Postgraduate medical journal
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Medical students have an essential role in medical research, yet often lack opportunities for involvement within randomised trials. This study aimed to understand the educational impact of clinical trial recruitment for medical students. Tracking wound infection with smartphone technology (TWIST) was a randomised controlled trial that included adult patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery across two university teaching hospitals. ⋯ Student recruitment in clinical trials is feasible and accelerates recruitment to clinical trials. Students demonstrated novel clinical research competencies and increased their likelihood of future involvement. Adequate training, support and selection of suitable trials are essential for future student involvement in randomised trials.
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The essential principles of statistics as applied to surveys, studies, sampling, epidemiology, screening, and trials are described and explained.
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The importance of leadership is well recognised within surgery owing to the heavily teamwork dependent nature and uniquely dynamic working environment of the operating room. Teaching and assessment methods of leadership within UK surgical training has arguably lacked credence in comparison to the more tangible technical clinical competencies due to the fact that the daily tasks of surgeons are multifaceted and cannot be simplified into a tick-box exercise. ⋯ The new surgical curricula planned to be implemented by the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme in August 2021 aims to address this by shifting leadership training and assessment towards an outcome-based approach, rather than a competency-based approach, with an emphasis on the role of the professional judgement of trainers as well as trainee self-reflection. This article explores these proposed changes by framing them within the context of the wider literature pertaining to surgical leadership education.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of B cell-mediated immunity with disease severity and mortality in patients with COVID-19. ⋯ In the present study, the prognosis of patients with COVID-19 was shown to be associated with the B cell subset and serum immunoglobulin levels.
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Relationship between polymorphisms in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) and progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) remains to be clarified. ⋯ The rs10865710 and rs3856806 polymorphisms in PPARG are significantly associated with glucose levels in patients with T2DM. The rs10865710 polymorphism is significantly associated with the severity of CAD, which is possibly mediated by hyperlipidaemia and hyperglycaemia.