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Background This study explores the impacts of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) Journal Club, a unique means of providing monthly professional development for a large international community of pediatric undergraduate medical educators. In particular, we sought to establish member engagement with the Journal Club, identify factors impacting member contributions to the Journal Club, and determine perceived benefits of and barriers to participation as a Journal Club reviewer. Methods Using an established Annual Survey as a study instrument, six survey questions were distributed to members of COMSEP. Items were pilot tested prior to inclusion. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis.. Results Of 125 respondents who completed the survey, 38% reported reading the Journal Club most months or always. Level of engagement varied. Reasons for reading included a topic of interest, keeping up to date on medical education literature, gaining practical tips for teaching and implementing new curricula. Motivators for writing a review included keeping up to date, contributing to a professional organization, and developing skill in analyzing medical education literature, with a minority citing reasons of enhancing their educational portfolio or academic promotion. The most commonly cited barriers were lack of time and lack of confidence or training in ability to analyze medical education literature. Conclusion As a strategy to disseminate the latest evidence in medical education to its membership, the COMSEP Journal Club is effective. Its format is ideally suited for busy educators and may help in members’ professional development and in the development of a community of practice.

Metformin is the first-line treatment for many people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) to maintain glycaemic control. Recent evidence suggests metformin can cross the placenta during pregnancy, thereby exposing the fetus to high concentrations of metformin and potentially restricting placental and fetal growth. Offspring exposed to metformin during gestation are at increased risk of being born small for gestational age (SGA) and show signs of ‘catch up’ growth and obesity during childhood which increases their risk of future cardiometabolic diseases. The mechanisms by which metformin impacts on the fetal growth and long-term health of the offspring remain to be established. Metformin is associated with maternal vitamin B12 deficiency and antifolate like activity. Vitamin B12 and folate balance is vital for one carbon metabolism, which is essential for DNA methylation and purine/pyrimidine synthesis of nucleic acids. Folate:vitamin B12 imbalance induced by metformin may lead to genomic instability and aberrant gene expression, thus promoting fetal programming. Mitochondrial aerobic respiration may also be affected, thereby inhibiting placental and fetal growth, and suppressing mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activity for cellular nutrient transport. Vitamin supplementation, before or during metformin treatment in pregnancy, could be a promising strategy to improve maternal vitamin B12 and folate levels and reduce the incidence of SGA births and childhood obesity. Heterogeneous diagnostic and screening criteria for GDM and the transient nature of nutrient biomarkers have led to inconsistencies in clinical study designs to investigate the effects of metformin on folate:vitamin B12 balance and child development. As rates of diabetes in pregnancy continue to escalate, more women are likely to be prescribed metformin; thus, it is of paramount importance to improve our understanding of metformin’s transgenerational effects to develop prophylactic strategies for the prevention of adverse fetal outcomes.

ObjectiveClinicians acknowledge that receiving bad news is challenging and life-altering, while recognising that candid communication is needed for effective patient care. In some cultures, patients’ relatives commonly ask doctors to hide bad news, with the intention of reducing psychological distress. Although well-intentioned, concealing information has harmful consequences for the patient, their caregivers and the healthcare team. Our study focuses on clinicians’ lived experience of this phenomenon. Previous research has provided some exploration of how practitioners navigate this dilemma. Our study aims to deepen understanding, with two goals: improving cultural competence when facing this dilemma and equipping clinicians to navigate this professional challenge.DesignAs this study explored lived experience, we drew on the methodology of phenomenology. To allow deep insight into how clinicians navigate this dilemma, participants took part in focus groups and semistructured interviews. Interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic content analysis. The study was strongly influenced by the work of Braun and Clarke, who emphasise the strength in subjectivity in qualitative research. Reporting was guided by the COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research.SettingsRecognising that this practice varies significantly across cultures, we recruited clinicians who had experienced a cultural challenge: medical students receiving a UK curriculum in Malaysia and the UK and international medical graduates working in the UK.Participants26 medical students and 16 international medical graduates participated.ResultsFor our participants, concealing diagnoses created multiple sources of personal distress. Three major themes emerged: moral discomfort, dilemma and powerlessness. Sympathetic distress at the impact on the patient was stark. However, conflicting personal and professional values created uncertainty. Some of our participants shared the relatives’ concern that diagnostic disclosure could potentially harm the patient. Even when our participants wanted to disclose diagnoses, they felt underequipped for communication challenges and faced coercion to conceal information, generating a professional dilemma and a sense of powerlessness.ConclusionThe crucial next step is for medical education to acknowledge that requests to conceal diagnoses happen. We need to provide a communication strategy for tackling this phenomenon, which upholds the patient’s right to knowledge while maintaining collaboration and trust with the patient’s family. Furthermore, this dilemma highlights shortcomings in our current approach to teaching medical ethics. Our findings offer globalised healthcare education an opportunity for self-awareness. Learning from and respecting global variation shines a light on our biases, allowing progress towards curriculum decolonisation.

