Publications by authors named "Andrea Jane Doyle"

Purpose: Despite the demonstrated value of simulated participant (SP) feedback, we are only beginning to understand how to optimize SPs' feedback practices for communication skills and strengthen their role as educators. SPs portray roles and engage in feedback practices to support simulated-based learning for communication skills training. SPs come to their role with diverse experiences, knowledge, and training, such as (a) professional actors, (b) lay people, and (c) health professions educators.

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Brachytherapy is an efficacious treatment option because of its benefits for patient recovery, dose localization and conformity, but these favorable outcomes can be ensured only if the transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) system is optimized for the specific application of ultrasound-guided prostate brachytherapy. The ability to delineate the prostate from surrounding tissue during TRUS-guided prostate brachytherapy is vital for treatment planning, and consequently, so is the contrast resolution. This study describes the development of task-specific contrast-detail phantoms with clinically relevant contrast and spherical target sizes for contrast-detail performance evaluation of TRUS systems used in the brachytherapy procedure.

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Purpose: Ultrasound imaging training is not required as part of radiation oncology training programs nor does any objective competency measure exist to independently assess performance. Physical simulation training can provide a structured approach to this training but only if suitably challenging training simulators exist. This study describes the design and preliminary evaluation of a simulation-based transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) imaging training workshop developed for medical physicists involved in low-dose-rate (LDR) prostate brachytherapy (PBT).

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Background: COVID-19 has fundamentally altered how education is delivered. Gordon et al. previously conducted a review of medical education developments in response to COVID-19; however, the field has rapidly evolved in the ensuing months.

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Background: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic in March 2020. This rapid systematic review synthesised published reports of medical educational developments in response to the pandemic, considering descriptions of interventions, evaluation data and lessons learned.

Methods: The authors systematically searched four online databases and hand searched MedEdPublish up to 24 May 2020.

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Ultrasound guided brachytherapy for the treatment of prostate cancer has become a routine treatment option, due to many benefits including patient recovery and dose localisation [1]; however it is not clear whether the standards which govern the image quality for these systems are adequate. Upon review of the recommended standards for ultrasound systems used in prostate brachytherapy procedures, the recommended tests do not appear to be specific to the clinical application of ultrasound guided prostate brachytherapy. Rather they are generic and similar to those recommended for other clinical applications such as general abdominal scanning [2].

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