A study on the evaluation of medical students perception and feedback of teaching-learning of pharmacology in a medical college.

Background: Pharmacology, like any other branch of medicine, is progressing by leaps and bounds. Consequently, reforms in undergraduate teaching are the need of the hour. Objectives: To determine the medical students’ perception and receive feedback on teaching and learning of pharmacology in our institution. Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study based on the questionnaire. A pre-validated, predesigned questionnaire containing 23 points was administered to fifth term medical students. Results: 73.43% wanted the faculty members to make more use of Audio-Visual aids for effective learning. 98.43% students wanted to include case based learning in the curriculum and 90.62% students wanted more of the clinical pharmacology to be introduced in the curriculum. 70% participants wished recent advances to be included in the curriculum and almost 80% were in favour of MCQs to be included in assessment of their academic performance. Only 26% participants felt rabbit eye experiments was appropriate and relevant to the present days of practical pharmacology reflecting a need for reforms. Only 10.93% students were willing to consider pharmacology as one of the subject for post-graduation. About 25% students felt the ideal teaching method for learning pharmacology was didactic lectures and group discussions and 81% thought the ideal teaching/learning media for pharmacology was the combination of LCD projector and blackboard. The most difficult system to understand was Autonomic Nervous System (53%). Conclusion: The study revealed the perception and feedback of the students regarding learning pharmacology were positive and constructive. It also revealed the priority areas for improvement.

Mapping of risk prone areas of kala-azar (Visceral leishmaniasis) in parts of Bihar State, India: an RS and GIS approach.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: The kala-azar fever (Visceral leishmaniasis) is continuing unabated in India for over a century, now being largely confined to the eastern part of India mainly in Bihar state and to some extent in its bordering states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Two study sites namely Patepur block in Vaishali district with high endemicity in northern part and Lohardagga block in Lohardagga district with absolute non-endemicity in southern part of Bihar were selected for the study with the following objectives : (i) to study the macro-ecosystem in relation to distribution of vector -Phlebotomus argentipes; (ii) to identify/map the risk prone areas or villages in a block for quick remedial measures; and (iii) to make use of satellite remote sensing and GIS to demonstrate the utility for rapid assessment of landuse/landcover and their relation with the incidence of kalaazar leading to the mapping of risk prone areas. METHODS: Indian Remote Sensing (IRS)-1D LISS III satellite data for the periods of March and November 2000 were analysed in Silicon graphic image processing system using ERDAS software. False color composites (FCC) were generated and landuse/landcover was assessed using Maximum likelihood supervised classification techniques based on ground truth training sets. During the study the GIS functions are used to quantify the remotely sensed landscape proportions of 5 km2 buffer surrounding each known group of villages of high occurrence of sandflies in endemic and nonendemic study sites. Instead of traditional ground based survey methods to vector surveillance, the present study used a combination of remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) approach to develop landscape predictors of sandfly abundance-an indicator of human vector contact and as a measure of risk prone areas. RESULTS: Statistical analysis using the remotely sensed landscape variables showed that rural villages surrounded by higher proportion of transitional swamps with soft stemmed edible plants and banana, sugarcane plantations had higher sandfly abundance and would, therefore, be at higher risk prone areas for man-vector contact. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: The present study clearly brought out the usefulness of satellite remote sensing technology in generating the crucial information on spatial distribution of landuse/landcover classes with special emphasis on indicator landcover classes thereby helping in prioritising the area to identify risk prone areas of kala-azar through GIS application tools.

Mechanical ventilation of newborns: experience from a level II NICU.

OBJECTIVES: To analyse the indications, clinical profile, complications and outcome of the babies requiring mechanical ventilation. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: NICU of a teaching hospital. SUBJECTS: One hundred and twenty one neonates requiring assisted ventilation during three years. RESULTS: Of 121 babies 59(48.76%) survived. Hyaline membrane disease (HMD) was the commonest indication for ventilation followed by birth asphyxia, apnea of prematurity, meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) and septicemia. Infants with HMD whose birth weight was more than 1.5 kg and those who required ventilation after 24 hours of birth had better outcome. Survival rates increased with increasing birth weight and gestational age. Prolonged ventilatory support was needed for HMD (mean 117.3 hr) and MAS (mean 82.6 hr). Pneumonia was the commonest complication, followed by sepsis, air leak syndromes and intracranial and pulmonary hemorrhage. CONCLUSIONS: Ventilatory facilities must be focussed for neonates weighing > 1000 g. Assisted ventilation may not be cost-effective in patients weighing < or = 1000 g and those with complex heart diseases and other congenital anomalies.