How should Medical Students Be Allowed to Access and Utilize the Electronic Medical Recording System During the Bed-side Learning?: The Dilemma between Information Security and Educational Support / 医学教育

Medical students must be able to access electronic medical records and to utilize the information during bedside learning. However, there are no guidelines for using the electronic medical record system in undergraduate medical education. We created and implemented a written agreement regarding regulations for using the system. To ensure system security, users are authenticated with a fingerprint mouse. The patients' information can be retrieved from an Intranetbased reference database, and students' sheets are prepared for training in writing medical records. In conclusion, this method is a way of enhancing the authenticity of clinical education.

Contralateral cervical lymph node metastasis in piriform sinus carcinoma / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate relative factors affecting contralateral cervical lymph node metastasis in piriform sinus carcinoma.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Ninety-six cases of piriform sinus carcinoma with no preoperative treatments were selected. The contralateral cervical lymph node metastasis and relative factors were analyzed during operation or postoperative follow-up. The contralateral cervical metastasis was defined as followed: 1 contralateral cervical metastasis was confirmed pathologically after bilateral neck dissection (pN2c) or 2 contralateral cervical metastasis was found firstly during postoperative follow-up and the recurrence of primary lesion was excluded.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The incidence of contralateral cervical metastasis was 32% (31/96). According to the T stage, the incidence of contralateral cervical metastasis was T1: 0% ,T2: 18%, T3: 37%, T4: 32% and to the N stage N0: 12%, N1: 13%, N2a: 17%, N2b: 39%, N2c: 100%, and N3: 75%. For primary lesions beyond midline the incidence of contralateral cervical metastasis was 52% but for those remaining on ipsilateral side it was 18%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Contralateral cervical lymph node showed higher metastatic incidence with higher T and N stage. When the primary lesions invaded beyond midline, the contralateral cervical metastasis increased greatly and neck dissection should be selected positively.</p>

Medical Informatics Training During Clinical Clerkship and the Shift from Computer Literacy to Information Literacy / 医学教育

A clinical clerkship in medical informatics was introduced in the 5th year of medical school. One goal is computer literacy, which means comprehension of the hospital information system including security policy and privacy preservation. The other is information literacy; The students make presentations concerning the medical information system and information technology within approximately ten minutes. All participants were enthusiastic about preparing the presentation. Seventy percent of them acknowledged the significance of explaining persuasively to others what they studied and the usefulness of these skills developed in this clerkship in their future. This result implies the importance of the shift to information literacy.

Association between the Combination Therapy and Underlying Diseases for Hypertensive Patients by a Drug Utilization Survey / 薬剤疫学

Objective : To examine the association between the combination therapy of calcium antagonists with angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and underlying diseases for hypertensive patients.<BR>Design : Cross-sectional survey of the drug utilization.<BR>Methods : This survey included 603 hypertensive patients who had visited Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital, Toyama, Japan more than twice from January to June in 1996 and received the prescriptions of calcium antagonists and/or ACE inhibitors. Main outcome measure was the combined medication of calcium antagonists with ACE inhibitors. Underlying diseases under consideration were diabetes mellitus (DM), hyperlipidemia (LIPID), ischemic heart disease (IHD), chronic heart failure (CHF), and ischemic stroke (STROKE).<BR>Results : Out of 603 hypertensive patients, 57.5% received only calcium antagonists, 23.7% received only ACE inhibitors, and 18.7% received both of them. Patients with either IHD or CHF tended to receive the combination therapy as compared to DM or LIPID. Although men tended to receive the combination therapy, a gender effect might be a confounder for the association. Logistic regression showed a 33% increase (P=0.265) in frequency of the combination therapy in patients with IHD after adjusting for age and gender.<BR>Conclusion : Some underlying diseases were associated with more frequent prescriptions of the combination therapy for hypertensive patients, especially with ischemic heart diseases. This result should be regarded as an exploratory stage although the pattern of antihypertensive drug use could be reasonably explained from the pharmacological sense.