Exploring barriers and solutions to consumer involvement in health service research using a nominal group technique.

BACKGROUND: Consumer involvement in health research is when patients, their families and caregivers work with researchers on research projects. Despite the growing expectation for health services to facilitate the involvement of consumers in research, the practical integration of this approach is an ongoing process, with limited research conducted into how Australian health services can support this practice. This study explored consumer perspectives on the barriers and solutions to enabling consumer involvement in research within an Australian tertiary hospital and health service, and staff perspectives on the solutions to facilitating consumer involvement. A prior survey had identified barriers to consumer involvement from the staff perspective. The broad aim was to inform the development of a framework to help promote consumer involvement in research within the health service. METHODS: A Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was utilised with groups comprised of health service consumers and staff. Three health consumers were co-researchers in the full life-cycle of this study and are included as authors. RESULTS: Ten consumers and 14 staff participated across three sessions ranging from one to three hours. For consumers, barriers to their involvement were grouped into seven domains: (1) lack of connection with researchers/research projects, (2) low research literacy, (3) structural barriers, (4) lack of acknowledgement, (5) implementation challenges, (6) inadequate information provision, and (7) representation concerns. Solutions to enabling involvement were grouped into five domains: (1) support to connect with researchers/research projects, (2) adequate information provision, (3) incentive for involvement, (4) acknowledgement, and (5) balanced representation. Staff ideas for solutions were grouped into five domains: (1) support to connect with consumers, (2) support to involve consumers, (3) access to funds to remunerate consumers, (4) more time to involve consumers, and (5) staff training. CONCLUSION: Through an NGT methodology, this study delivered a nuanced comprehension of perspectives on involving consumers in research from both health service consumers and staff. These findings serve as a foundation for identifying strategies that foster enhanced and refined relationships between consumers and researchers, advancing the collaborative landscape in health research. The findings from this project offer valuable strategies for researchers to better engage consumers in research and for consumer groups to enhance their involvement. Additionally, these insights could be used by other health services to advocate for essential resources.

Consumer involvement in health research is when patients, their families, and caregivers work with researchers on research projects. While there is a growing expectation for health services to promote the involvement of consumers in health service research, it is still a work in progress, especially in Australia, where there hasn't been much research done on this topic. This study looked at what consumers and staff at an Australian hospital thought would hinder or help consumers to become involved in health research. The study used a method called the Nominal Group Technique (NGT), where groups of staff and consumers met for sessions ranging from one to three hours to share and prioritise their ideas. Consumers thought that barriers to their involvement included difficulty connecting with researchers or projects, not knowing much about research, and personal barriers to involvement (such as lack of childcare). They believed that better connection with researchers, information, incentives for involvement, and ensuring everyone's voices are heard were possible solutions. Staff also had ideas for solutions, like providing support to connect with consumers and more time for research activities. Overall, this study describes what consumers and staff think about working together on research. These findings can help develop strategies for building relationships between consumers and researchers, advancing collaborative efforts in health research.

Personal electric deterrents can reduce shark bites from the three species responsible for the most fatal interactions.

The frequency of unprovoked shark bites is increasing worldwide, leading to a growing pressure for mitigation measures to reduce shark-bite risk while maintaining conservation objectives. Personal shark deterrents are a promising and non-lethal strategy that can protect ocean users, but few have been independently and scientifically tested. In Australia, bull (Carcharhinus leucas), tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier), and white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are responsible for the highest number of bites and fatalities. We tested the effects of two electric deterrents (Ocean Guardian's Freedom+ Surf and Freedom7) on the behaviour of these three species. The surf product reduced the probability of bites by 54% across all three species. The diving product had a similar effect on tiger shark bites (69% reduction) but did not reduce the frequency of bites from white sharks (1% increase), likely because the electrodes were placed further away from the bait. Electric deterrents also increased the time for bites to occur, and frequency of reactions and passes for all species tested. Our findings reveal that both Freedom+ Surf and Freedom7 electric deterrents affect shark behaviour and can reduce shark-bite risk for water users, but neither product eliminated the risk of shark bites entirely. The increasing number of studies showing the ability of personal electric deterrents to reduce shark-bite risk highlights personal protection as an effective and important part of the toolbox of shark-bite mitigation measures.

Indolent behavior of malignant Bethesda III nodules compared to Bethesda V/VI nodules.

