A matter of words: NLP for quality evaluation of Wikipedia medical articles

Automatic quality evaluation of Web information is a task with many fields of applications and of great relevance, especially in critical domains like the medical one. We move from the intuition that the quality of content of medical Web documents is affected by features related with the specific domain. First, the usage of a specific vocabulary (Domain Informativeness); then, the adoption of specific codes (like those used in the infoboxes of Wikipedia articles) and the type of document (e.g., historical and technical ones). In this paper, we propose to leverage specific domain features to improve the results of the evaluation of Wikipedia medical articles. In particular, we evaluate the articles adopting an "actionable" model, whose features are related to the content of the articles, so that the model can also directly suggest strategies for improving a given article quality. We rely on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and dictionaries-based techniques in order to extract the bio-medical concepts in a text. We prove the effectiveness of our approach by classifying the medical articles of the Wikipedia Medicine Portal, which have been previously manually labeled by the Wiki Project team. The results of our experiments confirm that, by considering domain-oriented features, it is possible to obtain sensible improvements with respect to existing solutions, mainly for those articles that other approaches have less correctly classified. Other than being interesting by their own, the results call for further research in the area of domain specific features suitable for Web data quality assessment

Is Content Really King? An Objective Analysis of the Public's Response to Medical Videos on YouTube

Medical educators and patients are turning to YouTube to teach and learn about medical conditions. These videos are from authors whose credibility cannot be verified & are not peer reviewed. As a result, studies that have analyzed the educational content of YouTube have reported dismal results. These studies have been unable to exclude videos created by questionable sources and for non-educational purposes. We hypothesize that medical education YouTube videos, authored by credible sources, are of high educational value and appropriately suited to educate the public. Credible videos about cardiovascular diseases were identified using the Mayo Clinic's Center for Social Media Health network. Content in each video was assessed by the presence/absence of 7 factors. Each video was also evaluated for understandability using the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM). User engagement measurements were obtained for each video. A total of 607 videos (35 hours) were analyzed. Half of all videos contained 3 educational factors: treatment, screening, or prevention. There was no difference between the number of educational factors present & any user engagement measurement (p NS). SAM scores were higher in videos whose content discussed more educational factors (p<0.0001). However, none of the user engagement measurements correlated with higher SAM scores. Videos with greater educational content are more suitable for patient education but unable to engage users more than lower quality videos. It is unclear if the notion “content is king� applies to medical videos authored by credible organizations for the purposes of patient education on YouTube

Integrated problem-based learning in the neuroscience curriculum – the SUNY Downstate experience

BACKGROUND: This paper reports the author's initial experience as Block Director in converting a Conventional Curriculum into a problem-based learning model (PBL) for teaching Psychopathology. As part of a wide initiative in curriculum reform, Psychopathology, which was a six-week course in the second-year medical school curriculum, became integrated into a combined Neuroscience block. The study compares curriculum conversion at State University of New York (SUNY), Downstate, with the experiences at other medical centres that have instituted similar curricula reform. METHODS: Student satisfaction with the Conventional and PBL components of the Neuroscience curriculum was compared using questionnaires and formal discussions between faculty and a body of elected students. The PBL experience in Psychopathology was also compared with that of the rest of the Neuroscience Block, which used large student groups and expert facilitators, while the Psychopathology track was limited to small groups using mentors differing widely in levels of expertise. RESULTS: Students appeared to indicate a preference toward conventional lectures and large PBL groups using expert facilitators in contrast to small group mentors who were not experts. Small PBL groups with expert mentors in the Psychopathology track were also rated favorably. CONCLUSION: The study reviews the advantages and pitfalls of the PBL system when applied to a Neuroscience curriculum on early career development. At SUNY, conversion from a Conventional model to a PBL model diverged from that proposed by Howard S. Barrows where student groups define the learning objectives and problem-solving strategies. In our model, the learning objectives were faculty-driven. The critical issue for the students appeared to be the level of faculty expertise rather than group size. Expert mentors were rated more favorably by students in fulfilling the philosophical objectives of PBL. The author, by citing the experience at other major Medical Faculties, makes a cautious attempt to address the challenges involved in the conversion of a Psychopathology curriculum into a PBL dominated format

