Point-of-Care Ultrasound training in undergraduate education in the European Union: current situation and perspectives.

Background: Given the widespread use of Point-of-Care UltraSound (PoCUS) in clinical practice, with ultrasound machines becoming more portable and affordable, recommendations and position statements from ultrasound societies now promote teaching PoCUS in the undergraduate curriculum. Nevertheless, surveys about PoCUS teaching in European medical schools are lacking. This survey aims to overview the current and future undergraduate PoCUS courses in the European Union (EU).

Evaluation of point-of-care ultrasound use in the diagnostic approach for right upper quadrant abdominal pain management in the emergency department: a prospective study.

Point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) is commonly used at the bedside in the emergency department (ED) as part of clinical examinations. Studies frequently investigate PoCUS diagnostic accuracy, although its contribution to the overall diagnostic approach is less often evaluated. The primary objective of this prospective, multicenter, cohort study was to assess the contribution of PoCUS to the overall diagnostic approach of patients with right upper quadrant abdominal pain.

Effect of the Nicotine Replacement Therapy on Biomarkers of Inflammation, Endothelial Dysfunction, Oxidative Stress, and Lipids in Smokers Who Quit Smoking.

Introduction: Our previous study showed major changes in biomarkers on quitting compared to the smoking state. They reflected a decrease in inflammation, endothelial activation, and oxidative stress, as well as an improved lipid profile. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is effective to increase the rate of successful quitting, but healthcare professionals may have concerns to prescribe this first-line smoking cessation treatment because its effect on inflammation and related processes is controversial.

Novel proposed cutoff values for anatabine and anabasine in differentiating smokers from non-smokers.

Objectives: Anatabine and anabasine are two tobacco alkaloids used to differentiate between tobacco users and abstainers, including users of nicotine replacement therapy. Cutoff values (>2 ng/mL for both alkaloids) have not been revised since their implementation in 2002. These values may be too high, leading to increased likelihood of misclassification between smokers and abstainers.

Changes in biomarkers of endothelial function, oxidative stress, inflammation and lipids after smoking cessation: A cohort study.

Background: Tobacco use is known to be involved in the development of cardiovascular diseases, which leads to premature mortality. Endothelial dysfunction, the first step in this process, was shown induced by smoking. It is reported that quitting smoking could reduce the risk of diseases, but the implied mechanisms are still unclear.

Development of an Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography method for the simultaneous mass detection of tobacco biomarkers in urine.

The quantification of tobacco exposure biomarkers is relevant to follow the patients' tobacco use. They allow to discriminate between tobacco users, non-users, passive smokers, and nicotine products users, such as in nicotine replacement therapy. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a quantification method of tobacco biomarkers of choice - nicotine, cotinine, trans-3'-hydroxycotinine, anatabine and anabasine - in urine.

Agreement of emergency physician-performed ultrasound versus RADiology-performed UltraSound for cholelithiasis or cholecystitis: a systematic review.

Cholecystitis secondary to gallstone migration is the most common suspected diagnosis for right upper quadrant pain in emergency departments, with radiology-performed ultrasound (RADUS) being the main diagnostic tool. The primary aim of this review was to assess the ability of emergency physicians to perform emergency ultrasound (EUS) compared to RADUS to diagnose cholelithiasis and cholecystitis. A systematic search was performed using Embase, Central (Cochrane library), Web of Science, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, prospective trial registries, and OpenSIGLE databases as well as hand-search of articles.

Interventional radiology and artificial intelligence in radiology: Is it time to enhance the vision of our medical students?

Objectives: To assess awareness and knowledge of Interventional Radiology (IR) in a large population of medical students in 2019.

Methods: An anonymous survey was distributed electronically to 9546 medical students from first to sixth year at three European medical schools. The survey contained 14 questions, including two general questions on diagnostic radiology (DR) and artificial intelligence (AI), and 11 on IR.

In Brief: Validity of Case Summaries in Written Examinations of Clinical Reasoning.

Unlabelled: Construct: The purpose of this study was to provide initial evidence of the validity of written case summaries as assessments of clinical problem representation in a classroom setting.

Background: To solve clinical problems, clinicians must gain a clear representation of the issues. In the clinical setting, oral case presentations-or summaries-are used to assess learners' ability to gather, synthesize, and "translate" pertinent case information.

Multifaceted assessment in a family medicine clerkship: a pilot study.

