Making a movie on kidney transplantation: a medical school graduation thesis to explain kidney transplantation from students to students.

The aim of this study was to report on the production and the opinions of a video movie on transplantation and organ donation. The video was developed by a medical school student with the help of the students and teachers of a high school for applied arts. For this task, the making of the video was included in the high school program of the participating class.

Kidney vending: opinions of the medical school students on this controversial issue.

Background: In this era of globalization, in which different cultural and economic barriers are progressively abated, in the context of the development of rapid information networks such as the Internet, physicians are increasingly challenged by clinical and ethical questions. Kidney vending, banned in some countries, legal or tolerated in others, may be the prototype of the ethical aspects of health-care globalization.

Methods: To test the interest and the opinions of medical school students, a simulated case was proposed to students attending a seminar within the nephrology course fourth year of the Medical School of Torino, san Luigi): an Italian patient comes to the nephrologist's office asking for advice on the possibility to legally buy a kidney in a foreign country.

How many organs should one patient receive? The ethics of transplantation in the medical school.

Background: Interest in the humanities in the medical school is growing; while several medical schools, mainly of Anglo-Saxon background, have developed dedicated courses, the experience in Italy is limited.

Methods: Since the academic year 2000 to 2001, a discussion of ethical problems was implemented in the nephrology course (fourth year of the Medical School of Torino, Italy; overall 6 years). In 2002 to 2003, a case entitled "Retransplantation of Multiple Organs (Prog Transplant 2002)" was discussed in 2 hours of small-group tutorial teaching: a boy received a renal graft at age 5, failed at age 7 due to recurrent glomerulonephritis, required a heart-kidney graft at age 11, and a second heart-kidney graft at 17.

Efficacy of an educational program on dialysis, renal transplantation, and organ donation on the opinions of high school students: a randomized controlled trial.

Aim: Organ shortage is a rate-limiting factor for transplantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of an educational program targeted to high school students on opinions concerning organ donation.

Methods: Sixteen public high schools in Torino, Italy, were randomized (2001 to 2002) as interventions (n = 8) or controls (n = 8).