Establishing New Curriculum of Pathology and its Challenges at a New Medical College

Background: A competency-based curriculum is the key highlight of medical transformation in India, which provides an outcome-based framework requiring the integration of knowledge, skills, and values, unlike an old curriculum that did not provide a cohesive and comprehensive outlook. Objectives: We aimed to discuss and evaluate in detail the process and setup of a new competency-based medical curriculum in the Department of Pathology and enlist the assets and challenges while doing the same. Methods: The new curriculum was set up under the guidelines of competency-based undergraduate curriculum for the Indian Medical Graduate, state university guidelines, articles from the internet, and discussions with other universities all over the country. Conclusions: As compared to the previous curriculum, the new curriculum introduces many positive changes and requires a revolutionary change in the outlook of institutions, faculty, and students. Prior preparedness, flexibility to adopt new changes, consistency, and long-term commitment to transition from facilitators will go a long way in producing an excellent Indian medical graduate.

Artificial Intelligence (Online Resource): A panacea for SMEs in healthcare

This paper presents a review of the most recent and popular research papers on the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector. SMEs consist of 60-65% of Indian medical device market. Many doctors are operating through private hospitals which come under the category of SMEs segment. Technology is proving to be a boon for all the sectors, artificial intelligence an emerging technology has the potential to change the fortune of SMEs in health care sector. In this paper, there will be discussion on how artificial intelligence can help the healthcare sector in different ways. SMEs working in healthcare can take a learning from this paper and can utilize it for betterment. (*The paper was presented at the AICTE International Conference on Circular Economy, Management and Industry, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Management Studies and Research, Navi Mumbai and Apeejay School of Management, Dwarka, Delhi, India. October 2021)

Validation of Internal structure of Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale among Indian Medical Students using factor analysis and the Structural equation Modelling Approach

Background The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) is a tool that helps in the assessment of the readiness of the students to pursue Self-Directed Learning (SDL). There are no documented studies on the validation of internal structure of the SDLRS among Indian medical students. Hence, the objective of this study is to validate the internal structure of SDLRS among Indian medical students using factor analysis and the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach. Methods We administered Fisher’s 40-item SDLRS to 750 students after receiving the ethics clearance and the author’s permission and taking written informed consent from all the study participants (response rate: 92%). The exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Cronbach’s alpha were performed using SPSS version 25 and the Lavaan package of R version 3.1.2. Results The values of the comparative fit index (CFI), standardised root-mean-square residual (SRMR), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) were ≥ 0.9, ≤ 0.08, and ≤ 0.08, respectively, for a model fit to be acceptable. EFA showed that except for Q2 (loading score: 0.210), Q12 (loading score: 0.384), Q13 (loading score: 0.362), and Q25 (loading score: -0.219), all the items loaded well. After the exclusion of the aforementioned items, the factor loading scores for the items in the self-management, desire for learning, and self-control factors ranged from 0.405 to 0.753 (Cronbach α: 0.775), 0.396 to 0.616 (Cronbach α: 0.730), and 0.427 to 0.556 (Cronbach α: 0.799), respectively. The updated model was used for CFA, which displayed a good model fit. Conclusions The resultant model consisting of 36 items is shown to have internal structure validity for Indian version of SDLRS, which can be used to assess medical students.

Effectiveness of Roleplay Video Method in Teaching Communication Skills for Undergraduate Medical Students in Pharmacology in Indian Medical School

Background Communication is an important skill to be honed and applied by Indian medical graduate, as per revised regulations on Graduate Medical Education 2019. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of roleplay video demonstration in teaching communication skills to students using standard pharmacology drug prescription scenarios. Materials and Methods In this study, 136 students were divided into three batches, and in each batch, they were paired as a group of one doctor and patient and were asked to perform a roleplay of doctor-patient communication to a standard drug prescription case scenario. Communication skills of the simulated doctor were assessed before and after the administration of standard roleplay video, using modified Kalamazoo consensus statement by both the patient (peer evaluation) and the doctor (self-assessment). The effectiveness of roleplay was evaluated by comparing the total score before and after the roleplay demonstration using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The difference between the scores of self-evaluation and peer evaluation was tested using Mann–Whitney U test. Results The communication skills score of after intervention-before intervention (p = 0.001) showed 59 positive ranks and 36.64 mean rank among patient group and 61 positive ranks and 36.74 mean rank among doctors' group, indicating there was a significant improvement in communication. Conclusion Roleplay video demonstration improved the communication skills of students in the pharmacology practical class session. It helped in the active participation of the students and was appreciated by the majority of the students.