BACKGROUND: The Bethesda System classifies all fine needle aspiration specimens into one of six categories. We speculated that cancers within each Bethesda category would have distinct clinical behavior. METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of patients from a single academic medical center with a histologic diagnosis of thyroid cancer who had an initial diagnosis of Bethesda III, IV, V, or VI cytology. RESULTS: A total of 556 cases were included, with 87 cases of Bethesda III, 109 cases of IV, 120 cases of V, and 240 cases of VI. Bethesda III showed similarities with V/VI compared to IV with predominance of papillary thyroid cancer. The interval from diagnosis to surgery was longer in Bethesda III compared to Bethesda V/VI (median 78 vs. 41 days, p<0.001) (Figure 1). Yet, patients with Bethesda III had a higher probability of achieving remission (62 vs.46 %, p<0.03), a lower possibility of recurrence (8 vs. 24%, p<0.001) and a shorter interval to achieve remission (median 1218 vs.1682 days p = 0.02) compared to Bethesda V/VI which did not change after adjusting for age, gender, radioactive iodine therapy, mode of surgery and tumor size. More than 70% of Bethesda III that later presented with recurrence had T3/T4 disease or distant metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: Cancers with Bethesda III cytology had a less aggressive clinical phenotype with better prognosis compared to V/VI despite histological similarities. The time to remission was shorter in Bethesda III despite a longer interval between diagnosis and surgery. The initial cytological diagnosis may guide management.

The autophagy of stress granules.

Our understanding of stress granule (SG) biology has deepened considerably in recent years, and with this, increased understanding of links has been made between SGs and numerous neurodegenerative diseases. One of the proposed mechanisms by which SGs and any associated protein aggregates may become pathological is based upon defects in their autophagic clearance, and so the precise processes governing the degradation of SGs are important to understand. Mutations and disease-associated variants implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and frontotemporal lobar dementia compromise autophagy, whilst autophagy-inhibiting drugs or knockdown of essential autophagy proteins result in the persistence of SGs. In this review, we will consider the current knowledge regarding the autophagy of SG.

Beyond Recording the Clinical Discussion: A Qualitative Study into Patient-Led Recordings in Hospital.

Patient-led recording occurs when a patient records a clinical encounter with their smart device. Understanding patient-led recording is important in ensuring a safe and patient-centered response to this behavior. This exploratory study provides insight into the patient perspective of patient-led recordings. We conducted 20 semistructured interviews with hospital and health service patients. The interview data was analyzed using thematic analysis. We identified three themes relating to patient-led recordings, including patient engagement, psychosocial, and health service. Findings suggest that health services move beyond querying the permissibility of recording and consider how to maximize the benefits of recording while reducing the risk of harm. Patients and clinicians need to be made aware of the potential broader psychosocial benefits of recording a clinical encounter during hospital admission. These results point to an urgent need for health services to develop policies and resources that support clinicians to work within a culture of recording.

Innate immune dysregulation in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).

MIS-C is a systemic inflammation disorder with poorly characterised immunopathological mechanisms. We compared changes in the systemic immune response in children with MIS-C (n = 12, 5-13 years) to healthy controls (n = 14, 5-15 years). Analysis was done in whole blood treated with LPS. Expression of CD11b and Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) in neutrophils and monocytes were analysed by flow cytometry. Serum cytokines (IL-1ß, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-Ira, TNF-α, TNF-ß, IFN-Υ, VEGF, EPO and GM-CSF) and mRNA levels of inflammasome molecules (NLRP3, ASC and IL-1ß) were evaluated. Subpopulations of lymphocytes (CD3+, CD19+, CD56+, CD4+, CD8+, TCR Vδ1+, TCR Vδ2+) were assessed at basal levels. Absolute counts of neutrophils and NLR were high in children with MIS-C while absolute counts of lymphocytes were low. Children with MIS-C had increased levels of IL-6, IL-10, TNF-ß and VEGF serum cytokines at the basal level, and significantly increased TNF-ß post-LPS, compared to controls. IL-1RA and EPO decreased at baseline and post-LPS in MIS-C patients compared to controls. The percentage of CD3+ cells, NK cells and Vδ1 was lower while B cells were higher in children with MIS-C than in controls. Dysregulated immune response in children with MIS-C was evident and may be amenable to immunomodulation.

Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of community-acquired uropathogenic Escherichia coli, Dublin 2010-2022.

