A Case Report on Using a Board Game in Undergraduate Patient Safety Education to Enable Communication Error Experiences / 医学教育

Introduction: It is important to educate undergraduates about communication errors in clinical sites, but it is difficult for clinically inexperienced students to imagine those errors. Therefore, in this study, a board game (BG) was developed and put into practice to encourage students' understanding.　Methods: The BG consists of a board on which the patient's name is written and cards on which drug names are written. Students place cards on the board according to the teacher's instructions. These instructions include multiple traps based on actual incident cases. Through the game, students experienced errors.　Reflection: This BG contains gamification elements that make learning contents simple and fun and simulation elements that reproduce errors with high fidelity. By combining these elements, it is possible for each aspect of the ARCS model to be provided in a well-balanced manner, even in patient safety education for clinically inexperienced students.

A Case Report on First-Year Experience Using Escape Rooms with Simulation / 医学教育

Introduction: Recently, Escape Rooms have been included in educational content.　Method: An Escape Room style class was conducted for first-year medical students to review previously learned content and to learn how to collaborate with others. The class was 70 minutes in total, 45 minutes of that was spent playing games. These included not only puzzles and riddles but also simulation-based tasks such as BLS. Multi-ending style was also used to motivate students.　Result: In addition to the difficulty of making stories and puzzles, the management of staff and organizing of the games were also challenging for the class.　Discussion: There are few comprehensive studies on educational practices using escape rooms. Research is necessary to consider effective and practical training methods.

Use of Medical Simulators for Self-Learning among Undergraduates in Japan / 医学教育

While the number of medical schools with simulators is increasing, data pertaining to self-learning is scarce. We conducted a web survey, exploring the ownership and use of simulators at 82 medical schools in Japan; 29 medical schools responded. Twenty-eight of the medical schools owned one or more simulators. Twenty-four allowed undergraduates to engage in self-learning using simulators, and many imposed some restrictions on their use. The medical schools allowed the simulators to be used for a variety of reasons, including “examination preparation,” “improvement of clinical ability,” and “to meet strong demands from students.” Reasons for restriction on use were “equipment management” and “doubts regarding the outcome of self-learning without faculty.” The use of simulators in self-learning is widely supported at medical schools in Japan. In order to optimize self-learning with simulators, appropriate settings and optimal simulator choice should be explored.

A Survey of the Collection, Provision, and Application of Drug Safety Information at Hospitals / 医薬品情報学

<b>Objective: </b>We conducted a questionnaire survey to comprehend the situation regarding the collection, provision, and utilization of drug safety information at hospitals.  In addition, we asked pharmaceutical companies how they select medical institutions to provide drug safety information.  We also investigated the current situation of information provision to Tokyo Medial Center by pharmaceutical companies.<br><b>Method: </b>A questionnaire was mailed to all hospitals in Japan.  The survey was conducted between January 13 and February 10, 2011.  Moreover, we asked thirteen pharmaceutical companies by telephone and e-mail about the implementation status of the provision of information and performed a survey at Tokyo Medical Center on the current situation of information provision by pharmaceutical companies regarding revisions to precaution sections in package inserts.<br><b>Results: </b>The results of the questionnaire survey (response rate: 41.2%) showed that the major information sources for hospitals were medical representatives (77.8%), Drug Safety Update (50.3%) and direct mails (49.3%).  Furthermore, in the case of drugs prescribed exclusively for extramural dispensing, fewer hospitals responded that medical representatives of the pharmaceutical companies provided drug safety information and more hospitals responded that they did not obtain any drug safety information at all, compared with drugs listed in the hospital formularies.<br><b>Conclusion: </b>To minimize the risks of drugs, healthcare professionals must collect a wide range of drug safety information and must utilize this information in their medical practice.  Therefore, it is important that pharmaceutical companies and regulatory authorities make an effort to provide suitable information dissemination to medical institutions.  Furthermore, medical institutions must also strengthen their systems for collecting drug safety information and providing such information to healthcare professionals.