Acknowledging medical students' reports of intimidation and humiliation by their teachers in hospitals.

Aim: The continuing existence of 'teaching by humiliation' of medical students and junior doctors in Australia has recently been highlighted in a number of research publications and media reports. This study investigates medical students' experiences of being intimidated or humiliated during their clinical rotations in Australian hospitals in paediatrics and adult medicine.

Methods: From factors identified in earlier research, a two-page survey was developed for administration at two Australian medical schools.

Novice students navigating the clinical environment in an early medical clerkship.

Context: The black box that is student learning in clinical environments is an ongoing research project. Our previous research showed that despite the time that students are given to learn with, about and from patients, some lack confidence for those encounters and see few patients. The study reported here investigated individual and environmental factors affecting medical students' self-directed learning time in hospital.

Evidence-Based Principles for Using Technology-Enhanced Learning in the Continuing Professional Development of Health Professionals.

Increasingly, health professional training involves the use of educational technologies through what is broadly termed "Technology-Enhanced Learning" (TEL). TEL includes hardware, such as computers and mobile devices, and software, such as software applications (apps), learning management systems, and discussion boards. For many years, TEL has formed an integral part of health professional programs and is growing in acceptance, if not expectation, in postgraduate training and continuing education.

Medical Teachers' Humanistic Perspective on Pedagogy: A New Starting Point for Faculty Development.

Introduction: This study investigated the perspectives on pedagogy held by medical teachers in hospitals.

Methods: The teachers were interviewed after they had been observed in both clinical and classroom settings.

Results: The study showed the teachers' reliance on the relational aspects of pedagogy more than on technical pedagogical knowledge.

"Teaching by humiliation" and mistreatment of medical students in clinical rotations: a pilot study.

Objective: To generate a contemporary understanding of "teaching by humiliation" as experienced by medical students in Australia.

Design, Setting And Participants: In this pilot study, we surveyed final-stage medical students from two Australian medical schools about their experiences of teaching by humiliation during their adult and paediatric clinical rotations. The students were invited to complete the anonymous survey at the end of their paediatric rotation in Semester 2 of 2013.

Pedagogical and professional compromises by medical teachers in hospitals.

Aim: Following research about workplace constraints reducing the effectiveness of teaching and the motivation to teach, this study sought to understand how medical teachers in hospitals respond to the institutional context for their teaching of medical students.

Methods: Through purposive sampling, younger and older male and female teachers in a range of medical and surgical paediatrics subspecialties participated in this qualitative study. We drew on ethnographic methods in interviews so that answers to the questions came from the teachers' own emphases.

Hospital simulated patient programme: a guide.

Context: Many university courses employ simulated patients to work with students in the development of communication skills. Our challenge was to build a sustainable programme that could be adapted for medical, nursing and allied health staff, and groups of students, on our hospital campus.

Innovation: In recognition of the need to provide practice opportunities for junior medical staff to hone their capacity to communicate effectively with parents, we employed professional actors who are also qualified teachers.

Melanoma risk for CDKN2A mutation carriers who are relatives of population-based case carriers in Australia and the UK.

Background: CDKN2A mutations confer a substantial risk of cutaneous melanoma; however, the magnitude of risk is uncertain.

Methods: The study estimated the hazard ratio (HR) and the average age specific cumulative risk (ie, penetrance) of reported melanoma for CDKN2A mutation carriers in case families using a modified segregation analysis of the first and higher degree relatives of 35 population-based cases. The study sample included 223 relatives of 13 melanoma cases diagnosed when aged 18-39 years from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, and 322 relatives of 22 melanoma cases diagnosed at any age from Yorkshire, UK.

A genomewide linkage study of 1,933 families affected by premature coronary artery disease: The British Heart Foundation (BHF) Family Heart Study.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and its most important complication, myocardial infarction (MI), are the leading cause of premature death in the Western world. CAD has a substantial genetic basis, especially when it occurs early. We investigated the genetic determinants of premature CAD by performing a genomewide linkage analysis of 4,175 affected subjects from 1,933 families recruited throughout the United Kingdom.

Premature coronary artery disease shows no evidence of linkage to loci encoding for tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases.

Tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP1, TIMP2, TIMP3) are naturally occurring inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). It has been proposed that MMPs have a role in weakening the fibrous cap and subsequent plaque rupture. We hypothesized that TIMP polymorphisms could predispose to premature coronary artery disease.

Insulin resistance: an atherothrombotic syndrome. The Leeds family study.

The insulin resistance syndrome (IRS) is a clustering of atherothrombotic traits associated with increased vascular risk. We investigated the degree to which the phenotypic correlations between these traits are due to shared genetic and environmental factors. A multivariate genetic analysis was performed in 537 adults from 89 healthy white north European families.

Whole-genome linkage analysis of rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility loci in 252 affected sibling pairs in the United Kingdom.

Objective: To undertake a systematic whole-genome screen to identify regions exhibiting genetic linkage to rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Two hundred fifty-two RA-affected sibling pairs from 182 UK families were genotyped using 365 highly informative microsatellite markers. Microsatellite genotyping was performed using fluorescent polymerase chain reaction primers and semiautomated DNA sequencing technology.