Background: Escherichia coli is a common cause of urinary tract infections. Due to the increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and global differences in antimicrobial susceptibility data, routine assessment of local antimicrobial susceptibility patterns is necessary to guide the selection of appropriate empirical therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of community-acquired uropathogenic Escherichia coli within a catchment area in Dublin over a 13 year period, 2010-2022. Methods: All mid-stream urine samples received from local general practitioners in which there was significant E. coli bacteriuria during the study period, 2010-2022, were included in the analysis. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by disc diffusion as per the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing recommendations. Results: An average of 11 407 urine samples per month had significant bacteriuria, with E. coli accounting for an average of 67 % of those. Overall AMR rates were highest for ampicillin (53.9 %), followed by trimethoprim (32.4 %), gentamicin (18.6 %), co-amoxiclav (16.5 %), ciprofloxacin (12.3 %), cephalexin (8.3 %), cefpodoxime (6.8 %) and nitrofurantoin (2 %). While rates appeared grossly static, statistically significant reduced resistance rates were noted for co-amoxiclav (rs=-0.95; P=<0.001), cephalexin prior to 2019 (rs=-0.783; P=0.013) and trimethoprim (rs=-0.639; P=0.019), with a statistically significant increase in non-susceptibility to cefpodoxime (rs=0.802; P=0.001). Conclusions: In order to generate efficient empirical antimicrobial prescribing guidelines, knowledge of region-specific contemporaneous antimicrobial susceptibility patterns is pivotal. Our findings support the use of nitrofurantoin or cephalexin as empirical antimicrobial therapy within our setting.

Physiological properties of the visual system in the Green Weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina.

The Green Weaver ants, Oecophylla smaragdina are iconic animals known for their extreme cooperative behaviour where they bridge gaps by linking to each other to build living chains. They are visually oriented animals, build chains towards closer targets, use celestial compass cues for navigation and are visual predators. Here, we describe their visual sensory capacity. The major workers of O. smaragdina have more ommatidia (804) in each eye compared to minor workers (508), but the facet diameters are comparable between both castes. We measured the impulse responses of the compound eye and found their response duration (42 ms) was similar to that seen in other slow-moving ants. We determined the flicker fusion frequency of the compound eye at the brightest light intensity to be 132 Hz, which is relatively fast for a walking insect suggesting the visual system is well suited for a diurnal lifestyle. Using pattern-electroretinography we identified the compound eye has a spatial resolving power of 0.5 cycles deg-1 and reached peak contrast sensitivity of 2.9 (35% Michelson contrast threshold) at 0.05 cycles deg-1. We discuss the relationship of spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity, with number of ommatidia and size of the lens.

Defining covert recording: A qualitative study exploring the experiences of clinicians when a patient records a hospital clinical encounter using a smartphone without consent.

Background: Patients use their smartphones to covertly record their clinical encounters in hospital. However, this issue is poorly understood. Insight into the clinician perspective will help inform policies and practices that deliver safe environments for patients and clinicians. Objective: This study aimed to gain a deep understanding of clinician attitudes and behaviours when a patient covertly records a hospital clinical encounter using a smartphone. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 20 hospital clinicians. Participants were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling. Interviews were conducted in person or via Microsoft Teams. Interviews were digitally audio recorded and transcribed. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Most of the 20 participants reported they had either suspected or experienced a patient covertly recording a clinical encounter. Covert recordings occurred across a broad range of clinical disciplines and contexts. Themes were identified from participant perspectives, including discernment of patient intention, likeliness to consent to the recording if asked, anticipated risks and potential benefits associated with the covert recording. These themes have led to the categorisation of three forms of covert recording: (1) Intentional Covert Recording (2) Inadvertently - Covert Recording, and (3) Beneficial Covert Recording. Conclusion: Clinicians have varied experiences and responses when a patient covertly records a clinical encounter. Findings indicate that nuanced strategies may be required to support clinicians to manage covert recording, whilst balancing the needs of patients.

'What are you hiding from me?' A qualitative study exploring health consumer attitudes and experiences regarding the patient-led recording of a hospital clinical encounter.

