Development and Validation of a Shared Secure Biochemistry Test Bank for Medical, Dental, and Pharmacy Schools.

A shared secure biochemistry test bank (abeQbank) was developed by 61 members of the Association of Biochemistry Educators (ABE) who are from medical, pharmacy, and dental schools. The initial abeQbank contained 305 questions, which were almost all clinical vignettes, and were classified into 9 biochemistry megaThemes with subthemes as determined by ABE workshops 2009-2011. Three medical schools selected 163 board-style abeQbank questions approved by ABE and administered a proctored formative exam using ExamSoft to 97 second-year medical students prior to their USMLE or COMLEX 1 board exam followed by a review session in which students examined their answers and read the rationale for each question.

What Physicians Wished They Would Have Learned in Medical School: a Survey.

Purpose: Medical students must be provided the basic science knowledge appropriate and applicable for preparing them for best-practice medicine. To date, there have been no documented studies in the USA that have directly surveyed practicing physicians on their perspectives of their basic science/preclinical medical school education and how it could be modified to help them deliver best patient care. This study was the first to examine this information.

Student- and faculty-reported importance of science prerequisites for osteopathic medical school: a survey-based study.

Context: The relevance of current standard medical school science prerequisites is being reexamined.

Objectives: (1) To identify which science prerequisites are perceived to best prepare osteopathic medical students for their basic science and osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) coursework and (2) to determine whether science prerequisites for osteopathic medical school should be modified.

Methods: Preclinical osteopathic medical students and their basic science and OMM faculty from 3 colleges of osteopathic medicine were surveyed about the importance of specific science concepts, laboratories, and research techniques to medical school coursework.

Molecular biology techniques for identifying dermatophytes and their possible use in diagnosing onychomycosis in human toenail: a review.

Traditional methods of diagnosing onychomycosis, such as microscopy, histologic staining, and cultures, may not provide the clinician with documentation before initiating antifungal drug therapy. DNA technology now supplies the tools for increased sensitivity, speed, and accuracy in the diagnostic arena by allowing for the amplification, qualification, and quantitation of DNA. These techniques, already being used to identify many infectious agents, may soon be commonly applied to onychomycosis.