The state of undergraduate pediatric medical education in North America: The COMSEP survey.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: One mission of all academic medical centers is the education of medical students. The resources allocated to the oversight of this mission vary. The status of pediatric undergraduate medical education and the role of the pediatric clerkship director (PCD) was published in 1995. We sought to provide an updated description by surveying current North American PCDs. METHODS: A survey was designed by members of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics and administered via the Internet. RESULTS: Eighty-four percent of U.S. PCDs (110/131) and 50% of Canadian PCDs (8/16) completed the survey. Significant differences compared with 1995 include (a) more clerkship directors are assistant professors, women, and generalists; (b) clerkship directors have more time for clerkship activities but less than they perceive that they need; and (c) traditional scholarship is even more difficult to accomplish than in the past. CONCLUSION: The position of PCD is perceived to be a legitimate career track, but most PCDs hold lower academic rank and have less traditional scholarly activity than PCDs did 10 years ago. Although PCDs have more time (40% now vs. 28% in 1995), they still feel that it is not adequate, needing almost 50% of their total time to adequately do their job.

Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease: a case report and review for the general pediatrician.

This report describes a case of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease in a 19-year-old male patient with an initial diagnosis of peritonsillar abscess. As the number of children receiving transplants continues to increase, the pediatrician must become familiar with the possible presentations of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease and at least consider it as a diagnosis in any ill child under long-term treatment with immunosuppressive agents. The epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentations, evaluation, prognosis, and treatment of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease are reviewed for the primary care pediatrician.

An Internet-based pediatric clerkship examination.

A traditional paper final exam was expensive and time consuming to create, administer and grade at two separate training sites. Our goal was to determine whether restructuring the final pediatric clerkship examination using Internet technology could lower costs and be more efficient, reliable and preferred by students. Costs and coordinator time were compared with the prior year of traditional testing. Student satisfaction was determined by an electronic post-test survey. To evaluate for reliability, the scores on our Internet test were compared with United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) shelf scores. An estimated 1200 US dollars per year of department costs was saved, and coordinator time was greatly reduced. The post-test survey indicated the students were very satisfied with this testing. When compared with USMLE scores the Cronbach's alpha was 0. 70, and the Pearson Correlation was r = 0.414 (p<0. 001). It is concluded that a well-designed Internet-based test has advantages over a traditional paper exam. It reduces incremental department costs, is reliable,preferred by students and can be given simultaneously at multiple locations.