OBJECTIVE: Health consumers (patients, their family, friends and carers) are frequently using their smartphones to record hospital clinical encounters. However, there is limited research which has explored the social interaction surrounding this behaviour. Understanding the consumer perspective is key to informing policy and practice. This study explored consumer attitudes and experiences regarding patient-led recordings. METHODS: Semistructured interviews were undertaken with 20 hospital consumers. Participants were recruited via advertising, posters and invitation letters. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. FINDINGS: Four main themes were identified relating to participant perspectives of patient-led recordings: (1) consumers viewed clinician consent as important, although they reported different experiences of the consent process, (2) consumers indicated that a clinician refusing the recording had the potential to undermine the consumer-clinician relationship, (3) consumers were both uninformed and misinformed regarding relevant policy and legislation and (4) consumers expressed a number of expectations regarding their rights to record and of the health service in supporting this practice. CONCLUSION: Consumers want to record their clinical encounters with the consent of their clinician but are unprepared to navigate consent discussions. Health services and clinicians should inform consumers who want to record about their rights and responsibilities, to support the consent process and safe recording environments. Clinician refusal to consent to a patient-led recording may not lead to increased covert recording; however, clear communication about the reasons for refusing a recording is needed to protect the consumer-clinician relationship. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: A health consumer was part of the research team and was involved in all stages of this study, including the design, data analysis and reviewing of the manuscript.

Exploring the Experiences and Perspectives of Insulin Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes via Web-Based UK Diabetes Health Forums: Qualitative Thematic Analysis of Threads.

BACKGROUND: Despite the advent of type 2 diabetes (T2D) remission strategies and novel therapeutic agents, many individuals with T2D will require insulin treatment to achieve target glycemia, with the aim of preventing or delaying diabetes complications. However, insulin refusal and cessation of treatment in this group are common, and their needs are underreported and relatively unexplored. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the experiences and perspectives of individuals with T2D for whom insulin therapy is indicated as expressed on web-based health forums, in order to inform the development of evidence-based structured educational and support strategies and improve health care provider awareness. METHODS: Retrospective archived forum threads from the 2 largest, freely and publicly accessible diabetes health forums in the United Kingdom were screened over a 12-month period (August 2019-2020). The Diabetes UK and Diabetes.co.uk forums were searched for relevant threads. A total of 3 independent researchers analyzed the forum threads and posts via thematic analysis. Pertinent themes were identified and illustrated by paraphrasing members' quotes to ensure anonymity. A total of 299 posts from 29 threads from Diabetes UK and 295 posts from 28 threads Diabetes.co.uk were analyzed over the study period. In all, 57 threads met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. RESULTS: Four overarching themes were generated to illustrate the unmet needs that prompted members to seek information, advice, and support regarding insulin therapy outside of their usual care provision via the forums: empowerment through sharing self-management strategies, seeking and providing extended lifestyle advice, relationships with health care professionals, and a source of psychological peer support. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to collect data from web-based health forums to characterize the experiences and perspectives of people with T2D for whom insulin therapy is indicated. The observed naturalistic conversations have generated useful insights; our findings suggest that there are significant unmet self-management and psychological needs within this group that are not being met elsewhere, prompting the seeking of information and support on the web. These include practical aspects such as insulin injection technique, storage and dose titration, driving and travel considerations, the emerging use of technology, and a strong interest in the effects of extended lifestyle (diet and activity) approaches to support insulin therapy. In addition, problematic relationships with health care professionals appear to be a barrier to effective insulin therapy for some. In contrast, seeking and offering mutually beneficial, practical, and psychological support from peers was viewed as enabling. The study results will help to directly inform insulin-focused self-management and support strategies to enable individuals in this group to achieve their best outcomes.

Smartphone standoff: a qualitative study exploring clinician responses when a patient uses a smartphone to record a hospital clinical encounter.

OBJECTIVES: Patients are initiating recordings of their clinical encounters using a smartphone. While this is an important, universal issue, little is known about the clinician viewpoint. Understanding clinician perspectives and behaviours is key to ensuring the protection of patient and clinician interests. This study aimed to gain a deep understanding of clinician attitudes and behaviours to patient-led recordings of hospital clinical encounters. DESIGN: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 hospital clinicians. Participants were recruited using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. SETTING: This study took place at two hospitals in the metropolitan area of Gold Coast, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included clinicians with varying levels of experience, or clinical managers in the roles of: medical, nursing and midwifery, and allied health staff. RESULTS: The 20 participants interviewed were from a range of health disciplines and clinical areas and most had experienced a patient-led recording. Three themes emerged when exploring participant attitudes. First, that recording was a significant and controversial topic. Second, that experiences often informed clinician attitudes and many clinicians held conflicting views. Finally, a perceived loss of control was a significant stressor. A further three themes emerged relating to clinician behaviours when a patient asks to record. Decision-making involved balancing multiple factors often in pressurised situations. Shared decision-making was shaped by power dynamics and, finally, decision-making was not informed by hospital policy. CONCLUSIONS: While patient-led recordings were viewed as beneficial, clinician welfare and patient safety may be at risk when a patient records a clinical encounter. Current safeguards, such as hospital policies, are not used and may not meet the needs of clinicians when decision-making is complicated by power dynamics. More research is needed to better understand how clinicians can be supported in this critical domain.

