. CONCLUSION: The benefit of earlier treatment of high‐risk prethreshold ROP on retinal structure endures to 2 years of age, and is not counterbalanced by any known side effect caused by earlier intervention. Earlier treatment improves the chance for long‐term favourable retinal structural outcome in eyes with high‐risk prethreshold ROP. Long‐term follow‐up is planned to determine structural and functional outcomes at 6 years of age