Comparison of attitudes toward community-based medicine between regional-quota and general-selected medical student in Japan / Journal of Rural Medicine

Objective: This study compared the regional-quota and general-selected medical students’ understanding, interest, and confidence in the community medicine practice and their attitudes toward the concept guidelines.Methods: We conducted a Web-based questionnaire survey regarding the understanding, interest, and confidence in future community medicine practice and attitudes toward concept guidelines among medical students of all grades (regional-quota and general-selected: n=82 and n=617, respectively).Results: The overall response rates were 68.5% (56/82) and 66.0% (409/617) in the regional-quota and general-selected groups, respectively. Although there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of understanding (P=0.998), interest and confidence in future practice were significantly higher in the regional-quota group (both P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups for any of the six questions regarding community medicine guidelines.Conclusion: The understanding of community medicine or its conceptual guidelines did not significantly differ between the two groups; however, interest and confidence in future practice were significantly higher in the regional-quota group. These results suggest that the regional-quota system positively upregulates the interest in community medicine, which could be associated with confidence in future practice. Comprehensive and longitudinal improvements in the regional-quota system may be effective in cultivating community medicine.

Cases of hypoglycemia in cancer patients taking quetiapine

<b>Case</b>: Cancer patients without impaired glucose tolerance developed hypoglycemia during the administration of quetiapine. After increasing the amount of the drug, hypoglycemia was developed in the wake of fasting. <b>Discussion</b>: There is a possibility that quetiapine inhibited the hypoglycemic compensatory reactions during starvation. <b>Conclusion</b>: In cancer patients taking quetiapine, it is necessary to observe the onset of symptoms of hypoglycemia as well as hyperglycemia in mind. And blood glucose measurement on a regular basis is desirable.