Investigating the support for equitable admissions policies in health professions education: the Formal Consensus method.

Higher education institutions increasingly aim to implement equity in admissions. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to determine which equitable admissions procedures are suitable in a specific context, nor which groups should be its beneficiaries. Therefore, we applied the Formal Consensus Method (FCM) to investigate the support amongst experts and stakeholders for different equitable admissions policies and target groups within the context of Health Professions Education in The Netherlands.

Computer Adaptive vs. Non-adaptive Medical Progress Testing: Feasibility, Test Performance, and Student Experiences.

Background: Computerized adaptive testing tailors test items to students' abilities by adapting difficulty level. This more efficient, and reliable assessment form may provide advantages over a conventional medical progress test (PT). Prior to our study, a direct comparison of students' performance on a computer adaptive progress test (CA-PT) and a conventional PT, which is crucial for nationwide implementation of the CA-PT, was missing.

mHealth technologies for pregnancy prevention: A challenge for patient-centred contraceptive counselling in Dutch general practice.

Background: A general practitioner (GP) standardly provides contraceptive counselling and care in the Netherlands. Recent years have seen the rise of mobile health technologies that aim to prevent pregnancy based on fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs). We lack high-quality evidence of these methods' effectiveness and clarity on how healthcare professionals include them in contraceptive counselling.

Diversity in the pathway from medical student to specialist in the Netherlands: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Medical specialist workforces are not representative of the society they serve, partially due to loss of diversity in the path from student to specialist. We investigated which demographic characteristics of bachelor students of medicine (BSM) are associated with becoming a physician and (particular type of) medical specialist; and whether this suggests 'cloning' (reproduction of sameness) of the existing workforce.

Methods: We used a retrospective cohort design, based on Statistics Netherlands data of all first-year BSM in 2002-2004 in The Netherlands (N = 4503).

Inequality of opportunity in selection procedures limits diversity in higher education: An intersectional study of Dutch selective higher education programs.

Selection for higher education (HE) programs may hinder equal opportunities for applicants and thereby reduce student diversity and representativeness. However, variables which could play a role in inequality of opportunity are often studied separately from each other. Therefore, this retrospective cohort study conducts an innovative intersectional analysis of the inequality of opportunity in admissions to selective HE programs.

Selection tools and student diversity in health professions education: a multi-site study.

Student diversity in health professions education (HPE) can be affected by selection procedures. Little is known about how different selection tools impact student diversity across programs using different combinations of traditional and broadened selection criteria. The present multi-site study examined the chances in selection of subgroups of applicants to HPE undergraduate programs with distinctive selection procedures, and their performance on corresponding selection tools.

An evidence-based roadmap to integrate planetary health education into the medical curriculum.

The urgency for action on climate change is regarded as the defining issue of our time. Planetary health education prepares future healthcare professionals to promote the health of the planet, including sustainable healthcare. This has potential benefits for the healthcare system, patients, community, and the environment.

Influence of social networks in healthcare on preparation for selection procedures of health professions education: a Dutch interview study.

Objectives: Health professions education (HPE) students are often not representative of the populations they will serve. The underrepresentation of non-traditional students is problematic because diversity is essential for promoting excellence in health education and care. This study aimed to understand the perceptions of traditional and non-traditional students regarding facilitators and barriers in preparing for HPE selection procedures, and to determine the role of social networks in their decision-making and preparations to apply.

Applicant perceptions of selection methods for health professions education: Rationales and subgroup differences.

Context: Applicant perceptions of selection methods can affect motivation, performance and withdrawal and may therefore be of relevance in the context of widening access. However, it is unknown how applicant subgroups perceive different selection methods.

Objectives: Using organisational justice theory, the present multi-site study examined applicant perceptions of various selection methods, rationales behind perceptions and subgroup differences.

Selection for health professions education leads to increased inequality of opportunity and decreased student diversity in The Netherlands, but lottery is no solution: A retrospective multi-cohort study.

Background: Concerns exist about the role of selection in the lack of diversity in health professions education (HPE). In The Netherlands, the gradual transition from weighted lottery to selection allowed for investigating the variables associated with HPE admission, and whether the representativeness of HPE students has changed.

Method: We designed a retrospective multi-cohort study using Statistics Netherlands microdata of all 16-year-olds on 1 October 2008, 2012, and 2015 (,  > 600,000) and investigated whether they were for HPE programs ( > 62,000), had applied ( > 14,000), and were HPE students at age 19 ( > 7500).

[Current medical curricula neglect the basic sciences].

Studying the pre-clinical foundations of the medical profession sharpens the mind, improves critical thinking skills, builds academic stamina, and stimulates scientific curiosity. However, incorporation of the ever-growing clinical knowledge body into medical curricula jeopardizes the time undergraduate medical students are exposed to covering the basic sciences. In addition, clinical practice guidelines and clinical protocols lessen the importance of fostering critical thinking skills in our students.