Background And Objectives: Programs of assessment should reflect the multifaceted nature of medical competence. We experimented with new testing methods, ie, script concordance testing (SCT) and clinical reasoning problems (CRPs), combined with the habitual OSCE for an end of family medicine clerkship. Our aims were to compare students' scores with experts' scores, to determine whether the new tests detected learning over a 3-month period, and to examine whether the tests were redundant.

Activity confrontation methods: A reflexive and metacognitive approach for interprofessional collaboration training.

Integration of interprofessional collaboration into healthcare education and training programmes has become a fundamental issue. Its objective is to learn how to collectively build collaborative care practice that addresses the uniqueness of each context and the specific situation of the patient. It is also about understanding the process of collectively building collaborative care practice in order to be able to apply it in different contexts.

Comparison of five D-dimer reagents and application of an age-adjusted cut-off for the diagnosis of venous thromboembolism in emergency department.

There is still a considerable uncertainty concerning D-dimer cut-off values used in exclusion of venous thromboembolic (venous thromboembolism, VTE) disease, especially among the elderly patients. The objectives were to compare five different D-dimer reagents in the daily practice of an emergency department and to test retrospectively the performances of an age-adjusted cut-off. A total of 473 consecutive ambulatory outpatients suspected of VTE (confirmed VTE = 21) were included in this study.

Assessing clinical reasoning using a script concordance test with electrocardiogram in an emergency medicine clerkship rotation.

Objectives: Script concordance tests (SCTs) can be used to assess clinical reasoning, especially in situations of uncertainty, by comparing the responses of examinees with those of emergency physicians. The examinee's answers are scored based on the level of agreement with responses provided by a panel of experts. Emergency physicians are frequently uncertain in the interpretation of ECGs.

[From the pragmatic to pragmatism: what are the stakes for training in ethics?].

The contemporary evolution of the request and the recourse for ethics in the health field questions the models of ethics training. Indeed the stake is no more to train actors able of producing a moral speech on the practices but, in a destabilized context, to accompany them in the development of new practices in professional situation. This pragmatic turn in health ethics requires more active, reflective and contextual models of training, needing new links between training places and care practices.

How to construct and implement script concordance tests: insights from a systematic review.

Context: Programmes of assessment should measure the various components of clinical competence. Clinical reasoning has been traditionally assessed using written tests and performance-based tests. The script concordance test (SCT) was developed to assess clinical data interpretation skills.

How competent do general practice residents feel and why?

Background: General practice residency aims to produce competent general practitioners (GPs) who will practice independently, i.e. who demonstrate adequate levels of actual and self-perceived competence.

What is so difficult about managing clinical reasoning difficulties?

Context: Clinical reasoning is the cornerstone of medical competence. Difficulties in this area are often identified late in clinical training. Studies point to challenges faced by clinical educators in their dual roles as clinicians and educators.

How aware are Belgian permanent and resident emergency physicians of common medical costs and radiation doses?

Objectives: To establish how aware Belgian emergency physicians are of common treatment costs and radiation doses.

Materials And Methods: Using a questionnaire survey on a voluntary basis, 60 emergency physicians from four universities and four district hospitals were asked to estimate treatment costs and radiation doses involved in the management of a patient with pulmonary embolism. The responses of permanent and resident physicians were then compared with actual data defined by the Belgian legislation.

Evaluation of clinical reasoning in basic emergencies using a script concordance test.

Objectives: To develop and assess the reliability of a script concordance test (SCT) to evaluate pharmacy students' clinical reasoning when facing basic emergency situations.

Design: A first aid course was designed that consisted of 8 weekly instructional sessions (4 on internal medicine, including life threatening situations; 2 on pediatrics; and 2 on trauma) in which the instructor presented case studies in a small-group format. In the first and final sessions of the course, a practice SCT was administered to familiarize students with the test format.

Usable knowledge, hazardous ignorance - beyond the percentage correct score.

Background: Little attention has been paid to the metacognitive ability of medical students.

Aim: We used confidence marking to explore certainty of knowledge and ignorance.

Methods: One hundred and twenty-seven of 169 general practice trainees took part.

Increasing cause of cough among adults.

Cough is a frequent reason for ED consultation. When one considers the epidemiological data, whooping cough must be considered in the differential of subacute cough. Clinical symptomatology is slightly different in the adult and unvaccinated child.

Exacerbation of atopic dermatitis in the emergency department.

A 38-year-old man was admitted to the Emergency Department suffering from an exacerbation of atopic dermatitis, fever and a burning sensation in the eyes. He was first treated with systemic corticosteroids. A subsequent dermatological and ophthalmological examination established the diagnosis of Kaposi-Juliusberg disease or eczema herpeticum with bilateral herpetic keratitis.