The Implementation of a Professional Development Programme for Family Medicine residents in the Primary Health Care Corporation, Qatar

This change project centers on the implementation of a professional development program for Family Medicine residents in Primary Health Care Corporation. Like many other residency programs in the region, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I) Outcome Project was recently launched by Family Medicine Residency Program in Qatar. The aim of the project was to equip family medicine residents with the important knowledge and skills related to managerial, legal and communication issues. And the long-term goals were to optimize the residents’ chances for career success and to provide high- quality services in primary care practice. It is a planned, sequential, long-term program that includes a strong emphasis on the non-clinical career enhancement competencies already identified and prioritized by the ACGME-I. These competencies include Professionalism, Interpersonal and communication skills, Practice-based learning and improvement and System-based practice. Using the Senior and Swailes Organizational Development model to support the change, a five-day professional development program was developed and delivered to 39 Family Medicine residents from four Post Graduate Year levels. The Kirkpatrick’s four-level model was used in the evaluation. A positive reaction to the program was achieved as well as improvement in residents’ knowledge and skills. While the results are promising based on the initial evaluation of the project following implementation, it is clear, however, that a longer study on whether the effect of the program on residents performance is sustained is required and this will require ongoing evaluation and input from all those attending

Forensic analysis of social networking applications on mobile devices

The increased use of social networking applications on smartphones makes these devices a goldmine for forensic investigators. Potential evidence can be held on these devices and recovered with the right tools and examination methods. This paper focuses on conducting forensic analyses on three widely used social networking applications on smartphones: Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. The tests were conducted on three popular smartphones: BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Android phones. The tests consisted of installing the social networking applications on each device, conducting common user activities through each application, acquiring a forensically sound logical image of each device, and performing manual forensic analysis on each acquired logical image. The forensic analyses were aimed at determining whether activities conducted through these applications were stored on the device\u27s internal memory. If so, the extent, significance, and location of the data that could be found and retrieved from the logical image of each device were determined. The results show that no traces could be recovered from BlackBerry devices. However, iPhones and Android phones store a significant amount of valuable data that could be recovered and used by forensic investigators

Behavioural Evidence Analysis Applied to Digital Forensics: An Empirical Analysis of Child Pornography Cases using P2P Networks

The utility of Behavioural Evidence Analysis (BEA) has gained attention in the field of Digital Forensics in recent years. It has been recognized that, along with technical examination of digital evidence, it is important to learn as much as possible about the individuals behind an offence, the victim(s) and the dynamics of a crime. This can assist the investigator in producing a more accurate and complete reconstruction of the crime, in interpreting associated digital evidence, and with the description of investigative findings. Despite these potential benefits, the literature shows limited use of BEA for the investigation of cases of the possession and dissemination of Sexually Exploitative Imagery of Children (SEIC). This paper represents a step towards filling this gap. It reports on the forensic analysis of 15 SEIC cases involving P2P filesharing networks, obtained from the Dubai Police. Results confirmed the predicted benefits and indicate that BEA can assist digital forensic practitioners and prosecutors

Forensic analysis of private browsing artifacts

The paper investigates the effectiveness of the privacy mode feature in three widely used Web browsers, and outlines how to investigate when these browsers have been used to perform a criminal or illegal act. It performs an identical test on a privacy mode session for each of the three Web browsers and investigates whether traces are left behind. The analysis is done in three phases. First, common places where history and cache records are usually stored are examined. Then, other locations on the local machine are examined using special forensic tools. Also, the physical memory (RAM) is captured and examined for traces. © 2011 IEEE

Forensics and war-driving on unsecured wireless network

This paper investigates the effect of common war-driving on wireless network. Different war-driving software tools are examined and their effects are compared. It also investigates how forensics tools can monitor war drivers. The experiments show that significant numbers of homes are deploying wireless access points without much regard to the security of these devices and it is anticipated that more digital crime cases in this field will be deployed. Such cases include connecting to an unsecured home Wi-Fi network and performing illegal activities, or stealing personal data with sensitive information and using it to threaten victims or perform identity theft. © 2011 ICITST

Forensic artifacts of Facebook\u27s instant messaging service

This paper highlights the importance of Facebook\u27s instant messaging service (Facebook Chat) as a potential source of evidence in an investigation. The paper discusses the process of recovering and reconstructing artifacts left by the use of Facebook Chat on a computer\u27s hard disk. The paper describes experiments in which Facebook Chat conversations in Latin and Arabic character sets were conducted using three major web browsers, and then forensically retrieved. The results highlight how Facebook Chat artifacts of Arabic conversations can be difficult to locate with keyword search functions. The paper describes appropriate steps to overcome these difficulties. © 2011 ICITST

Integrating Behavioural Analysis within the Digital Forensics Investigation Process

