Implementation of structured team-based review enhances knowledge consolidation and academic performance of undergraduate medical students studying neuroscience.

Team-based learning (TBL) provides a systematic approach to teaching and learning and promotes critical thinking and enhances medical educational activities and professional development. TBL-based didactic methodology has proven beneficial in enhancing learning and consolidating key educational concepts throughout educational curricula. Such areas of application include neuroscience, which is traditionally considered to be one of the most difficult disciplines to be taught in undergraduate medical courses to the point where the scientific literature reports "neurophobia" among undergraduate medical students. Herein, we report the design and application of a modified version of TBL, which we termed team-based review (TBR) throughout two cohorts of undergraduate medical students undertaking neuroscience. We show that our TBR methodology enhanced student understanding of neuroscience, increasing average marks and grades achieved in final exams, while also increasing the proportion of students obtaining higher grades. Application of TBR also improved marks obtained by students throughout continuous assessment (midterms, TBL, and problem-based learning grades). In surveys taken following final exams, students strongly felt that TBR enhanced their learning experience and aided knowledge acquisition, consolidation, and exam preparation. Collectively, we show that TBR-based methodology was effective in enhancing the student learning experience and performance in neuroscience and could potentially be successfully used to enhance performance and learning in other subjects in the undergraduate medical curriculum.

ß-1 adrenoceptors and AT1 receptors may not be involved in catecholamine-induced lethal arrhythmias 1.

An excessive amount of catecholamines produce arrhythmias, but the exact mechanisms of this action are not fully understood. For this purpose, Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with or without atenolol, a ß1-adrenoceptor blocker (20 mg/kg per day), for 15 days followed by injections of epinephrine for cumulative doses of 4 to 128 µg/kg. Another group of animals were pretreated with losartan, an angiotensin receptor (AT1) blocker (20 mg/kg per day), for comparison. Control animals received saline. Varying degrees of ventricular arrhythmias were seen upon increasing the dose of epinephrine, but the incidence and duration of the rhythm abnormalities as well as the number of episodes and severity of arrhythmias were not affected by treating the animals with atenolol or losartan. The levels of both epinephrine and norepinephrine were increased in the atenolol-treated rats but were unchanged in the losartan-treated animals after the last injection of epinephrine; the severity of arrhythmias did not correlate with the circulating catecholamine levels. These results indicate that both ß1-adrenoceptors and AT1 receptors may not be involved in the pathogenesis of catecholamine-induced arrhythmias and support the view that other mechanisms, such as the oxidation products of catecholamines, may play a crucial role in the occurrence of lethal arrhythmias.

Student-centered integrated anatomy resource sessions at Alfaisal University.

Alfaisal University is a new medical school in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that matriculates eligible students directly from high school and requires them to participate in a hybrid problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. PBL is a well-established student-centered approach, and the authors have sought to examine if a student-centered, integrated approach to learn human structures leads to positive perceptions of learning outcomes. Ten students were divided into four groups to rotate through wet and dry laboratory stations (integrated resource sessions, IRSs) that engaged them in imaging techniques, embryology, histology, gross anatomy (dissections and prosections), surface anatomy, and self-directed learning questions. All IRSs were primarily directed by students. During two second-semester organ system blocks, forty students responded to a structured questionnaire designed to poll students' perceptions of changes in their knowledge, skills, and attitudes as a result of IRS. The majority (60%) of students felt that the student-centered approach to learning enhanced their medical knowledge. Most students also felt that the IRS approach was advantageous for formulating clear learning objectives (55%) and in preparing for examinations (65%). Despite their positive feelings toward IRS, students did not view this learning approach as an adequate replacement for the knowledge gained from lectures and textbooks. Students' performance on objective structured practical examinations improved significantly for the two curricular blocks that included IRS compared with earlier non-IRS blocks. A student-centered approach to teach human structure in a hybrid PBL curriculum may enhance understanding of the basic sciences in first-year medical students.