Misoprostol for the Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage and Reduction of Maternal Mortality During Home Birth Deliveries in Developing Countries

A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine.Research conducted in low resource environments suggests misoprostol is effective in reducing the incidence of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), but larger studies in skilled healthcare facilities suggests misoprostol does not positively impact maternal mortality. There are no systematic reviews specifically examining the effect of misoprostol vs. placebo on PPH in environments where oxytocin is simply not available.This item is part of the College of Medicine - Phoenix Scholarly Projects 2018 collection. For more information, contact the Phoenix Biomedical Campus Library at [email protected]

Virtual Town Hall Meetings to Convey Emergency Medicine Residency Program Information to Students

Background: Applying to emergency medicine (EM) residency programs as a medical student is challenging and complicated in a normal year, but the 2020/2021 application cycle was further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the decrease of in-person opportunities for students to connect with residency programs, virtual “town-hall” meetings were developed. In this study our primary objective was to determine whether attendance at a virtual residency program information session improved the perceived knowledge of curriculum information and program exposure to medical students applying to an EM residency.Methods: Four study sites hosted a total of 12 virtual events consisting of residents, faculty, or both. Standardized pre-event/post-event surveys were conducted to capture medical student perceptions before/after each of the virtual sessions. Apart from measuring the improvement in students’ perceived knowledge of a program by gauging their responses to each question, we used a 10-question composite score to compare pre- vs post-event improvement among the participants.Results: The pre-event survey was completed by 195 attendees, and the post-event survey was completed by 123 attendees. The median and mean composite score to this 10-question survey improved from 32.19 to 45, and 31.45 to 44.2, respectively, in the pre- to post-event survey.Conclusion: This study showed improvement of medical students’ perceived knowledge of residency programs (reflected as increased agreement from pre- to post-event survey). The data demonstrates through question responses that students not only obtained information about the programs but also were able to gain exposure to the culture and “feel” of a program. In a non-traditional application season in which students are unable to pursue their interest in a program through audition rotations, virtual town hall events, along with other asynchronous events, may be a reasonable approach to increasing medical student understanding and awareness of a program and its culture