The 6 degrees of curriculum integration in medical education in the United States.

Despite explicit expectations and accreditation requirements for integrated curriculum, there needs to be more clarity around an accepted common definition, best practices for implementation, and criteria for successful curriculum integration. To address the lack of consensus surrounding integration, we reviewed the literature and herein propose a definition for curriculum integration for the medical education audience. We further believe that medical education is ready to move beyond “horizontal” (1-dimensional) and “vertical” (2-dimensional) integration and propose a model of “6 degrees of curriculum integration” to expand the 2-dimensional concept for future designs of medical education programs and best prepare learners to meet the needs of patients.

Assessing the Efficacy of a Novel Massive Open Online Soft Skills Course for South Asian Healthcare Professionals.

In healthcare professions, soft skills contribute to critical thinking, decision-making, and patient-centered care. While important to the delivery of high-quality medical care, soft skills are often underemphasized during healthcare training in low-and-middle-income countries. Despite South Asia's large population, the efficacy and viability of a digital soft skills curriculum for South Asian healthcare practitioners has not been studied to date.

Neurosurgery Lectures Benefit from a Flipped Class Approach.

Background: In a flipped classroom, students learn lecture material before class and then participate in active learning during in-person sessions. This study examines preferences for flipped classroom activities during a neurosurgery presentation on traumatic brain injury.

Methods: Two hundred twenty-five third- and fourth-year medical students on their core neurology rotation watched an online podcast about traumatic brain injury before meeting for in-person, active learning activities with a neurological surgeon.

The Applied Weighted Slide Metric (AWSM) Tool: Creation of a Standard Slide Design Rubric.

Introduction: Lectures are a standard aspect across all realms of medical education. Previous studies have shown that visual design of presentation slides can affect learner outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop a slide design rubric grounded in evidence-based, multimedia principles to enable objective evaluation of slide design.

An Effective COVID-19 Medical Student Elective.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of teaching medical students pandemic preparedness and COVID-19 related clinical knowledge. To fill the gap of COVID-19 instruction backed by evaluation data, we present a comprehensive COVID-19 pilot curriculum with multiple levels of evaluation data.

Methods: In the spring of 2020, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine piloted a two-week, primarily asynchronous COVID-19 elective course for medical students.

Illustrating clinical relevance in the preclerkship medical school curriculum through active learning with KardiaMobile electrocardiography.

We introduced the AliveCor KardiaMobile electrocardiogram (ECG), a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, iPad-enabled medical device, into the preclerkship curriculum to demonstrate the clinical relevance of cardiac electrophysiology with active learning. An evaluation showed that medical students considered the KardiaMobile ECG active learning activity to be a valuable educational tool for teaching cardiac physiology.

Medical Student Attitudes toward USMLE Step 1 and Health Systems Science - A Multi-Institutional Survey.

Because of its importance in residency selection, the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 occupies a critical position in medical education, stimulating national debate about appropriate score use, equitable selection criteria, and the goals of undergraduate medical education. Yet, student perspectives on these issues and their implications for engagement with health systems science-related curricular content are relatively underexplored. We conducted an online survey of medical students at 19 American allopathic medical schools from March-July, 2019.

#MDsToo: A student mistreatment prevention curriculum for faculty members and residents.

Background: Medical student mistreatment has detrimental effects on student well-being and poses a patient safety risk, yet 40% of medical school graduates report being mistreated during their training. Unfortunately, this statistic has not changed significantly since 2013. The 'hidden curriculum' contributes to the pervasiveness of mistreatment in medical schools in the USA.

The human kindness curriculum: An innovative preclinical initiative to highlight kindness and empathy in medicine.

Background: Prior studies have shown a marked drop in empathy among students during their third (clinical) year of medical school. Curricula developed to address this problem have varied greatly in content and have not always been subjected to validated measures of impact.

Methods: In 2015, we initiated a Human Kindness (HK) curriculum for the initial 2 years of medical school.

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Among Medical Educators: What Is Our Readiness to Teach With Technology?

Purpose: This study aimed to empirically assess medical educator knowledge of pedagogy and technology to inform the direction of faculty development efforts.

Method: The technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework survey is a validated instrument for understanding educators' knowledge of content (CK), pedagogy (PK), and technology (TK) in teaching. A modified version of the TPACK was administered to medical educators (N = 76) at 2 public institutions: University of California, Irvine School of Medicine (UC Irvine); and University of Colorado School of Medicine (CU).

Medical Student Interpretation of Visual Art: Who's Got Empathy?

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Physician empathy is a highly desired characteristic in clinical practice with benefits for both patients and doctors.

Medical Students' Efforts to Integrate and/or Reclaim Authentic Identity: Insights from a Mask-Making Exercise.

Medical students' mask-making can provide valuable insights into personal and professional identity formation and wellness. A subset of first- and second-year medical students attending a medical school wellness retreat participated in a mask-making workshop. Faculty-student teams examined student masks and explanatory narratives using visual and textual analysis techniques.

Comparing the Results of Written Testing for Advanced Cardiac Life Support Teaching Using Team-based Learning and the "Flipped Classroom" Strategy.

Objectives We sought to further determine whether cognitive test results changed for advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) taught in the team-based learning/flipped classroom format (TBL/FC) versus a lecture-based (LB) control. Methods We delivered 2010 ACLS to two classes of fourth-year medical students in the TBL/FC format (2015-2016), compared to three classes in the LB format (2012-2014). There were 27.

Formative feedback from the first-person perspective using Google Glass in a family medicine objective structured clinical examination station in the United States.

Purpose: This case study explored the use of Google Glass in a clinical examination scenario to capture the first-person perspective of a standardized patient as a way to provide formative feedback on students' communication and empathy skills 'through the patient's eyes.'

Methods: During a 3-year period between 2014 and 2017, third-year students enrolled in a family medicine clerkship participated in a Google Glass station during a summative clinical examination. At this station, standardized patients wore Google Glass to record an encounter focused on communication and empathy skills 'through the patient's eyes.

Mobile Application Use Among Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents.

Background: Mobile applications (apps) are increasingly used in clinical settings, particularly among resident physicians. Apps available to patients and physicians are rapidly expanding.

Objective: We aimed to describe obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn) residents' use of and attitudes toward ob-gyn-related mobile apps.

Visual consequences of electronic reader use: a pilot study.

Background: With the increasing prevalence of electronic readers (e-readers) for vocational and professional uses, it is important to discover if there are visual consequences in the use of these products. There are no studies in the literature quantifying the incidence or severity of eyestrain, nor are there clinical characteristics that may predispose to these symptoms with e-reader use.

Purpose: The primary objective of this pilot study was to assess the degree of eyestrain associated with e-reader use compared to traditional paper format.

Flipping the Advanced Cardiac Life Support Classroom with Team-based Learning: Comparison of Cognitive Testing Performance for Medical Students at the University of California, Irvine, United States.

Purpose: It aimed to find if written test results improved for advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) taught in flipped classroom/team-based Learning (FC/TBL) vs. lecture-based (LB) control in University of California-Irvine School of Medicine, USA.

Methods: Medical students took 2010 ACLS with FC/TBL (2015), compared to 3 classes in LB (2012-14) format.