Internet Addiction and Psychological Health in Adolescent Indian Medical Students- A Cross Sectional Study

Background: With the inclusion of Internet in daily lifestyle, it has become crucial to explore its purpose, effects on mental health and to understand the implications. As adolescence is a vulnerable age group, this study has taken Indian medical students in late adolescence to understand how Internet impacts their lives. Objectives: 1. To explore the severity of problematic Internet use ‘PIU’ in Indian medical students. 2. To assess its effects on psychological health and loneliness. 3. To correlate problematic Internet use with the purpose of use. Materials And Methods:185 first MBBS students of BMCRI (Mean age- 18.075 years) were administered 4 questionnaires- Young’s Internet Addiction test, UCLA loneliness questionnaire (Version 3), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) and a self administered questionnaire to assess purpose of Internet usage. Results: Out of 185 students, 67 were average users who showed control over their use of Internet and 118 had PIU (113 with frequent, 5 with significant problems). Significant positive correlation was found between PIU and psychological morbidity (r=0.3442, p<0.0001) as well as loneliness (r=0.2045, p= 0.0051). Daily average use of Internet was mostly for social media (51.2%) followed by academics (20%), others (20%) and gaming (8.2%). PIU was significantly positively correlated to social media usage (r=0.2666, p= 0.0002) as well as negatively correlated to academics (r= -0.372, p<0.0001). Conclusion: In our study, PIU was positively correlated to poor psychological health, loneliness and use for social media. It showed negative correlation with academics. This may suggest that PIU is linked to psychosocial implications. It may be worthwhile correlating purpose of use with severity of PIU. Social media seems to be of importance in India as opposed to China, where gaming is the major concern. As some activities could be more addictive than others leading to dysfunctional lifestyle, Internet use must be regulated and used judiciously.Method: A total of 22 patients (out of initial 24 referrals) who met DSM IV criteria for MDD were enrolled into the study. The subjects all had to fail at least one prior treatment for depression. The patients received the FDA approved protocol of high-frequency (10 Hz) rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Results: Seventeen cases out of twenty-two cases showed significant improvements after two weeks of treatment. Only six patients continued their treatments for the next two to four weeks. Conclusions: We have replicated other studies showing that using rTMS is effective with no major side effects for many patients with MDD and their improvements are measurable mostly after two weeks. Our data highlights the importance of application of more convenient protocols which require fewer sessions on fewer days to help with compliance and outcome particularly in large populated cities and countries like Iran going through economic hardship.

Effectiveness of Educational Interventions on Internship Training in Community Medicine in a Tertiary Care Centre in Alappuzha District of Kerala, South India; A Quasi-Experimental Study

BACKGROUND India has been facing various challenges in the past decade, which include outbreaks of different communicable diseases and the rising of slow pandemics of non-communicable diseases. The current COVID 19 pandemic brings to light the need to revamp the training in public health during the internship. A standardized and outcome-based approach to internship training is the need of the hour for the Indian medical graduate (IMG). The internship program in community medicine should train the Indian medical graduate to develop patient management and administrative skills to promote health care through a health facility. The training provided is not standardized or evaluated across the medical colleges. Hence, it was aimed to study the effectiveness of educational interventions on internship training during the posting at the rural training health centre (RTHC). METHODS A quasi-experimental study was conducted among the interns posted in the rural training health centre using a validated semi-structured questionnaire as a pretest followed by a post-test after two weeks of training on the primary health care system. The perception of the students towards the training was assessed using the Likert 5 point scale. RESULTS The pre-test score was 5.30 (SD 2.105) and the post-test mean score was 9.35 (SD 2.033) [P < 0.01]. The gender-based analysis also showed significance within genders. Student perception revealed 80 % found the training useful, 90 % agreed that the guidance provided by the field staff helped them and 90 % agreed that the intervention changed their outlook towards the internship training in community medicine. CONCLUSIONS The study has brought a positive outlook towards giving adequate guidance to acquire knowledge and skills to interns by the active involvement of faculty. Rethinking and re-implementation of the existing internship training in the community is the need of the hour. KEYWORDS Internship Training, Community Medicine, Medical Education, Kerala, GMR 2019