ABSTRACT
Academic physicians are responsible for the education of medical students, residents, and other practicing physicians through clinical rotations lectures, seminars, research, and conferences. Therefore, the increasing need to recruit academic physicians holds immense value within the healthcare system. Academic Medicine Interest Group (AMIG) is a collective made up of students who share an interest in the growth and advancement of academic medicine. We present a guide and model on establishing an AMIG. We found that AMIG fostered professional growth by providing leadership, research, and teaching opportunities. Strategic planning, effective leadership, and group organization were all necessary for the success of the group.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Anki is an application that capitalizes upon the techniques of spaced repetition and is increasingly utilized by medical students for examination preparation. This study examines the impact of Anki usage in a medical school curriculum on academic performance. Secondary objectives analyzed individual Anki utilization and a qualitative assessment of Anki use. Methods: A cohort-control study was conducted at Boonshoft School of Medicine. One hundred thirty first-year medical students were enrolled in an Anki utilization training program from July 2021 to September 2021. Training included educational Anki courses and subsequent survey data collection over Anki usage. Data variables included all course final examinations, the Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE), individual Anki user statistics, nationally standardized exams scores, and Qualtrics surveys on student perceived ease of use. Results: Seventy-eight students reported using Anki for at least one of the exams, and 52 students did not use Anki for any exam. Anki users scored significantly higher across all four exams: Course I (6.4%; p < 0.001); Course II (6.2%; p = 0.002); Course III (7.0%; p = 0.002); and CBSE (12.9%; p = 0.003). Students who reported higher dependency on Anki for studying performed significantly better on the Course I, II, and CBSE exams. Conclusion: Anki usage may be associated with an increase in standardized examination scores. This supports Anki as an evidence-based spaced repetition and active retrieval learning modality for medical school standardized examinations. There was little correlation between its specific statistical markers and examination performance. This is pertinent to physicians and medical students alike as the learning and preservation of biomedical knowledge is required for examinations and effective clinical care.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-29 (PROMIS-29) are used to assess patient psychology, pain, and quality of life. As psychological factors, such as depression and anxiety, are associated with poor perioperative outcomes, we aim to translate MMPI-2-RF values to PROMIS-29 scores and establish cutoff values for PROMIS-29 anxiety and depression domains that might warrant attention preoperatively. METHODS: Seventy adult patients scheduled for an elective spinal surgery between July 2018 and February 2020 who completed both the MMPI-2-RF and PROMIS-29 preoperatively at a single institution were reviewed. RESULTS: Patients with MMPI-2-RF scores of 65 or greater (the cutoff for psychopathology) in the emotional/internalizing dysfunction scale (4.29%) had an average PROMIS-29 depression score of 14.33, which is significantly higher than the control group's (<65 score) 8.49 score (P = 0.04). Similarly, those demonstrating psychopathology on the demoralization (4.29%) and helplessness/hopelessness (4.29%) scales had average PROMIS-29 depression scores significantly higher than the control group's averages (15.33 vs. 8.45, P = 0.02 and 14.33 vs. 8.49, P = 0.04, respectively). Patients with an MMPI-2-RF score of 65 or greater on the emotional/internalizing dysfunction (4.29%), stress/worry (10.00%), and anxiety (7.14%) scales had average PROMIS-29 anxiety domain scores of 15, 15, and 15, respectively, which were significantly greater than that of the control group's scores (8.94, P = 0.04; 8.75, P = 0.004; and 8.55, P < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: PROMIS-29 scores of 15 or greater on the depression and anxiety domains may have psychopathologies that warrant addressing, given their increased likelihood of having poor outcomes.