The implementation of a required book club for medical students and faculty.

More medical schools are incorporating wellness activities and the medical humanities into their curriculum. Finding implementable programming that is feasible and enjoyable is challenging. Both student participants and faculty who might facilitate programs are busy with clinical and educational responsibilities.

Association of Preoperative Disclosure of Resident Roles With Informed Consent for Cataract Surgery in a Teaching Program.

Importance: Cataract surgery is the most commonly performed intraocular surgery. Academic centers have mandates to train the next surgeon generation, but resident roles are often hidden in the consent process.

Objective: To investigate associations of full preoperative disclosure of the resident role with patient consent rates and subjective experience of the consent process.

HIPAA Compliance and Training: A Perfect Storm for Professionalism Education?

The HIPAA Rules continue to support and bolster the importance of protecting the privacy and security of patients' protected health information. The HIPAA training requirements are at the cornerstone of meaningful implementation and provide a ripe opportunity for critical education.

In the Clinic. Deep venous thrombosis.

This issue provides a clinical overview of deep venous thrombosis, focusing on prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and patient information. The content of In the Clinic is drawn from the clinical information and education resources of the American College of Physicians (ACP), including ACP Smart Medicine and MKSAP (Medical Knowledge and Self-Assessment Program). Annals of Internal Medicine editors develop In the Clinic from these primary sources in collaboration with the ACP's Medical Education and Publishing divisions and with the assistance of science writers and physician writers.

Underlying construct of empathy, optimism, and burnout in medical students.

Objective: This study was designed to explore the underlying construct of measures of empathy, optimism, and burnout in medical students.

Methods: Three instruments for measuring empathy (Jefferson Scale of Empathy, JSE); Optimism (the Life Orientation Test-Revised, LOT-R); and burnout (the Maslach Burnout Inventory, MBI, which includes three scales of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment) were administered to 265 third-year students at Sidney Kimmel (formerly Jefferson) Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. Data were subjected to factor analysis to examine relationships among measures of empathy, optimism, and burnout in a multivariate statistical model.

The Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Collaboration (JeffSATIC): development and multi-institution psychometric data.

This study was designed to develop a psychometrically sound instrument to measure attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration in health profession students and practitioners regardless of their professions and areas of practice. Based on a review of the literature a list of 27 items was generated, 12 faculty judged the face validity of the items, and 124 health profession faculty examined the content validity of the items. The preliminary version of the instrument was administered to 1976 health profession students in three universities (Thomas Jefferson University, n = 510; Midwestern University, n = 392; and Monash University, n = 1074).

Professionalism in radiology: ideals and challenges.

Objective: The Physician Charter defines the obligations of professionalism as being based on three fundamental principles and 10 professional commitments. Choices faced in the daily clinical practice of radiology may present as challenges because of conflicts between the ideals of professionalism and the realities of practice and personal interests of the physician.

Conclusion: The true medical professional strikes a mindful balance that realizes a stimulating and fulfilling practice of medicine without compromise of patient care.

Peer assessment among first year medical students in anatomy.

Peer assessment has been shown to be an effective tool to promote professionalism in medical students. Peer assessment may be particularly useful in anatomy dissection laboratory as the required close collaboration and long hours of anatomy laboratory provide students insights into their peers' work habits and interpersonal skills. The objective of this study was to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the use of a validated peer assessment tool in Gross Anatomy.

Enhancing and sustaining empathy in medical students.

Background: Empathy is an important component of physician competence that needs to be enhanced.

Aim: To test the hypotheses that medical students' empathy can be enhanced and sustained by targeted activities.

Methods: This was a two-phase study in which 248 medical students participated.

Psychometrics of the scale of attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration: a study with medical students.

Background: Despite the emphasis placed on interdisciplinary education and interprofessional collaboration between physicians and pharmacologists, no psychometrically sound instrument is available to measure attitudes toward collaborative relationships.

Aim: This study was designed to examine psychometrics of an instrument for measuring attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaborative relationships for administration to students in medical and pharmacy schools and to physicians and pharmacists.

Methods: The Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration was completed by 210 students at Jefferson Medical College.

Empathic and sympathetic orientations toward patient care: conceptualization, measurement, and psychometrics.

Purpose: To develop instruments for measuring empathic and sympathetic orientations in patient care and to provide evidence in support of their psychometrics.

Method: Third-year medical students at Jefferson Medical College responded to four clinical vignettes in 2010. For each vignette, students indicated the extent of their agreement with an empathic response (conveying their understanding of patients' concerns) and with a sympathetic response (sharing patients' feelings).

Comparison of bleeding in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation treated with ximelagatran or warfarin: assessment of incidence, case-fatality rate, time course and sites of bleeding, and risk factors for bleeding.

Background: Ximelagatran is a novel direct thrombin inhibitor that can be administered as a fixed oral dose, without the need for anticoagulant monitoring.

Methods: We undertook a pooled analysis of 7329 patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation from the Stroke Prevention Using Oral Thrombin Inhibitor in Atrial Fibrillation III and V trials to compare bleeding outcomes in patients who received ximelagatran, 36 mg twice daily, or warfarin sodium (target international normalized ratio, 2.0-3.

Benefits of more aggressive VTE prophylaxis in hospitalized medical patients.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes both deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, is a well-known risk in surgical patients, but it is also a significant and often unrecognized source of mortality and morbidity in hospitalized medical patients. The need for routine prophylaxis in the general medical population is increasingly supported.