Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Review Meta Analysis Comparative Study
Does simulation-based medical education with deliberate practice yield better results than traditional clinical education? A meta-analytic comparative review of the evidence.
This article presents a comparison of the effectiveness of traditional clinical education toward skill acquisition goals versus simulation-based medical education (SBME) with deliberate practice (DP). ⋯ Although the number of reports analyzed in this meta-analysis is small, these results show that SBME with DP is superior to traditional clinical medical education in achieving specific clinical skill acquisition goals. SBME is a complex educational intervention that should be introduced thoughtfully and evaluated rigorously at training sites. Further research on incorporating SBME with DP into medical education is needed to amplify its power, utility, and cost-effectiveness.
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Meta Analysis
A meta-analysis of studies of publication misrepresentation by applicants to residency and fellowship programs.
Many studies from various fields of medicine about the accuracy of residency and fellowship applications have reported disturbing percentages of candidates with publication misrepresentation on their applications. However, other similar studies have found much lower percentages. No evaluation of these types of studies is currently available to explain this disparity. Therefore, this study evaluated the wide range of percentages of applicants with publication misrepresentation reported in the literature. ⋯ The variance in study results of misrepresentation decreases when uniform inclusion criteria are applied. Caution must be used in directly comparing the results of these studies as originally reported. Program directors should be aware that self-promotion in the authorship list is a common form of misrepresentation.
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Review Meta Analysis
Instructional design variations in internet-based learning for health professions education: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
A recent systematic review (2008) described the effectiveness of Internet-based learning (IBL) in health professions education. A comprehensive synthesis of research investigating how to improve IBL is needed. This systematic review sought to provide such a synthesis. ⋯ Interactivity, practice exercises, repetition, and feedback seem to be associated with improved learning outcomes, although inconsistency across studies tempers conclusions. Evidence for other instructional variations remains inconclusive.
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To review the literature on the methods used in writing case-specific checklists for studies of internal medicine physicians' performances that were assessed by standardized patients. ⋯ The development of case-specific checklists for SP examinations of physicians' performance has received little attention. To judge the validity of studies of physicians' performances that use SPs, the development processes for the checklists need to be more fully described to enable readers to evaluate the validity and reliability of the studies.
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Meta Analysis
Determinants of primary care specialty choice: a non-statistical meta-analysis of the literature.
This paper analyzes and synthesizes the literature on primary care specialty choice from 1987 through 1993. To improve the validity and usefulness of the conclusions drawn from the literature, the authors developed a model of medical student specialty choice to guide the synthesis, and used only high-quality research (a final total of 73 articles). They found that students predominantly enter medical school with a preference for primary care careers, but that this preference diminishes over time (particularly over the clinical clerkship years). ⋯ Strikingly few schools produce a majority of primary care graduates who enter family practice, general internal medicine, or general practice residencies or who actually practice as generalists. Even specially designed tracks seldom produce more than 60% primary care graduates. Twelve recommendations for strategies to increase the proportion of primary care physicians are provided.