Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Every year since 2000, Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) has presented a one-day consensus conference to generate a research agenda for advancement of a scientific topic. One of the 12 annual issues of AEM is reserved for the proceedings of these conferences. The purpose of this study was to measure academic productivity of these conferences by evaluating subsequent federal research funding received by authors of conference manuscripts and calculating citation counts of conference papers. ⋯ The authors of consensus conference manuscripts obtained significant federal grant support for follow-up research related to conference themes. In addition, the manuscripts generated by these conferences were frequently cited. Conferences devoted to research agenda development appear to be an academically worthwhile endeavor.
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To describe educational outcomes for a national cohort of students who enrolled in MD-PhD programs at medical school matriculation (MD-PhD matriculants). ⋯ Most MD-PhD matriculants completed the MD-PhD program; most of those who left were MD-only graduates. Findings regarding variables associated with attrition can inform efforts to recruit and support students through successful completion of MD-PhD program requirements.
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Diagnostic errors have been attributed to faulty reasoning and cognitive biases, but minimizing errors requires understanding the mechanisms underlying biases. The authors investigated whether salient distracting features (SDFs)-case findings that tend to grab physicians' attention because they are strongly associated with a particular disease, but are indeed unrelated to the problem-misdirect diagnostic reasoning, causing errors. ⋯ SDFs early in a case are apparently an important source of diagnostic errors. Physicians should be aware of the need to overcome their influence.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Test-enhanced web-based learning: optimizing the number of questions (a randomized crossover trial).
Questions enhance learning in Web-based courses, but preliminary evidence suggests that too many questions may interfere with learning. The authors sought to determine how varying the number of self-assessment questions affects knowledge outcomes in a Web-based course. ⋯ Increasing the number of self-assessment questions improves learning until a plateau beyond which additional questions do not add value.