Effectiveness of professional-identity-formation and clinical communication-skills programs on medical students' empathy in the COVID-19 context: comparison between pre-pandemic in-person classes and during-pandemic online classes.

Background: Enhancing students' empathy is critical in medical school education. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a shift from in-person to online classes. However, the effectiveness of online classes for enhancing medical students' empathy has not been investigated sufficiently and the evidence is limited.

The effectiveness of simulation-based education combined with peer-assisted learning on clinical performance of first-year medical residents: a case-control study.

Background: Simulation-based education and peer-assisted learning (PAL) are both known as useful educational methods. Previous research has reported that combining these two methods are effective for training medical residents in short-term evaluation. This study was aimed to evaluate the middle- to long-term effects of simulation-based education combined with PAL on the performance of medical residents during emergency department duties.

Acute arthritis caused by sarcoidosis.

Here we report a case of sarcoidosis which demonstrated with bilateral ankle arthritis. We usually do not consider sarcoidosis routinely for the differential diagnosis of acute arthritis, however, up to 15 to 25% of sarcoidosis complicate arthritis, typically in ankle joints. Sarcoid arthritis is reported to occur mainly in young northern Europe women, whereas this case intimate that we should take sarcoidosis into account as the differential diagnosis of ankle arthralgia also among Asian men especially when combining upper respiratory symptoms.

Manifestation of Headache Affecting Quality of Life in Long COVID Patients.

: The present study aimed to elucidate the characteristics of long COVID patients with headaches. : A single-center retrospective observational study was performed for long COVID outpatients who visited our hospital from 12 February 2021 to 30 November 2022. : A total of 482 long COVID patients, after excluding 6, were divided into two groups: the Headache group of patients with complaints of headache (113 patients: 23.

Symptomatic Characteristics of Hypozincemia Detected in Long COVID Patients.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of hypozincemia in long COVID patients.

Methods: This study was a single-center retrospective observational study for outpatients who visited the long COVID clinic established in a university hospital during the period from 15 February 2021 to 28 February 2022. Characteristics of patients with a serum zinc concentration lower than 70 μg/dL (10.