An overview of global CME/CPD systems.

Purpose: Engagement in CME/CPD has a positive impact on healthcare professionals' (HCPs) knowledge, skills, and performance, and on patient outcomes, therefore it is critical to better understand the components of CME/CPD systems that foster engagement, high-quality education, and impact.

Methods: An assessment of CME/CPD systems was conducted using a mixed-methods approach that included interviews with in-country subject matter experts and qualitative and quantitative data from practicing in-country physicians.

Results: Results demonstrate areas of consistency in CME/CPD systems across world regions that included: types of educational providers; types of credit; educational formats; self-tracking of participation; high-degree of compliance when education is mandatory; overall satisfaction with available education; strong support for interprofessional education; and lack of alignment or evaluation of engagement in education with population health outcomes.

An Overview of Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development Systems in China: A Mixed Methods Assessment.

Aims of this assessment were to describe requirements for physicians to engage in CME/CPD; explore perceptions of In-Country SMEs of their CME/CPD systems; describe perceptions of In-Country physicians about interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) and independent CME/CPD; and provide recommendations that may be adopted to improve quality and effectiveness. This assessment used a mixed-methods approach that included 1:1 interviews with in-country subject matter experts and an electronic survey capturing qualitative and quantitative data from practicing in-country physicians. This assessment reflects a country invested in the education of its physician workforce.

Effects of a competence-based approach for clerkship teaching under alternating clinical placements: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods research.

Background: It is unclear whether alternating placements during clinical clerkship, without an explicit emphasis on clinical competencies, would bring about optimal educational outcomes.

Methods: This is an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research. We enrolled a convenience sample of 41 eight-year programme medical students in Sun Yat-sen University who received alternating placements during clerkship.

Long-term tracking of fasting blood glucose variability and peripheral artery disease in people without diabetes.

Introduction: Long-term changes of fasting blood glucose (FBG) in relation to lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (lower-extremity PAD) in people without diabetes has barely been reported. Our study aimed to investigate the association between FBG variability and the incidence of lower-extremity PAD in people without diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: We included 7699 participants without prior lower-extremity PAD and diabetes from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study in the final analysis.

A systematic review of guidelines for dual antiplatelet therapy in coronary artery bypass graft.

Background: In most situations, many patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) are on dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), which is also required after CABG. The adjustment of antiplatelet strategy remains controversial. In this study, we systematically review current guidelines, seeking consensus and controversies to facilitate clinical practice.

Use of personal protective equipment against coronavirus disease 2019 by healthcare professionals in Wuhan, China: cross sectional study.

Objective: To examine the protective effects of appropriate personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare professionals who provided care for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19).

Design: Cross sectional study.

Setting: Four hospitals in Wuhan, China.

Preparedness of medical education in China: Lessons from the COVID-19 outbreak.

The COVID-19 outbreak can be seen as a 'big test' for China; a summative assessment of its preparedness on multiple fronts, including medical education. Being intimately involved in the coordinated response, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University has been a first-hand witness to the strengths and weaknesses of the current medical education system in China. On the one hand, we believe that the distinguished contributions in disease containment efforts by healthcare professionals indicated that our medical education system has achieved its intended outcomes and is socially accountable.

Phenomapping of subgroups in hypertensive patients using unsupervised data-driven cluster analysis: An exploratory study of the SPRINT trial.

Background: Hypertensive patients are highly heterogeneous in cardiovascular prognosis and treatment responses. A better classification system with phenomapping of clinical features would be of greater value to identify patients at higher risk of developing cardiovascular outcomes and direct individual decision-making for antihypertensive treatment.

Methods: An unsupervised, data-driven cluster analysis was performed for all baseline variables related to cardiovascular outcomes and treatment responses in subjects from the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT), in order to identify distinct subgroups with maximal within-group similarities and between-group differences.

Comparative outcomes of heart failure among existent classes of anti-diabetic agents: a network meta-analysis of 171,253 participants from 91 randomized controlled trials.

Background: The cardiovascular (CV) safety in terms of heart failure among different classes of treatment remains largely unknown. We sought to assess the comparative effect of these agents on heart failure outcomes.

Methods: This study was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD 42016042063).

The PROFILE of assessment program for internal medicine internship of Sun Yat-Sen University.

To reflectively look at the present methods by which the clinical competence of 5th-year medical students (i.e. interns) in Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU) are assessed upon finishing internship rotation in internal medicine (IM).

Comparative cardiovascular outcomes in the era of novel anti-diabetic agents: a comprehensive network meta-analysis of 166,371 participants from 170 randomized controlled trials.

Background: Cardiovascular (CV) safety of one anti-diabetic medication over another remains partially delineated. We sought to assess the comparative effect on CV outcomes among novel anti-diabetic agents.

Methods: This study was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD 42016042063).

Enhanced external counterpulsation inhibits endothelial apoptosis via modulation of BIRC2 and Apaf-1 genes in porcine hypercholesterolemia.

Objectives: Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) could improve endothelium-dependent vasodilatation of carotid artery and restore imbalance of nitric oxide and endothein-1 in patients with coronary artery disease. Our study was designed to test the hypothesis that long-term EECP may protect vascular endothelial cells from apoptosis by modifying apoptosis-related gene expression.

Methods: Eighteen male Yorkshire pigs were randomly assigned to three groups: usual diet (Normal), high cholesterol diet (HC) and high cholesterol diet plus EECP (HC+EECP).

Transplantation of human umbilical cord-derived endothelial progenitor cells promotes re-endothelialization of the injured carotid artery after balloon injury in New Zealand white rabbits.

Background: Cell transplantation has great potential for promoting endothelial repair and reducing the complications of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of transplantation of human umbilical cord blood endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) on injured arteries.

Methods: Umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells were obtained from post-partum lying-in women, and EPCs were isolated, cultured, expanded and identified by immunofluorescence.

Vasculoprotective properties of enhanced external counterpulsation for coronary artery disease: beyond the hemodynamics.

A growing pool of evidence has shown that enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is a non-invasive, safe, low-cost, and highly beneficial therapy for patients with coronary artery disease. However, the exact mechanisms of benefit exerted by EECP therapy remain only partially understood. The favorable hemodynamic effects of EECP were previously considered as the primary mechanism of action.

Expanded human cord blood-derived endothelial progenitor cells salvage infarcted myocardium in rats with acute myocardial infarction.

1. Cell transplantation has promise as a therapeutic option for restoring impaired heart function after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, the optimal cell type to use remains controversial.

Enhanced external counterpulsation promotes growth cytokines-mediated myocardial angiogenesis in a porcine model of hypercholesterolemia.

Background: Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) improves ischemia in patients with refractory angina pectoris, but the mechanism remains unclear. To explore the mechanisms of EECP action, we detected progenitor cells presenting any of the following markers CD34(+), CD29(+), and CD106(+).

Methods: Growth cytokines-mediated progenitor cell mobilization and associated angiogenesis potential were assessed in a porcine model of hypercholesterolemia.

Human umbilical cord-derived endothelial progenitor cells promote growth cytokines-mediated neorevascularization in rat myocardial infarction.

Background: Cell-based vascular therapies of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) mediated neovascularization is still a novel but promising approach for the treatment of ischemic disease. The present study was designed to investigate the therapeutic potentials of human umbilical cord blood-derived EPCs (hUCB-EPCs) in rat with acute myocardial infarction.

Methods: Human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) mononuclear cells were isolated using density gradient centrifugation from the fresh human umbilical cord in healthy delivery woman, and cultured in M199 medium for 7 days.