Perceptions of newly admitted undergraduate medical students on experiential training on community placements and working in rural areas of Uganda

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Uganda has an acute problem of inadequate human resources partly due to health professionals' unwillingness to work in a rural environment. One strategy to address this problem is to arrange health professional training in rural environments through community placements. Makerere University College of Health Sciences changed training of medical students from the traditional curriculum to a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum in 2003. This curriculum is based on the SPICES model (student-centered, problem-based, integrated, community-based and services oriented). During their first academic year, students undergo orientation on key areas of community-based education, after which they are sent in interdisciplinary teams for community placements. The objective was to assess first year students' perceptions on experiential training through community placements and factors that might influence their willingness to work in rural health facilities after completion of their training.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The survey was conducted among 107 newly admitted first year students on the medical, nursing, pharmacy and medical radiography program students, using in-depth interview and open-ended self-administered questionnaires on their first day at the college, from October 28-30, 2008. Data was collected on socio-demographic characteristics, motivation for choosing a medical career, prior exposure to rural health facilities, willingness to have part of their training in rural areas and factors that would influence the decision to work in rural areas.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Over 75% completed their high school from urban areas. The majority had minimal exposure to rural health facilities, yet this is where most of them will eventually have to work. Over 75% of the newly admitted students were willing to have their training from a rural area. Perceived factors that might influence retention in rural areas include the local context of work environment, support from family and friends, availability of continuing professional training for career development and support of co-workers and the community.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Many first year students at Makerere University have limited exposure to health facilities in rural areas and have concerns about eventually working there.</p

Self- and peer assessment may not be an accurate measure of PBL tutorial process

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Universidade Cidade de São Paulo adopted a problem-based learning (PBL) strategy as the predominant method for teaching and learning medicine. Self-, peer- and tutor marks of the educational process are taken into account as part of the final grade, which also includes assessment of content. This study compared the different perspectives (and grades) of evaluators during tutorials with first year medical students, from 2004 to 2007 (n = 349), from seven semesters.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The tutorial evaluation method was comprised of the students' self assessment (SA) (10%), tutor assessment (TA) (80%) and peer assessment (PA) (10%) to calculate a final educational process grade for each tutorial. We compared these three grades from each tutorial for seven semesters using ANOVA and a post hoc test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 349 students participated with 199 (57%) women and 150 (42%) men. The SA and PA scores were consistently greater than the TA scores. Moreover, the SA and PA groups did not show statistical difference in any semester evaluated, while both differed from tutor assessment in all semesters (Kruskal-Wallis, Dunn's test). The Spearman rank order showed significant (p < 0.0001) and positive correlation for the SA and PA groups (r = 0.806); this was not observed when we compared TA with PA (r = 0.456) or TA with SA (r = 0.376).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Peer- and self-assessment marks might be reliable but not valid for PBL tutorial process, especially if these assessments are used for summative assessment, composing the final grade. This article suggests reconsideration of the use of summative assessment for self-evaluation in PBL tutorials.</p

Are tutor behaviors in problem-based learning stable? A generalizability study of social congruence, expertise and cognitive congruence

The purpose of this study was to investigate the stability of three distinct tutor behaviors (1) use of subject-matter expertise, (2) social congruence and (3) cognitive congruence, in a problem-based learning (PBL) environment. The data comprised the input from 16,047 different students to a survey of 762 tutors administered in three consecutive semesters. Over the three semesters each tutor taught two of the same course and one different course. A generalizability study was conducted to determine whether the tutor behaviors were generalizable across the three measurement occasions. The results indicate that three semesters are sufficient to make generalizations about all three tutor behaviors. In addition the results show that individual differences between tutors account for the greatest differences in levels of expertise, social congruence and cognitive congruence. The study concludes that tutor behaviors are fairly consistent in PBL and somewhat impervious to change. Implications of these findings for tutor training are discussed