Can pediatric sleep questions be incorporated into a risk model to predict respiratory complications following adenotonsillectomy?

BACKGROUND: Adenotonsillectomy, one of the most frequent surgical procedures in children, is usually performed for sleep-disordered breathing, a disease spectrum from primary snoring to obstructive sleep apnea. Children undergoing an adenotonsillectomy may be at risk for perioperative respiratory complications, necessitating intervention or escalation of care. However, there is no effective preoperative screening or risk-stratification model for perioperative respiratory complications that incorporates not only clinical history and physical examination but also sleep question responses for children as there is for adults. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this prospective observational study was to develop a risk-stratification model for perioperative respiratory complications in children undergoing an adenotonsillectomy incorporating not only clinical history and physical examination but also sleep question responses. METHODS: A 25-question sleep questionnaire was prospectively administered preoperatively for 1895 children undergoing an adenotonsillectomy from November 2015 to December 2017. The primary outcome measure was overall perioperative respiratory complications, collected prospectively and defined as having at least one major or minor complication intraoperatively or postoperatively. RESULTS: The incidence of overall perioperative respiratory complications was 20.4%. Preoperative factors associated with perioperative respiratory complications in the multiple regression model were age, race, preoperative tonsil size, the presence of a syndrome, and the presence of a pulmonary disease. None of the sleep questionnaire responses remained in the multivariable analysis. The area under the ROC curve for the risk stratification model incorporating sleep question responses was only 0.6114% (95% CI: 0.60, 0.67). CONCLUSION: Preoperative sleep question responses may be unable to predict overall perioperative respiratory complications in children undergoing an adenotonsillectomy. A robust risk stratification model incorporating sleep question responses with clinical history and physical examination was unable to discriminate or predict perioperative respiratory complications in our population undergoing an adenotonsillectomy.

A shark's eye view: testing the 'mistaken identity theory' behind shark bites on humans.

Shark bites on humans are rare but are sufficiently frequent to generate substantial public concern, which typically leads to measures to reduce their frequency. Unfortunately, we understand little about why sharks bite humans. One theory for bites occurring at the surface, e.g. on surfers, is that of mistaken identity, whereby sharks mistake humans for their typical prey (pinnipeds in the case of white sharks). This study tests the mistaken identity theory by comparing video footage of pinnipeds, humans swimming and humans paddling surfboards, from the perspective of a white shark viewing these objects from below. Videos were processed to reflect how a shark's retina would detect the visual motion and shape cues. Motion cues of humans swimming, humans paddling surfboards and pinnipeds swimming did not differ significantly. The shape of paddled surfboards and human swimmers was also similar to that of pinnipeds with their flippers abducted. The difference in shape between pinnipeds with abducted versus adducted flippers was bigger than between pinnipeds with flippers abducted and surfboards or human swimmers. From the perspective of a white shark, therefore, neither visual motion nor shape cues allow an unequivocal visual distinction between pinnipeds and humans, supporting the mistaken identity theory behind some bites.

Ocellar spatial vision in Myrmecia ants.

