Leadership Development in Academic Health Science Centers: Towards a Paradigm Shift.

Problem: In an era of increasing complexity, leadership development is an urgent need for academic health science centers (AHSCs). The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and others have described the need for a focus on organizational leadership development and more rigorous evaluation of outcomes. Although the business literature notes the importance of evaluating institutional leadership culture, there is sparse conversation in the medical literature about this vital aspect of leadership development.

A Focused Career Development Program for Women Faculty at an Academic Medical Center.

Within free-standing academic medical centers, women continue to be underrepresented at upper faculty ranks and in leadership positions. A career development program (CDP) at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) was implemented with the goal of improving the number of women in the upper ranks and in leadership positions. The CDP was initiated in 2013 as a 2-day program.

Improving Ethnocultural Empathy in Healthcare Students through a Targeted Intervention.

Students in training to become future healthcare providers must be trained not only how to provide quality care but also how to effectively communicate with patients, regardless of the patient's cultural background. Poor communication between provider and patient when racial or ethnic backgrounds differ between patient and provider is a relevant factor in suboptimal healthcare services to ethnic minorities. This pilot study was conducted to examine changes in the scores on the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE)for first year nursing (n = 40) and dental students (n = 42)following an intervention.

The value of a writing center at a medical university.

Background: Students often enter graduate healthcare/biomedical schools with insufficient undergraduate instruction in effective writing, yet the ability to write well affects their career opportunities in health care and in scientific research.

Purpose: The present study was conducted to determine the value and effectiveness of instruction by faculty with expertise in teaching writing at a writing center at an academic health science center.

Methods: Two separate sources of data were collected and analyzed.

Developing a program to promote stress resilience and self-care in first-year medical students.

BACKGROUND: Facilitating stress resilience in future physicians is an important role of medical educators and administrators. We developed an extracurricular program and pilot tested the program on first year medical students. METHODS: Presentations on topics related to mental health, help-seeking, and stress resilience were presented (one topic per session).

Food cravings and the effects of left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation using an improved sham condition.

This study examined whether a single session of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) would inhibit food cravings in healthy women who endorsed frequent food cravings. Ten participants viewed images of food and completed ratings for food cravings before and after receiving either real or sham rTMS over the left PFC (10 Hz, 100% resting motor threshold, 10 s-on, 20 s-off for 15 min; 3000 pulses). Sham-TMS was matched with real TMS with respect to perceived painfulness of the stimulation.

Core clerkship directors: their current resources and the rewards of the role.

Purpose: To conduct a national multidisciplinary investigation assessing core clinical clerkships and their directors, variances in resources from national guidelines, and the impact of the clerkship director role on faculty members' academic productivity, advancement, and satisfaction.

Method: A multidisciplinary working group of the Alliance for Clinical Education (ACE), representing all seven core clinical disciplines, created and distributed a survey to clerkship directors at 125 U.S.

Clinical practice as natural laboratory for psychotherapy research: a guide to case-based time-series analysis.

Both researchers and practitioners need to know more about how laboratory treatment protocols translate to real-world practice settings and how clinical innovations can be systematically tested and communicated to a skeptical scientific community. The single-case time-series study is well suited to opening a productive discourse between practice and laboratory. The appeal of case-based time-series studies, with multiple observations both before and after treatment, is that they enrich our design palette by providing the discipline another way to expand its empirical reach to practice settings and its subject matter to the contingencies of individual change.

Vagus nerve stimulation acutely alters food craving in adults with depression.

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is now available as a treatment for epilepsy and treatment-resistant depression. The vagus nerve plays a central role in satiety and short-term regulation of food intake and research suggests a relationship between VNS and weight loss. The underlying mechanisms of this relationship are unknown.

The computer-assisted cognitive/imagery system for use in the management of pain.

Background: There is growing interest in computer-delivered psychological interventions for a number of clinical conditions, including pain.

Objectives: This study tests the effectiveness of a new computer-delivered pain-management program using a laboratory pain paradigm.

Methods: One hundred twenty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the computerized pain-management group or the distraction control group.

Medical students' readiness to provide lifestyle counseling for overweight patients.

In order to assess medical students' readiness to engage in lifestyle counseling regarding nutrition, physical activity, and other health behaviors, the authors examined the knowledge, attitudes, and health behaviors of medical students. The authors analyzed questionnaire responses of 290 medical students in their first, second, or third year. Students were generally knowledgeable about cardiovascular disease risk factors, however they were less knowledgeable about body mass index (BMI) and specific nutrition and physical activity recommendations.

Women's health competencies in the undergraduate psychiatry curriculum: past and future.

Objective: To review the current psychiatry model clerkship objectives for their inclusion of women's health competencies and advise changes in light of recommendations of psychiatric educators and those developed at the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) Women's Health Education Retreat 2000.

Study Design: The clerkship objectives promulgated by the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP) were reviewed for their relevance to women's health. ADMSEP members were surveyed at their 1997 annual meeting and again by means of their listserve in 2000 for opinions regarding inclusion of women's health topics in their curricula.

Trauma screening in students attending a medical university.

Clinicians seldom assess trauma history in patients who seek treatment for psychological problems, yet trauma exposure is often related to psychological distress. Assessing trauma history can provide valuable information for treatment conceptualization and provision, although patients may not spontaneously share their histories because of embarrassment, avoidance, or other concerns. The authors compared 73 students at a southeastern US medical university who sought counseling and psychological services and completed intake paperwork without a trauma screen with 130 students whose intake procedures included trauma screening.