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Biomedical subjects

A I Rothman

Publications and source records attributed to A I Rothman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Evaluating the clinical skills of foreign medical school graduates participating in an internship preparation program.

In the fall of 1986, the Ministry of Health of the province of Ontario, Canada, implemented a special 36-week internship preparation program for graduates of foreign medical schools. The program accepts 24 candidates per year and is offered at the five Ontario medical schools. At the time of this study, two cohorts of participants had completed the program. As part of the evaluation process, each participant was administered a battery of the same Objective Structured Clinical Examination-type test stations, prior to and on completion of the pre-internship experience. Repeating the same examination permitted investigation of the predictive and construct validities of the clinical skills tests, as well as the stability of the validity and high reliability estimates that emerged from the testing of the first cohort. The results provide convincing evidence of the testing approach's predictive and construct validity and reliability.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed1988

Defining the true therapeutics and clinical pharmacology curriculum in a Canadian medical school: implications for change.

Concern over rational drug therapy has led to the close scrutiny of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics teaching. Course syllabuses and timetables portray the official curriculum but rarely reflect true pharmacology and content. The teaching of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics can be uniquely and comprehensively analyzed with a computer-based curriculum data base that has the capacity to identify overlap, integration, omissions, and correlations. We have developed such a system and applied it to the analysis of one medical school curriculum. Pharmacology and therapeutics teaching represents 22% of the curriculum; however, the majority occurs outside the pharmacology-controlled courses. Overlap is extensive and unplanned. Our data indicate that the true curriculum differs greatly from that in curriculum schedules and probably from that in the minds of most curriculum planners and teachers. Collaboration among pharmacologists and clinical pharmacologists and many other curriculum officers and teachers is essential if education in this area is to be improved.

Canada↗
PubMed1986

An application of computers to curriculum review and planning.

A computer-based curriculum data base was developed at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine to provide curriculum planners accurate information on what was being taught, who was teaching, and where in the curriculum subjects were being taught. In this paper, the authors report the use of the curriculum data base, its implications for curriculum management and planning, and plans for its further development and use. Applications that address problems of curriculum overlap, integration, and correlation are discussed. The results indicate that the medical school curriculum can be successfully stored and analyzed by computer and that the data base and system can provide valid descriptions of curriculum content in nonclinical courses.

Computers↗
PubMed1985

Statements on career intentions as predictors of career choices.

In the study reported here, the author examined the relevance of students' statements on career intentions to predictions of career choices. Similar career intentions questionnaires were administered to the members of the 1973 University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine graduating class at the end of their first undergraduate year and three years later at graduation. Ten years after graduation, the professional activities and geographic locations of the class members were determined using available directories and registers. The study provided evidence of considerable congruence between the early statements on career intentions and the actual career dispositions 10 years after graduation.

Canada↗
PubMed1984

A tracking study of 1977 medical graduates through graduate medical education in Ontario.

In this paper, the author describes the results of tracking a cohort of medical school graduates through the graduate medical education system of Ontario, Canada. The cohort consisted of the 1977 graduates of the five Ontario medical schools who entered the graduate system at some point between 1977 and 1982 and graduate trainees who had graduated in 1977 from medical schools outside Ontario. The objectives of the study were to determine what proportion of the total number of 1977 Ontario medical graduates received graduate training in Ontario; to document the flow of the trainees into and out of the Ontario graduate system; and to compare the graduate training patterns of the Ontario graduates in the cohort with the trainees from elsewhere.

Education, Medical, Graduate↗
PubMed1984

Research approaches in health manpower development. Some alternatives.

Traditional scientific research approaches have contributed only minimally to the resolution of problems related to the educational aspects of health manpower development. It has been suggested that this lack of impact has been due mainly to the incompatibility of the traditional approaches with the phenomena of concern--naturally occurring educational, human, and social events. The problem has been addressed in considerable detail in the literature that relates to the more general view of education, and the alternative research approaches described in this article are derived from this broader-based literature.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1982

The effects of taking a practice examination on scores in the Qualifying Examination of the Medical Council of Canada.

A practice examination has been prepared annually at the University of Toronto for use by those who will take the Qualifying Examination of the Medical College of Canada. Passing the Qualifying Examination is an important step in gaining the Licentiate of the Medical College of Canada (the LMCC) and thus in becoming licensed. The effect of taking the practice examination on scores on the LMCC exam was investigated. The practice examination is a smaller replica of the LMCC exam, with questions spanning major medical specialties presented in both multiple-choice and patient management problem (PMP) format. It was conjectured that the effect of practice would be greater on the PMP score than on the multiple-choice score. Analysis of covariance was used to compare the LMCC examination scores of senior students, who had taken the practice examination, with the scores of those who had not. The comparison was performed for two graduating classes, separately, and involved the use of a score summarizing each student's performance in the third year of the curriculum as a covariate. In each graduating class, the practice effect on PMP scores is statistically significant. In neither class alone is the practice effect on multiple-choice scores statistically significant, although a combination of results in the two classes is statistically significant. The presence of practice effects can be taken to indicate a flaw in the testing process. The elimination of practice effects, through experiences like the practice examination, would make the entire testing process more valid.

Canada↗
PubMed1980

An educational program for psoriatics: an evaluation.

Patients with psoriasis referred to the Dermatology Service at Women's College Hospital and satisfying certain criteria relating to percentage body involvement, age, and the absence of serious coincident conditions were assigned at random to three weeks of day care and education at the Psoriasis Education and Research Centre (PERC) or to the Dermatology Service at Women's College Hospital (WCH) for normal hospital care. On admission, all study patients received normal history and physical examinations and were photographed by a standardized procedure that provided an accurate estimate of type and extent of body involvement. A functional history was taken from PERC patients that provided information concerning their ability to cope at home, at work, and socially; the extent and appropriateness of their self-care practices; and their knowledge concerning the pathophysiology and etiology of psoriasis and the names and actions of the medications they were using. Individualized patient education programs were designed with reference to the medical and functional information and implemented in the three weeks of day care. Photographic assessment and the functional history were repeated at three weeks, six months and twelve months. Hospital patients were reassessed at six and twelve months and a functional history was taken at six months. The functional status of PERC and hospital patients was compared at six months. The results of this study reinforced the belief that in the case of psoriasis, education coupled with treatment is more effective than treatment alone.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