Sentinel Riparian Spiders Predict Mercury Contamination of Riverine Fish.

Mercury (Hg) is a widespread and toxic environmental contaminant. It is challenging to determine the level of Hg contamination of food chains and fish within the millions of water bodies in the United States. Mercury contamination can vary 10-fold between ecosystems, even those in the same region.

Indigenous Australian medical students' perceptions of their medical school training.

Context: The Australian Medical Council requires all accredited Australian medical schools to have specific admission and recruitment policies for Indigenous Australian students. However, there is no clear evidence about how these students can be retained through to graduation.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the training experiences of Indigenous undergraduate medical students and their perceptions of the factors influencing their progression through training.

The needs of patients with advanced, incurable cancer.

Background: Limited research has investigated the specific needs of patients with advanced incurable cancer. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of perceived needs among this population.

Methods: Medical specialists from two regions in New South Wales, Australia, identified patients with advanced, incurable cancer, who were estimated to have a life expectancy of <2 years and were not receiving formal palliative care.

Competency based teaching: the need for a new approach to teaching clinical skills in the undergraduate medical education course.

This paper will argue that undergraduate medical courses are failing to provide students with adequate training in the area of clinical skills. Some of the reasons for this failure include changes in the health system leading to increasing commitments for clinicians, fewer patients as clinical case examples and limitations in current teaching methods. Current clinical teaching methods measure progress through completion of clinical "blocks" of learning and one-off clinical examinations.