Indigenous Peoples in Canada bear a disproportionate burden of disease and experience poorer health outcomes as compared to non-Indigenous populations within Canada; these conditions are said to be mediated and exacerbated by pervasive and uninterrupted anti-Indigenous racism. Third and fourth-year medical students at a Canadian medical school were asked to reflect on their experiences working with Indigenous patients in clinical settings, and how their preclinical Indigenous health curriculum impacted these experiences. Phenomenology was used, guided by Goffman's theory of social stigma. Eleven undergraduate medical students were recruited using purposeful sampling. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the participants' experiences. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using the four main processes for phenomenological analysis. Four main themes emerged from students' descriptions of clinical experiences involving Indigenous patients: 1) students describe how their Indigenous patients encounter the health care system and their own lack of cultural sensitivity in this context; 2) racism was evident in students' clinical interactions with Indigenous patients, but students do not always perceive these biases nor the impact of this on patient care; 3) identifying the impact of racism on care is complicated by situational clinical encounters; and 4) practicality of preclinical Indigenous health education is desired by students to prepare them for working with Indigenous patients in the clinical setting. In their clinical experiences, students witness racism against Indigenous peoples yet are unprepared to stand up against it. Findings highlight the importance of enhancing undergraduate medical training to allow students to better understand the unique experiences and perspectives of Indigenous patients. The results support the need for ongoing Indigenous health education, to foster culturally sensitive experiences while learning about Indigenous patients.

Background The start of the COVID-19 pandemic led to both shortened clinical rotations and consequent loss of embedded formal teaching time. In response to these learning gaps, a novel, virtual pediatric bootcamp was developed to provide a consolidated 3-week learning opportunity for clinical medical students. Pre-clinical students were encouraged but not required to participate, given the suspension of clinical patient experiences for all undergraduate medical learners and the uncertainty of when clinical rotations would resume. This group of students were particularly challenged with adapting their learning in response to the pandemic while also preparing to apply their pre-clinical knowledge to solve clinical problems. Methods A qualitative thematic analysis was used for this study. Ten semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with second-year medical students to explore their experiences and perceptions of the pediatric bootcamp. The six phases of thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clark guided data analysis. To ensure rigour, the three aspects of rigour—credibility, transferability and confirmability were utilized throughout the project. Results Qualitative exploration from semi-structured phone interviews of second-year medical students’ perceptions and experiences of this new and unanticipated learning experience revealed four main themes: (a) clinical relevance, describing how students were pushed to think about clinical problems in a new way; (b) timing, which explored conflicts related to competing interests, mental preparedness, and the interval between learning and application; (c) teaching strategies, describing how active learning and interaction were facilitated and challenges that arose; and (d) learning resources, highlighting the curated and accessible resources made available to the students, as well as those resources that learners develop for themselves. Conclusions A novel three-week online case-based pediatric bootcamp fostered application of knowledge for clinical reasoning at a time when students were transitioning from preclinical to clinical learning. Students were stretched to balance competing priorities, and the bootcamp curated synchronous and asynchronous learner opportunities while allowing them to reflect on their own learning styles and effective virtual learning strategies. While bootcamps are often used to prepare learners for transitions between clinical stages, our findings suggest the bootcamp format can also facilitate transition from preclinical to clinical roles.

Abstract The American College of Physicians defines high-value care (HVC) as health care that balances clinical benefit with costs and harms with the goal of improving patient outcomes. We present a novel 2-hour workshop developed for general paediatric residents designed to promote reflective practice on resource stewardship and raise awareness of costs of medical care in hospitalized children. The workshop impact was assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Preworkshop, 2-week postworkshop, and 6-month postworkshop electronic surveys were completed by 18 of 43 workshop participants (42% survey participation rate, 100% follow-up in postworkshop surveys) revealing increased knowledge and retention. Thematic analysis performed on ‘lessons learned’ and ‘action plans’ provided by participants at the end of the workshop yielded rich data with key findings from learners that included critical thinking about their management and reflecting on nonmonetary costs. Future directions include faculty development and assessment of impact on patient care.