This programme of research focused on incorporating Behavioural Analysis (BA) within the digital forensics investigation process. A review of previously developed digital forensics investigation models indicated a lack of sufficient consideration of the behavioural and motivational dimensions of offending, and the way in which digital evidence can be used to address these issues during the investigation process. This programme of research aimed to build on previous work by scientific researchers and investigators by developing a digital forensics investigation model which incorporates greater consideration of the behavioural and motivational implications of case-related digital evidence based on current theoretical understandings of these aspects of offending from forensic psychology. This can aid with understanding of the crime events and reconstruction, and lead to the development of more detailed models and guidelines for examining computer-facilitated interpersonal crimes. The first study employed an abductive approach to forensically analyse individual cases (real cases obtained from the Dubai Police archives) applying BA to the online Sexually Exploitative Imagery of Children (SEIC) and cyberstalking. Its aim was to investigate what BA could contribute to the digital forensics investigation of cases within these crime categories. It identified five benefits: (1) providing focus, speed and investigative directions, (2) inferring victim/offender behaviours, (3) inferring offender motivation(s), (4) identifying potential victims, and (5) eliminating suspects. This was followed by a survey study empirically examining the perceptions of national and international digital forensics practitioners regarding the use and utility of BA during the process of investigating SEIC and cyberstalking cases. The results indicated that while the majority believed that BA has potential to contribute to many aspects of digital forensics investigations, their daily investigative activities involved a limited use of this technique. The implications of the study were outlined, and emphasised the need to design a digital forensics investigation model that provides guiding steps and illustrations on how to utilise BA in digital forensics investigations. Based on the findings from the conducted studies, a digital forensics investigation model that incorporates aspects of BA was designed. It aimed to provide a pragmatic, structured, multidisciplinary approach to performing a post mortem examination, analysis, and interpretation of the content of the digital devices associated with computer-facilitated interpersonal crimes. Two comprehensive case studies were also used to illustrate the investigative importance of the model in investigating computer-facilitated interpersonal crimes

Behavioural Digital Forensics Model: Embedding Behavioural Evidence Analysis into the Investigation of Digital Crimes

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The state-of-the-art and practice show an increased recognition, but limited adoption, of Behavioural Evidence Analysis (BEA) within the Digital Forensics (DF) investigation process. Yet, there is currently no BEA-driven process model and guidelines for DF investigators to follow in order to take advantage of such an approach. This paper proposes the Behavioural Digital Forensics Model to fill this gap. It takes a multidisciplinary approach which incorporates BEA into in-lab investigation of seized devices related to interpersonal cases (i.e., digital crimes involving human interactions between offender(s) and victim(s)). The model was designed based on the application of traditional BEA phases to 35 real cases, and evaluated using 5 real digital crime cases - all from Dubai Police archive. This paper, however, provides details of only one case from this evaluation pool. Compared to the outcome of these cases using a traditional DF investigation process, the new model showed a number of benefits. It allowed a more effective focusing of the investigation, and provided logical directions for identifying the location of further relevant evidence. It also enabled a better understanding and interpretation of victim/offender behaviours (e.g., probable offenders’ motivations and modus operandi), which facilitated a more in depth understanding of the dynamics of the specific crime. Finally, in some cases, it enabled the identification of suspect\u27s collaborators, something which was not identified via the traditional investigative process

Investigation of Indecent Images of Children cases: Challenges and suggestions collected from the trenches

Previous studies examining the investigative challenges and needs of Digital Forensic (DF) practitioners have typically taken a sector-wide focus. This paper presents the results of a survey which collected text-rich comments about the challenges experienced and related suggestions for improvement in the investigation of Indecent Images of Children (IIOC) cases. The comments were provided by 153 international DF practitioners (28.1% survey response rate) and were processed using Thematic Analysis. This resulted in the identification of 4 IIOC-specific challenge themes, and 6 DF-generic challenges which directly affect IIOC. The paper discusses these identified challenges from a practitioner perspective, and outlines their suggestions for addressing them

A program evaluation reporting student perceptions of early clinical exposure to primary care at a new medical college in Qatar

Background: Though common practice in Europe, few studies have described the efficacy of early clinical exposure (ECE) in the Middle East. The barriers to clinical learning experienced by these novice medical students have not been reported. This evaluation reports on introducing ECE in primary care, supported by Experiential Review (ER) debriefing sessions. The evaluation explores students' experiences of their acquisition of clinical and non-technical skills, sociocultural issues commonly encountered but underreported and barriers to clinical learning experienced. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of three student cohorts in 2017-19: All second and third-year students at the new College of Medicine were invited to participate. The primary outcome was students' perceptions of the aims of the Primary Health Centre Placement (PHCP) programme and how it facilitated learning. Secondary outcome measures were students' perceptions of their learning in ER sessions and perceived barriers to learning during PHCPs. Student perceptions of the PHCPs were measured using a Likert scale-based questionnaire. Results: One hundred and fifty-one students participated: 107 in year 2 and 44 in year 3; 72.3% were female. Overall, most students (> 70%) strongly agreed or agreed with the purposes of the PCHPs. Most students (71%) strongly agreed or agreed that the PCHPs allowed them to learn about patient care; 58% to observe doctors as role models and 55% to discuss managing common clinical problems with family physicians. Most students (year 2 = 62.5% and year 3 = 67%) strongly agreed/agreed that they were now confident taking histories and examining patients. Student barriers to clinical learning included: Unclear learning outcomes (48.3%); faculty too busy to teach (41.7%); lacking understanding of clinical medicine (29.1%); shyness (26.5%); and finding talking to patients difficult and embarrassing (25.8%). Over 70% reported that ER enabled them to discuss ethical and professional issues. Conclusions: Overall, our Middle Eastern students regard ECE as beneficial to their clinical learning. PHCPs and ER sessions together provide useful educational experiences for novice learners. We recommend further exploration of the barriers to learning to explore whether these novice students' perceptions are manifesting underlying cultural sensitivities or acculturation to their new environment.Scopu