There is evidence that students who are given information about how they appear to weigh information in reaching a judgment can learn to make judgments more accurately. A microcomputer system was used to generate simulated cases and then calculate the relationship between the data presented and the student's diagnosis. (Author/MLW)

The Pediatrics Residency Program of the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, instituted a microcomputer-assisted information management system that provides the means for documenting the resident's patient contacts and learning experiences. Its role in meeting requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in…

Attending faculty members completed a rating scale at the end of each clinical rotation in a general pediatrics residency training program. The rating scale items assessed medical knowledge, interpersonal and professional relationships, and attitudes toward education. Interrater agreement is reported. (Author/MLW)

A technique to teach first-year medical students to conduct brief interviews that focus on how medical illness affects the daily life of patients is described. The technique includes a conceptual model of the interview and an explicit teaching method for instructors and students. (Author/MLW)

The long-term effects of a first-year medical school course in disease prevention focusing on cancer were studied. Students who took the course were more knowledgeable about cancer than their peers, but had neither significantly more positive attitudes nor tendencies to use prevention techniques in clinical settings. (Author/LB)

Describes effort to dispel ageist attitudes in medical students in which medical students participated in weekly health seminars and provided health counseling for older adults living in community. Notes that exposing students to healthy elderly persons began to dispel stereotypical views engendered by previous exposure to only frail, acutely ill,…

A study of burnout among 67 residents in four programs found little relationship between burnout scores and situational and background factors, but numerous relationships were found among personality measures, burnout scores, and measures of regret about career choice, indicating the importance of interpersonal skills and comfort in mitigating…

Intercorrelations among multiple true-false items were examined to determine to what extent each choice can be treated as independent. Results from 157 health science and 170 medical students indicated that correlations between options from the same stem were larger than those from different stems. Methods for computing reliability estimates were…

The efficacy of an educational intervention in teaching medical students to select optimal diagnostic data consistent with the competing-hypotheses heuristic and Bayes' theorem when solving clinical problems was examined. The results suggest that some problem-solving skills can be enhanced or learned independent of the acquisition of content…

A course to develop medical students' capacity to read medical journal articles critically is described. The course's background, organization, and aims; faculty members' impressions of the course; and students' responses to an evaluation questionnaire are discussed. (MLW)

An elective course focusing on exercise physiology and cardiovascular fitness offered at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine consists of weekly lectures and student self-designed fitness programs. Student participation correlates with significantly increased levels of student maximum oxygen consumption, a moderate training effect.…

Second-year medical students in five New York City medical schools were surveyed concerning (1) the development and use of nuclear power for civil and military purposes and (2) the medical school curriculum's inclusion of programs on the medical and social consequences of using high levels of ionizing radiation. (MSE)

This paper presents and interprets examiner and participant performance data obtained from an experimental field test of the test item and case simulation libraries of the American Board of Emergency Medicine Specialty Certificate Examination. Subjects were 94 medical students, residents, and emergency physicians. (Author/LMO)

A course at George Washington University School of Medicine was evaluated to determine the course's effectiveness, changes in the students' perception of their competence in reading medical literature, the student's knowledge of research study design and statistics, and the effect of the course on the students' journal reading. (Author/MLW)

Prescriptive, decision-analysis of medical problem-solving has been based on decision theory that involves calculation and manipulation of complex probability and utility values to arrive at optimal decisions that will maximize patient benefits. The studies offer a methodology for improving clinical judgment. (Author/MLW)