Positive Outcomes of Optimizing Student-Preceptor Continuity in a Traditional Block Clerkship.

Problem: Student-preceptor discontinuity during 3rd-year clerkships limits the quality and quantity of supervision, teaching, and feedback. Although longitudinal integrative clerkships increase continuity and are associated with improved student and preceptor experience, they require schoolwide curricular reform. Alternative innovations enhancing student-preceptor relationships within the constraints of a traditional block clerkship may demonstrate similar benefits.

Efficacy of a Web-Based Oral Case Presentation Instruction Module: Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Effective self-directed educational tools are invaluable. Our objective was to determine whether a self-directed, web-based oral case presentation module would improve medical students' oral case presentations compared to usual curriculum, and with similar efficacy as structured oral presentation faculty feedback sessions.

Methods: We conducted a pragmatic multicenter cluster randomized controlled trial among medical students rotating in pediatric clerkships at 7 US medical schools.

Pediatric interventional cardiology in the United States is dependent on the off-label use of medical devices.

Objective: A substantial unmet medical device need exists in pediatric care. As a result, the off-label use of approved devices is routine in pediatric interventional cardiology, but the extent and nature of this practice has not been previously described. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to evaluate the prevalence and nature of off-label cardiac device use in an active pediatric interventional program in the United States.

Nonsurgical management of cardiac missiles.

Modern air-powered pellet guns are capable of propelling their projectiles at velocities of 250 to 930 ft/s depending on their propulsion system-rivaling traditional small caliber firearms in the potential for serious soft tissue injuries. Management decisions regarding thoracic/cardiac pellet gun injuries must be based on the presentation and stability of the patient and the location of the retained pellet. We present a report of the nonsurgical management of an 8-year-old girl with a retained pericardial pellet and small stable effusion.

Kawasaki disease without fever.

Kawasaki disease (KD) characteristically presents with prolonged, remittent fever in addition to other clinical findings. We report the case of a 3-month-old boy who developed characteristic manifestations of KD and coronary aneurysms in the absence of fever. This case report underlines the difficulty to diagnose KD in young infants.