Mentoring to enhance diversity in STEM and STEM-intensive health professions.

Purpose: This manuscript is a scholarly perspective on the crucially important topic of mentoring in STEM and the STEM-intensive health professions (STEM+). Our purpose is to share our understanding of this subject as a means to mitigate the persistent underrepresentation in these fields and to offer our recommendations.

Materials & Methods: This manuscript draws on the literature and our experiences to develop recommendations for improving outcomes for diverse populations of undergraduate students who are pursuing majors in the STEM fields and aspire to careers in the biomedical sciences and/or STEM-intensive health professions.

CityLab at Boston University - Thirty Years of Innovation and Partnerships.

Boston University's (BU) CityLab program was created in 1991 as a partnership between faculty members of BU's School of Medicine and School of Education in response to the first call for proposals under the Science Education Partnership Awards initiative of the National Institutes of Health. CityLab's founders recognized the need for CityLab, a centrally-located facility for pre-college teachers and students to explore the burgeoning world of biotechnology. The mission has always been to share the excitement of science with students and teachers by engaging them in hands-on laboratory experiences, thereby fostering the development of a robust pool of scientists and physicians and a scientifically-literate populace.

Use of Predictive Modeling to Plan for Special Event Medical Care During Mass Gathering Events.

Objectives: In 2010, South Africa (SA) hosted the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup (soccer). Emergency Medical Services (EMS) used the SA mass gathering medicine (MGM) resource model to predict resource allocation. This study analyzed data from the World Cup and compared them with the resource allocation predicted by the SA mass gathering model.

Effect of visual-spatial ability on medical students' performance in a gross anatomy course.

The ability to mentally manipulate objects in three dimensions is essential to the practice of many clinical medical specialties. The relationship between this type of visual-spatial ability and performance in preclinical courses such as medical gross anatomy is poorly understood. This study determined if visual-spatial ability is associated with performance on practical examinations, and if students' visual-spatial ability improves during medical gross anatomy.

Incorporating radiology into medical gross anatomy: does the use of cadaver CT scans improve students' academic performance in anatomy?

Radiological images show anatomical structures in multiple planes and may be effective for teaching anatomical spatial relationships, something that students often find difficult to master. This study tests the hypotheses that (1) the use of cadaveric computed tomography (CT) scans in the anatomy laboratory is positively associated with performance in the gross anatomy course and (2) dissection of the CT-scanned cadaver is positively associated with performance on this course. One hundred and seventy-nine first-year medical students enrolled in gross anatomy at Boston University School of Medicine were provided with CT scans of four cadavers, and students were given the opportunity to choose whether or not to use these images.