METHODS: This is a non-randomised interventional study with age- and treatment- matched control conducted in a tertiary dermatology clinic from July 2021 to June 2022. Patients in the intervention group received a 10 min video presentation on acne, followed by treatment counselling. The adherence rate was determined objectively (pill counting and tube weighing) and subjectively (ECOB questionnaire). The disease severity was assessed using the Comprehensive Acne Severity Scale (CASS) and Global Acne Grading System (GAGS).
RESULTS: A total of 100 patients completed the 12-week study. With intervention, patients have better adherence to topical medication (5% benzoyl peroxide gel: 71% vs 57.9%, p= 0.031; 0.05% tretinoin cream: 58.7% vs 45.4%, p= 0.044) at week 12. However, the intervention program did not improve adherence to oral medication. Overall, with intervention, a significantly higher percentage of improvement in disease severity was noted (47.3% vs. 39.1%, p=0.044). Nonadherence to treatment was attributed mostly to forgetfulness in 54% of the patients, followed by a busy lifestyle (41%) and little knowledge of acne (26%).
CONCLUSION: Patients have significantly better adherence to topical medication with education and counselling. Better adherence to treatment leads to more remarkable disease improvement.
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Scopus, CINAHL, Academic Search Complete, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection databases were selected. Screening was conducted independently by at least two authors and the decision for inclusion was done through discussion or involvement of an arbiter against a predetermined criteria. Included articles will be evaluated for quality using A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews and Risk of Bias in Systematic Review tools, while primary systematic review articles will be cross-checked and reported for any overlapping using the 'corrected covered area' method. Only narrative synthesis will be employed according to the predefined themes into two major dimensions-theory and knowledge generation (focusing on cognitive taxonomy due to its ability to be generalised across disciplines), and clinical-based competence (focusing on psychomotor and affective taxonomies due to discipline-specific influence). The type of technology used will be identified and extracted.
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The OoSR involves analysis of secondary data from published literature, thus ethical approval is not required. The findings will provide a valuable insight for policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers in terms of technology-based learning implementation and gaps identification. The findings will be published in several reports due to the extensiveness of the topic and will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and conferences.
PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD4202017974.
METHODS: COPT was a teaching strategy wherein, students were taught physiology using cases and critical thinking questions. Three batches of undergraduate medical students (n = 434) served as the experimental groups to whom COPT was incorporated in the third block (teaching unit) of Physiology curriculum and one batch (n = 149) served as the control group to whom COPT was not incorporated. The experimental group of students were trained to answer clinically oriented questions whereas the control group of students were not trained. Both the group of students undertook a block exam which consisted of clinically oriented questions and recall questions, at the end of each block.
RESULTS: Comparison of pre-COPT and post-COPT essay exam scores of experimental group of students revealed that the post-COPT scores were significantly higher compared to the pre-COPT scores. Comparison of post-COPT essay exam scores of the experimental group and control group of students revealed that the experimental group of students performed better compared to the control group. Feedback from the students indicated that they preferred COPT to didactic lectures.
CONCLUSION: The study supports the fact that assessment and teaching patterns should fall in line with each other as proved by the better performance of the experimental group of students compared to the control group. COPT was also found to be a useful adjunct to didactic lectures in teaching physiology.
METHODS: Data for this study were obtained from final year medical students' exit examination (n=185). Retrospective analysis of data was conducted using SPSS. Means for the six CSs assessed across the 16 stations were computed and compared.
RESULTS: Means for history taking, physical examination, communication skills, clinical reasoning skills (CRSs), procedural skills (PSs), and professionalism were 6.25±1.29, 6.39±1.36, 6.34±0.98, 5.86±0.99, 6.59±1.08, and 6.28±1.02, respectively. Repeated measures ANOVA showed there was a significant difference in the means of the six CSs assessed [F(2.980, 548.332)=20.253, p<0.001]. Pairwise multiple comparisons revealed significant differences between the means of the eight pairs of CSs assessed, at p<0.05.
CONCLUSIONS: CRSs appeared to be the weakest while PSs were the strongest, among the six CSs assessed. Students' unsatisfactory performance in CRS needs to be addressed as CRS is one of the core competencies in medical education and a critical skill to be acquired by medical students before entering the workplace. Despite its challenges, students must learn the skills of clinical reasoning, while clinical teachers should facilitate the clinical reasoning process and guide students' clinical reasoning development.