Perceptions of judiciary on competencies needed by medical officers to provide expert evidence in Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka many medical officers function as expert medical witnesses in court. Some function as forensic pathologists with postgraduate training in Forensic Medicine, some perform medico legal work as part of their day to day duties with purely undergraduate knowledge in Forensic Medicine and others perform medico legal duties as incidental services during the course of a routine clinical practice. No studies have been conducted in Sri Lanka to identify the competencies necessary to function as expert medical witnesses in court. Different categories of people were identified in order to assist in this task. The judiciary was considered one such important category as they are directly involved in using the evidence of doctors in the administration of justice. Objective: To identify competencies required by expert medical witnesses in court, as perceived by the judiciary, in the Sri Lankan context. Method: Fourteen semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out on lawyers and judges on their perceptions of the competencies required by expert medical witnesses in court. Results: Data analysis revealed the following as important competencies in providing expert medical evidence to court, recording information accurately and completely in an appropriate and legible manner, demonstrating scientific approach, utilizing principles of critical thinking, reasoning and evaluation, working efficiently within the existing legal system and medico-legal framework, maintaining integrity and providing evidence in court in a convincing manner. Conclusion: These findings would assist the development of future Forensic Medicine programs in Sri Lanka, in order to produce competent expert medical witnesses to court.

Do medical students who claim to be using deep learning strategies perform better at the Forensic Medicine examination.

Literature reveals that frequent use of deep learning strategies and meaning orientation generally relates to academic performance positively, while the reproducing orientation is usually negatively associated with academic performance. The objective of this study was to investigate possible associations between reported learning strategies and performance at different components of the Forensic Medicine examination between two successive batches of medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Reported learning strategies of two successive groups of medical students were measured using the adapted Sri Lankan version of the Inventory of Learning Styles, the Adyayana Rata Prakasha Malawa (ARPM). The inventory scale scores were computed for each student and entered into a data base. The scores for each component of the Forensic Medicine examination namely; essay, multiple choice questions and viva voce and the total score were added to the data base. The Spearman rank correlation test was performed to identify possible associations between learning strategy scores and performance at different components of the examination. The number of respondents was 142 out of 173 of the 2003/2004 (82%) and 107 out of 188 students (57%) of the 2002/ 2003A batches of fourth year medical students having completed three terms of work in Forensic Medicine. Contrary to expectations, the results failed to show a significant association between academic performance and frequent use of deep processing strategies or self regulation. Since examinations drive the learning process it could be that the assessment demands promote the students to use both surface and deep learning strategies to the same extent.