Increased sarcolemmal Na(+)/H(+) exchange activity in hypertrophied myocytes from dogs with chronic atrioventricular block.

Dogs with compensated biventricular hypertrophy due to chronic atrioventricular block (cAVB), are more susceptible to develop drug-induced Torsade-de-Pointes arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. It has been suggested that the increased Na(+) influx in hypertrophied cAVB ventricular myocytes contribute to these lethal arrhythmias. The increased Na(+) influx was not mediated by Na(+) channels, in fact the Na(+) current proved reduced in cAVB myocytes.

Development of a test for evaluation of taste perception after tongue reduction.

When performing a tongue reduction a frequently asked question is how operation will influence taste of the patient. Different kinds of taste tests are designed, most of these being non-specific ways to determine taste sensation in which high concentration of taste solutions are used to detect if a person is able to taste. To be able to judge the influence of tongue reduction on taste we wanted to develop a validated test that could be used in early childhood.

Effects of muscarinic receptor stimulation on Ca2+ transient, cAMP production and pacemaker frequency of rabbit sinoatrial node cells.

We investigated the contribution of the intracellular calcium (Ca (i) (2+) ) transient to acetylcholine (ACh)-mediated reduction of pacemaker frequency and cAMP content in rabbit sinoatrial nodal (SAN) cells. Action potentials (whole cell perforated patch clamp) and Ca (i) (2+) transients (Indo-1 fluorescence) were recorded from single isolated rabbit SAN cells, whereas intracellular cAMP content was measured in SAN cell suspensions using a cAMP assay (LANCE((R))). Our data show that the Ca (i) (2+) transient, like the hyperpolarization-activated "funny current" (I (f)) and the ACh-sensitive potassium current (I (K,ACh)), is an important determinant of ACh-mediated pacemaker slowing.

Ae2(a,b)-deficient mice exhibit osteopetrosis of long bones but not of calvaria.

Extracellular acidification by osteoclasts is essential to bone resorption. During proton pumping, intracellular pH (pH(i)) is thought to be kept at a near-neutral level by chloride/bicarbonate exchange. Here we show that the Na(+)-independent chloride/bicarbonate anion exchanger 2 (Ae2) is relevant for this process in the osteoclasts from the long bones of Ae2(a,b)(-/-) mice (deficient in the main isoforms Ae2a, Ae2b(1), and Ae2b(2)).

Tbx3 controls the sinoatrial node gene program and imposes pacemaker function on the atria.

The sinoatrial node initiates the heartbeat and controls the rate and rhythm of contraction, thus serving as the pacemaker of the heart. Despite the crucial role of the sinoatrial node in heart function, the mechanisms that underlie its specification and formation are not known. Tbx3, a transcriptional repressor required for development of vertebrates, is expressed in the developing conduction system.

[Good medical education is impossible without computers].

Computers are medical instruments, for which reason they must be included in the medical curriculum. As educational tools, electronic teaching environments, multimedia applications and computers stimulate self-study. Moreover, computers make the medical literature readily accessible and facilitate the administration of the training programme.

Contribution of NHE-1 to cell length shortening of normal and failing rabbit cardiac myocytes.

At the same intracellular pH (pHi) Na+/H+ exchange (NHE-1) fluxes of ventricular myocytes of hypertrophied failing hearts (HFH) are increased. We assessed how NHE-1 affected cell length shortening. pHi was measured fluorimetrically in resting and twitching (1-3 Hz) normal and HFH rabbit myocytes.

NHE-1 and NBC during pseudo-ischemia/reperfusion in rabbit ventricular myocytes.

Despite many studies into the pathophysiology of cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury, a number of key details are as yet undisclosed. These include the timing and magnitude of the changes in both Na(+)/H(+) exchange (NHE-1) and Na(+) -- HCO(3)(-) -cotransport (NBC) transport rates. We fluorimetrically measured H(i)(+) fluxes (J(NHE-1) and J(NBC)) and Na(i)(+) fluxes in single contracting rabbit ventricular myocytes subjected to metabolic inhibition, pseudo-ischemia (i.

Fifteen years medical information sciences: the Amsterdam curriculum.

Objectives: To inform the medical informatics community on the rational, goals, evolution and present contents of the Medical Information Sciences program of the University of Amsterdam and our achievements.

Methods: We elaborate on the history of our program, the philosophy, contents and organizational structure of the present-day curriculum. Besides, we describe the various didactic approaches in the program and the rational for these.

Identification of swelling-activated Cl(-) current in rabbit cardiac Purkinje cells.

The presence and functional role of the swelling-activated Cl(-) current (I(Cl(swell))) in rabbit cardiac Purkinje cells was examined using patch-clamp methodology. Extracellular hypotonicity (210 or 135 mOsm) activated an outwardly rectifying, time-independent current with a reversal potential close to the calculated Cl(-) equilibrium potential (E(Cl)). The magnitude of this current was related to tonicity of the superfusate.