Medicine promotional literature as a source of updated information in Bangladesh: Do those advertising literature promote continued medical education or deceptive advertising?

Background: Drug promotional literature (DPLs) is an integral part of pharmaceutical marketing strategy. This marketing approach influences, a physician to prescribe definite variety of medicine from a particular company. Many physicians bank on exclusively in DPLs. This research was intended to appraise the DPLs available in Bangladesh for accuracy, consistency, and validity of the information in accordance with the WHO rules and regulations. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study was conducted in Uttara Adhunik Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh after collecting DPLs from the different outpatient department. The data was analyzed Microsoft Excel 2016. Results: None of the national and multinational DPLs fulfilled all the WHO criteria. Among the national and multinational DPLs, 94.7% and 100% presented with claims respectively. Out of 284 national and multinational DPLs references citation were presented in 82.04% and 100% respectively. Among the DPLs of national and multinational companies' relevant, irrelevant, and partially relevant pictures were presented in 48.79%, 24.65%, 26.76% and 31.58%, 26.32%, and 42.11%, respectively. Conclusion: DPLs of Bangladesh did not comply with the WHO guidelines while promoting their products. Evidence provided in those DPLs were mostly biased and persuasive since it is focusing mainly on the positive aspect of drug therapy. Accordingly, studied DPLs were principally aiming to maximizes industries' financial benefit rather than fulfill the educational aspects. The Government of Bangladesh should develop very stringent policy and practices regarding DPLs based on science and the WHO guideline as the literature very often act as a primary source of information among medical doctors.

Comparative study of professionalism of future medical doctors between Malaysia and Bangladesh.

Every profession has its particular social responsibilities. Thus, professionalism is the foundation of medicine’s indenture with humanity. The schooling and refinement of professionalism has long been part of medical education. Recently professionalism is recognized as a fundamental qualification in both developed and developing countries. The objective of this study was to scrutinize and compare the professionalism of medical students of Malaysia and Bangladesh. This was Cross-sectional study conducted on 1208 Year-I to Year-V MBBS students of session 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, from Malaysia and Bangladesh. Data was collected using a validated instrument. Only 42% respondents were male and the rest 58% were female. Total mean professionalism scores for male was 177.57 and female was 175.82. Again total score of professionalism of Malaysia and Bangladesh were 175.50 and 177.14 respectively. Significant differences observed between gender (p=0.026) and country (p=0.044) in total scores of elements of professionalism. The present study found there has almost equal level of understanding on principal humanistic concerns of professionalism. Between gender and country there are significant differences. Professionalism should be incorporate in undergraduate and postgraduate medical course curriculum. Henceforth, communities will have rational prescriber for the common marginalized people.

Assessment of Bangladeshi Interns' Knowledge of Pharmacology and Therapeutics for Prescribing.

Every medical graduate must have the intention to prescribe rationally. It is pharmacology which teaches rational of prescribing correct drug in undergraduate medical course. Therefore many eminent medical educationists believe that pharmacology is the most essential part of the medical curriculum. Medical graduates join as interns in their respective teaching hospital immediately after graduation. Although interns work is usually under the supervision of a senior consultant but there are occasions, when they need to make their own decision. Again drug market in Bangladesh, like many other countries, is rapidly expanding. Henceforth, interns’ are sometime confused to choose a drug from therapeutic choices. This study was conducted with the intention to provide some light about the knowledge of pharmacology among the Bangladeshi interns. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on Interns (n=191) of six medical schools of Bangladesh. Validated instrument was used to uptake the data. These medical schools are both government and private but Bangladesh has unique curriculum for all medical schools. Out of these 191 participants 81 (42%) rated pharmacology knowledge is good, while another 77 (40%) had average understanding. As high as 80% (152) intern population feel that undergraduate training has prepared them to prescribe safely. One hundred seventeen (61%) interns have already observed cases of adverse drug reactions in their short active clinical life. Although it is a cross sectional study with its limitations, has identified that pharmacology and therapeutics course curriculum is not enough to produce safe prescribers.

Preference of teaching and learning methods in a new medical school of Malaysia.

Teaching and learning are the two sides of a coin. Henceforth, there is a strong correlation between the methods used in delivering the information by the lecturers and the assimilation of that knowledge by the students. MBBS programme of FPSK, UniSZA, is divided into two phases, preclinical (Year I and II) and clinical (Year III, IV and V) phases. The main teaching and learning methods for preclinical phase include lecture, tutorial, practical, problem based learning (PBL) and early clinical exposure (ECE). This cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2013 in UniSZA, Malaysia. 50 respondents from preclinical phase were randomly selected from total 117 students to answers the questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed with extensive literature review and pretested and validated. The questionnaire has been divided into 5 sections. The data were analysed using the SPSS 17.0. This study showed that 36 (72%) out of 50 respondents chose lecture as the most preferred teaching and learning method. Five (10%) out of 50 respondents preferred tutorial and 3 (6%) out of 50 respondents preferred PBL, practical and ECE respectively. None of the respondents chose Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) as a preferred method. Probably learning guideline of CAL is not clear that make the session the most unpreferred. Majority of the students in preclinical phase preferred lecturer/teacher-centred learning session to acquire knowledge in a medical school.

Stress Among Preclinical Medical Students of University Sultan Zainal Abidin.

It is well known that medical students often face many difficulties during their studies in medical school. Stress is the feeling which is created when a person react to the particular events. It makes you feel threatened or upset. Stress is a combination of psychological, physiological and behavioral reactions that people have in response to event that challenge them. This is a cross sectional study and was conducted in FPSK, UniSZA, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. An instrument on stress assessment was developed through extensive review of literatures. Questionnaire was pretested and validated. A total of 60 questionnaires were given to the preclinical medical students of UniSZA. Study subjects were selected randomly. Current study found out that 47 (78.3%) students might be having stress related problem. Major cause of stress is academic because of curricular overload. The dominant approach to cope with stress is prayer in this medical school. Coping stress in medical student life is one of most important quality. Therefore students should be taught different stress management techniques to improve their ability to cope with a demanding professional course. The hostel related issues and recreational facilities should be improved as far as possible within limited funds.