In addition to compound eyes, insects possess simple eyes known as ocelli. Input from the ocelli modulates optomotor responses, flight-time initiation, and phototactic responses - behaviours that are mediated predominantly by the compound eyes. In this study, using pattern electroretinography (pERG), we investigated the contribution of the compound eyes to ocellar spatial vision in the diurnal Australian bull ant Myrmecia tarsata by measuring the contrast sensitivity and spatial resolving power of the ocellar second-order neurons under various occlusion conditions. Furthermore, in four species of Myrmecia ants active at different times of the day, and in European honeybee Apis mellifera, we characterized the ocellar visual properties when both visual systems were available. Among the ants, we found that the time of activity had no significant effect on ocellar spatial vision. Comparing day-active ants and the honeybee, we did not find any significant effect of locomotion on ocellar spatial vision. In M. tarsata, when the compound eyes were occluded, the amplitude of the pERG signal from the ocelli was reduced 3 times compared with conditions when the compound eyes were available. The signal from the compound eyes maintained the maximum contrast sensitivity of the ocelli as 13 (7.7%), and the spatial resolving power as 0.29 cycles deg-1. We conclude that ocellar spatial vison improves significantly with input from the compound eyes, with a noticeably larger improvement in contrast sensitivity than in spatial resolving power.

The buzz around spatial resolving power and contrast sensitivity in the honeybee, Apis mellifera.

Most animals rely on vision to perform a range of behavioural tasks and variations in the anatomy and physiology of the eye likely reflect differences in habitat and life history. Moreover, eye design represents a balance between often conflicting requirements for gathering different forms of visual information. The trade-off between spatial resolving power and contrast sensitivity is common to all visual systems, and European honeybees (Apis mellifera) present an important opportunity to better understand this trade-off. Vision has been studied extensively in A. mellifera as it is vital for foraging, navigation and communication. Consequently, spatial resolving power and contrast sensitivity in A. mellifera have been measured using several methodologies; however, there is considerable variation in estimates between methodologies. We assess pattern electroretinography (pERG) as a new method for assessing the trade-off between visual spatial and contrast information in A.mellifera. pERG has the benefit of measuring spatial contrast sensitivity from higher order visual processing neurons in the eye. Spatial resolving power of A.mellifera estimated from pERG was 0.54 cycles per degree (cpd), and contrast sensitivity was 16.9. pERG estimates of contrast sensitivity were comparable to previous behavioural studies. Estimates of spatial resolving power reflected anatomical estimates in the frontal region of the eye, which corresponds to the region stimulated by pERG. Apis mellifera has similar spatial contrast sensitivity to other hymenopteran insects with similar facet diameter (Myrmecia ant species). Our results support the idea that eye anatomy has a substantial effect on spatial contrast sensitivity in compound eyes.

Online Resources Used by Medical Students, a Literature Review.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Purpose: To summarise research pertaining to the use of online resources by medical students throughout the course of their studies in a literature review. Method: Twenty studies published between 2003-2017 were identified for inclusion in the review. All reviewed papers reported on medical students use of online resources for their studies, both in preclinical and clinical settings. Results: Of the studies initially identified, twenty studies focusing on medical students were included and reviewed. The online resources, most frequently mentioned were UpToDate (35%); Epocrates (35%); Medscape (25%), Google (25%); PubMed (20%); Micromedex (20%); Wikipedia (15%); PEPID (10%); Dynamed (10%). Fourteen studies linked the use of online resources to their accessibility and reliability. In nine studies students reported that online resource use enhanced clinical management and diagnostic accuracy. Conclusion: Research on the use of online resources by medical students is largely limited to their use in clinical settings. As technology and learning evolve there is an increased need for students to be able to access such resources online and have the required teaching to understand how best to utilise them.

Autophagy Induction as a Therapeutic Strategy for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Autophagy is a major, conserved cellular pathway by which cells deliver cytoplasmic contents to lysosomes for degradation. Genetic studies have revealed extensive links between autophagy and neurodegenerative disease, and disruptions to autophagy may contribute to pathology in some cases. Autophagy degrades many of the toxic, aggregate-prone proteins responsible for such diseases, including mutant huntingtin (mHTT), alpha-synuclein (α-syn), tau, and others, raising the possibility that autophagy upregulation may help to reduce levels of toxic protein species, and thereby alleviate disease. This review examines autophagy induction as a potential therapy in several neurodegenerative diseases-Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, polyglutamine diseases, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Evidence in cells and in vivo demonstrates promising results in many disease models, in which autophagy upregulation is able to reduce the levels of toxic proteins, ameliorate signs of disease, and delay disease progression. However, the effective therapeutic use of autophagy induction requires detailed knowledge of how the disease affects the autophagy-lysosome pathway, as activating autophagy when the pathway cannot go to completion (e.g., when lysosomal degradation is impaired) may instead exacerbate disease in some cases. Investigating the interactions between autophagy and disease pathogenesis is thus a critical area for further research.