Monthly Archives: June 2013

Can We Teach Empathy?

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

The answer from this systematic review is, Maybe.  Many of the reviewed studies show a small, short-term effect on measures of empathy in medical students.  The literature is plagued by a lack of a clear “gold standard” for measurement of … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourcing to Success?

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

New software developed at John Hopkins University School of Medicine uses medical student crowd sourcing to create a bank of 16,000 student generated flashcard questions.   Year-to-year exam scores rose slightly, yet several limitations to this study and method are noted.  … Continue reading →

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Yes! Your doctor Uses Google, Too

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

A survey of internal medicine residents found that UptoDate and Google were the most commonly used resources for answering clinical questions at the point of care. Although the response rate was only 56%, the findings are consistent with prior studies. … Continue reading →

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The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly As The EMR (electronic medical record) Collides With Education

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

This timely perspective lists many of the beneficial and harmful effects of the EMR on medical education.  EMRs may help with data retrieval, track trainees’ clinical activity, and educate via decision-support software.  They may also not allow for documentation by … Continue reading →

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Students Build Exam Question Pool

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

Fourth year medical students were asked to construct a multiple choice question bank for use on their curricular exams.  Educators hypothesized that this would promote student communication and study.  One and a half out of four exams were composed of … Continue reading →

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Probably Illegal Questions During Residency Interviews Are Very Prevalent!

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

In this disturbing study, nearly two-thirds of fourth-year medical students replying to a survey reported that they were asked potentially illegal questions during their residency interviews.  The most common categories of inappropriate questions were those regarding marital status, presence of … Continue reading →

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The (Lack Of) Safety Culture

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

Fourth-year medical students, reflecting on their medicine and surgery clerkships, report a depressingly low impression of the safety culture they observed.  More than half of students reported a negative perception of the overall safety culture, physician-to-physician handoffs, punitive responses to … Continue reading →

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Teaching Medical Error Disclosure to Physicians-in-Training: A Scoping Review

Posted on June 1, 2013 by DR MERL Reviews

Pertinent to the safety culture, this review examines how we should teach medical students and residents to disclose errors to patients and families.  Most of the studied interventions were brief (1-3 hours) sessions, either stand-alone or part of a larger … Continue reading →

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