Factors influencing the decision to pursue emergency medicine as a career among medical students in Singapore

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>The introduction of the residency programme in Singapore allows medical students to apply for residency in their graduating year. Our study aimed to determine the interest levels and motivating factors for pursuing emergency medicine (EM) as a career among medical students in Singapore.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to Year 1-5 medical students in 2012. Participants indicated their interest in pursuing EM as a career and the degree to which a series of variables influenced their choices. Influencing factors were analysed using multinomial logistic regression.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 800 completed questionnaires were collected. 21.0% of the participants expressed interest in pursuing EM. Perceived personality fit and having done an elective in EM were strongly positive influencing factors. Junior medical students were more likely to cite the wide diversity of medical conditions and the lack of a long-term doctor-patient relationship to be negative factors, while senior medical students were more likely to cite personality fit and perceived prestige of EM as negative factors.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Careful selection of EM applicants is important to the future development of EM in Singapore. Our study showed that personality fit might be the most important influencing factor in choosing EM as a career. Therefore, greater effort should be made to help medical students explore their interest in and suitability for a particular specialty. These include giving medical students earlier exposure to EM, encouraging participation in student interest groups and using appropriate personality tests for career guidance.</p>

Comparative Study on Transformation of Tecomin by Using Liver Microsomes and Liver S9 QIAO Shan-shan, / 中国中医药信息杂志

Objective To compare the difference of transformation profile and transformation rate of tecomin by using two in vitro liver metabolism models. Methods Liver microsomes and liver S9 fraction models were employed to transform tecomin. HPLC was used to determine the contents of tecomin and its metabolites at the detecting wavelength of 254 nm. The gradient elution (0–6 min, 5％–40％ A; 6–9 min, 40％–50％ A; 9–11 min, 50％–5％ A) was carried out by using mobile phase of acetonitrile (A) - 1％ acetic acid (B) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Results Both models could transform tecomin into veratric acid; however, the metabolites obtained with liver S9 were more than those obtained with liver microsomes, and the transformation rate of the former was higher than that of the latter. Conclusion The liver S9 fraction can more efficiently transform esters than liver microsomes.