Postgraduate medical journal
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Chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus (CKD-aP) is common among patients on maintenance haemodialysis (HD). We performed a study to explore the clinical features of patients with CKD-aP and evaluate the impact of CKD-aP on the quality of life of HD patients. ⋯ Pruritus significantly aggravates the quality of life of HD patients. Irregularity in the metabolism of calcium and phosphorus may partially explain the mechanism of CKD-aP. More effective treatment of CKD-MBD may help to prevent pruritus and improve patients' mental and physical health conditions.
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Medical schools in the UK typically use prior academic attainment and an admissions test (University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT), Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT) or the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT)) to help select applicants for interview. To justify their use, more information is needed about the predictive validity of these tests. Thus, we investigated the relationship between performance in admissions tests and the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) examination. ⋯ The utility of admissions tests is clear with respect to helping medical schools select from large numbers of applicants for a limited number of places. Additionally, these tests appear to offer incremental value above A-Level performance alone. We expect this data to guide medical schools' use of admissions test scores in their selection process.
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The question of whether sexual intercourse can harm athletic performance is a long-debated topic since first sport competitions were invented. Therefore, due to the lack of solid evidence, we aimed to evaluate the effects of sexual intercourse on muscle training performance. ⋯ Results demonstrate that sexual intercourse within 24 hours before exercise have detrimental effect on lower extremity muscle force, which suggests that restricting sexual activity before a short-term activity may be necessary.
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Telemedicine training was not a substantial element of most residency programmes prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing measures changed this. The Cleveland Clinic Internal Medicine Residency Programme (IMRP) is one of the largest programmes in the USA, which made the task of implementing a telemedicine curriculum more complex. ⋯ A majority had no prior telemedicine experience and expressed only slight comfort with the modality. Through collaboration with experienced residents and faculty, we expeditiously deployed an enhancement to our ambulatory care curriculum to teach residents how to provide virtual care and help faculty with supervision. We share our insights on this experience for other residency programmes to use.
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The process of offering and scheduling residency interviews varies widely among programmes. Applicants report distress and have advocated for reform. However, there is a paucity of quantitative data to characterise applicant concerns. ⋯ About one in five respondents missed the opportunity to interview at a programme because they did not respond to an invitation in time. Most respondents scheduled interviews knowing that they were likely to cancel them in the future. Standardisation of the interview invitation timeline would address these concerns.