Career-computer simulation increases perceived importance of learning about rare diseases

Background: Rare diseases may be defined as occurring in less than 1 in 2000 patients. Such conditions are, however, so numerous that up to 5.9% of the population is afflicted by a rare disease. The gambling industry attests that few people have native skill evaluating probabilities. We believe that both students and academics, under-estimate the likelihood of encountering rare diseases. This combines with pressure on curriculum time, to reduce both student interest in studying rare diseases, and academic content preparing students for clinical practice. Underestimation of rare diseases, may also contribute to unhelpful blindness to considering such conditions in the clinic. Methods: We first developed a computer simulation, modelling the number of cases of increasingly rare conditions encountered by a cohort of clinicians. The simulation captured results for each year of practice, and for each clinician throughout the entirety of their careers. Four hundred sixty-two theoretical conditions were considered, with prevalence ranging from 1 per million people through to 64.1% of the population. We then delivered a class with two in-class on-line surveys evaluating student perception of the importance of learning about rare diseases, one before and the other after an in-class real-time computer simulation. Key simulation variables were drawn from the student group, to help students project themselves into the simulation. Results: The in-class computer simulation revealed that all graduating clinicians from that class would frequently encounter rare conditions. Comparison of results of the in-class survey conducted before and after the computer simulation, revealed a significant increase in the perceived importance of learning about rare diseases (p < 0.005). Conclusions: The computer career simulation appeared to affect student perception. Because the computer simulation demonstrated clinicians frequently encounter patients with rare diseases, we further suggest this should be considered by academics during curriculum review and design

Developing a software for removable partial denture design: Part I: Data collection

Background and Aim: Proper designing of partial denture frameworks is the duty of dentists, but this task is often abdicated to technicians because of lack of time and experience. Computer assisted learning and designing can be used for both training dental students and helping dentists design proper frameworks. As the first step to prepare software for framework designing, this study evaluated the agreement on different framework designing principles, among prosthodontists of dental schools in Iran. &quot;nMaterials and Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 121 design rules was sent to 41 prosthodontists at seven dental schools in Iran .The percentage rate of agreement on results was used for data analysis. &quot;nResults: The percentage of rules accepted by more than 60% of the prosthodontists was 76.2%. It consisted 80% saddle rules, 76.2% rest rules, 78.4% clasp rules, 63.6% maxillary major connector&apos;s rules and 80.9% mandibular major connector rules. &quot;nConclusion: The percentage of accepted rules by Iranian prosthodontists was 76.2%. Maxillary major connectors had the least acceptance