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Continuing medical education has been following essentially the same model for the past seventy years. The past decade has brought such significant change in society's expectations of medical professionals that medical schools, continuing medical education providers, and physicians themselves are being forced to consider alternate models. These pressures for change and possible directions for change are outlined.
Background:
This study was performed to determine whether a relationship exists regarding academic achievement between years 1 and 2 of podiatric medical education at Des Moines University. Furthermore, this study evaluates the relationship between academic performance in the first 2 years and clinical performance in year 3.
Methods:
The academic records of four classes (2007–2010, N = 164) were examined for grade point averages and clinical performance scores using pairwise Pearson product moment correlations.
Results:
Significant high correlations existed in academic performance scores between year 1 and year 2 for individual classes and pooled data. Significant low to moderate correlations were found between academic performance and clinical performance scores for individual classes and pooled data.
Conclusions:
These results help define the relationship between student academic and clinical performance for podiatric medicine students at Des Moines University and suggest that nonacademic characteristics may play a pivotal role in clinical abilities. These characteristics need to be further identified and developed in the academic curriculum. There may be attributes identified that also benefit the admissions process. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 102(4): 314-318, 2012)
Philosophy offers us the ability to think logically and critically about any field of knowledge, podiatric medical education included. By proceeding in an orderly manner, the growth of the profession will be ensured as long as the thinkers are willing to be truthful. Ironically, conformity is not a necessity and a diversity of philosophies is actually encouraged.
An important component in the development of any educational program is the evaluation of its effectiveness. The program described in this article was designed in such a way that its impact on practitioners' knowledge, attitudes, and clinical practices regarding human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could be evaluated. One hundred ten participants were asked to complete pre-conference and post-conference tests in order to measure improvement that resulted from program attendance. The author presents both a description of the conference and a summary of the evaluation results, along with suggestions for improving future educational programs.
Background
The purpose of this study was to evaluate student learning outcomes in a flipped classroom versus a traditional classroom in a podiatric medical school. To date no published reports in podiatric medical schools have used the flipped classroom for the entirety of a medical school course.
Methods
Students from the class of 2017 completed the Emergency Medicine and Trauma course using traditional classroom lectures, and the class of 2018 used a flipped classroom approach. Each class took two assessments that contained 99 identical questions and completed a postcourse evaluation that contained student comments. A multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted to determine whether student performances were significantly affected by the differences in the teaching method. Student evaluation comments were analyzed using textual data analysis to determine the sentiments that students expressed regarding their exposure to the teaching method.
Results
The multivariate analysis of covariance results revealed that students scored slightly lower on assessments during the flipped classroom delivery compared with the traditional classroom delivery, when adjusted for Medical College Admission Test scores and grade point average, but not significantly (P = .4340). Similarly, the sentiment analysis of student comments indicated that the average positive sentiment score for the flipped classroom delivery was higher but was not significant (P = .08914).
Conclusions
The analysis showed there was not a statistically significant change in examination scores based on teaching method. Sentiment analysis revealed that student sentiments were more positive with the flipped classroom group compared with the traditional lecture group, although not statistically significantly.
Background:
Many cadaver-based anatomy courses and surgical workshops use prosections to help podiatry students and residents learn clinically relevant anatomy. The quality of these prosections is variable and dependent upon the methods used to prepare them. These methods have not been adequately described in the literature, and few studies describe the use of chemicals to prepare prosections of the cadaveric foot and ankle. Recognizing the need for better teaching prosections in podiatric education, we developed a chemical application method with underwater dissection to better preserve anatomic structures of the cadaveric foot and ankle.
Methods:
We used inexpensive chemicals before, during, and after each step, which ultimately resulted in high-quality prosections that improved identification of anatomic structures relevant to the practice of podiatric medicine.
Results:
Careful preservation of clinically important nerves, vessels, muscles, ligaments, and joints was achieved with these prosections.
Conclusions:
Although this method required additional preparation time, the resultant prosections have been repeatedly used for several years to facilitate learning among podiatry students and residents, and they have held up well. This method can be used by educators to teach podiatry students throughout their medical training and even into residency. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 103(5): 387–393, 2013)
The authors examine the future of podiatric medicine through an analysis of the characteristics of students presently enrolled in the colleges of podiatric medicine and the characteristics of college graduates from 1990 to 1995. Specific attention is also given to a number of critical issues surrounding graduate podiatric medical education. The authors conclude that despite a growing number of challenges awaiting podiatric medical education, the present complement of students and graduates of the colleges of podiatric medicine appear to offer the public reasonable expectations for quality foot care.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the single largest source of podiatric resident education. The author describes the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital and discusses the development of the podiatric residency training program. A detailed description of all aspects of the training program is presented.
Health care reform will have great impact on the podiatric physician as the podiatric medical profession continues to integrate into the general medical community. The role of medical education in addressing five major issues that affect health care reform is explored. These issues include specialization, economics, continuous quality improvement, ethics, and fraud.
The leadership of the Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine sets forth the following treatise on the outlook for podiatric medical education into the 21st century. Despite the seemingly impossible challenges facing the profession and its students, it is their opinion that the future is bright and with dedicated effort the profession will become stronger in the years ahead.