This theoretical paper builds on the authors’ existing scholarship exploring the value of incorporating multilingual identity-focused pedagogical practice into language learning at the secondary school level, by establishing the rationale for extending such practices to the tertiary level, both in language learning specifically and in tertiary education more generally. We previously reconceptualised multilingualism as an all-encompassing concept that one can lay claim to, regardless of proficiency levels in multiple languages, dialects, and other communicative modes, and outlined a pedagogical framework for “participative construction of multilingual identity in the language classroom”. In establishing a rationale for applying this framework and its underpinning conceptualisation of multilingual identity to the (increasingly linguistically diverse) tertiary education sector, this current paper critically examines the literature on attitudes towards multilingualism in higher education; and on evidence for the value of identity-focused pedagogies. We outline approaches to embedding awareness-raising of multilingual identities, and related identity-focused pedagogical approaches. At a time when the English language remains powerful at the tertiary level, these proposals are deemed important for challenging the ongoing dominance of monolingual ideals in higher education, especially in Anglophone contexts, where increasing numbers of international students with varied multilingual identities and repertoires are perceived as deficient when judged against monolingual, native-speaker norms. Finally, the next steps in the research agenda are recommended.

Background: Galectins (gal) are glycan-binding proteins that regulate maternal adaptations during pregnancy, but their role in pregnancy-associated metabolic homeostasis is unclear. This study characterizes the maternal galectin profile in response to an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in pregnant women with varying body weight.Methods: In a two-center prospective study, pregnant women were recruited into two cohorts: low-risk (LR) with normal weight and high-risk (HR) with overweight or obesity. Circulating levels of gal-1, -3, -7, and -9 were measured at fasting, 1 hour, and 2 hours during the OGTT between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation. Correlations with clinical and metabolic parameters were assessed (HMO study: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT05496712; FitFor2 trial: trial registration number NTR1139).Results: Fasting gal-3 and gal-9 were elevated in the HR cohort compared to the LR cohort. Body mass index was positively associated with gal-3 and gal-9, while gal-3 was also linked to insulin sensitivity. After glucose challenge, gal-1, -3, -7, and -9 decreased in the LR cohort; in the HR cohort, only gal-1 and gal-7 decreased after 2 hours, while gal-3 and gal-9 remained unchanged. Gal-1 correlated positively with homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and inversely with insulin sensitivity across the OGTT in the LR cohort, but some of these correlations were not observed in the HR cohort.Conclusion: Galectins exhibited distinct patterns of association with glucose homeostasis during the second trimester of pregnancy. Gal-3 and gal-9 are associated with chronic conditions such as pre-pregnancy obesity and insulin resistance, whereas gal-1 appears to be particularly sensitive to the acute glucose challenge.

Abstract Objective There are many challenges in ensuring medical students learn paediatrics. Medical educators must develop and maintain curricula that meet learners’ needs and accreditation requirements. Paediatricians and family physicians, practicing and teaching in busy clinical environments, require Canadian-relevant curricular guidance and resources to teach and assess learners. Students struggle with curricular cohesion, clear expectations, and resources. Recognizing these challenges and acknowledging the need to address them, the Paediatric Undergraduate Program Directors of Canada (PUPDOC) created canuc-paeds, a comprehensive competency-based undergraduate curriculum that teachers and students would actually use. Methods Curriculum development included the following: utilization of best practices in curriculum development, an environmental scan, development of guiding principles, Delphi surveys, in-person meetings, and quality improvement. All Canadian paediatric undergraduate educator leaders and other stakeholders were invited to participate. Results The curriculum, based on the RCPSC CanMEDS Framework, includes 29 clinical presentations, each with key conditions, foundational knowledge objectives, and learning resources. Essential paediatric-specific physical examination and procedural skills that graduating medical students are expected to perform are identified. Objectives specific to Intrinsic Roles of Collaborator, Communicator, Professional, Leader, Health Advocate and Scholar that can be assessed in the field of paediatrics at the undergraduate level are articulated. The national curriculum has been implemented widely at Canadian medical schools. Online, open-access clinical resources have been developed and are being used world-wide. Conclusion This curriculum provides overarching Canadian-specific curricular guidance and resources for students and for the paediatricians and family physicians who are responsible for teaching and assessing undergraduate learners.