The responsible use of online social networking: who should mentor medical students.

BACKGROUND: As medical students become more active in online social networking (OSN), there are increasing concerns regarding violations of patient privacy and a lack of professionalism. PURPOSE: Students need to be mentored, but who is best suited to the task? We hypothesized that residents are closer to students in usage and attitudes toward online communication than are faculty. If so, they would be more credible as mentors. METHODS: We surveyed faculty (N = 16), 1st-year residents (N = 120), and 3rd-year medical students (N = 130) to compare attitudes about OSN and the online usage patterns. RESULTS: We found residents to be more like students in usage patterns of personal electronic media and in their choice of the mentoring techniques that should be used. CONCLUSION: Residents say they were not prepared to mentor students without additional guidance but were more confident than faculty members that they had the knowledge to do so.

What residents know about health care reform and what we should teach them.

PURPOSE: We surveyed residents and fellows at the University of Louisville School of Medicine (N  =  600) to (1) explore their perceptions and knowledge of issues related to health care business and health care reforms, and (2) seek their input on what instructional content concerning health care business and health care reform they would like to receive and what instruction venue they would prefer. We will use the findings to make decisions about curriculum content and delivery. METHODS: All residents were invited to complete a 4-part, web-based survey that included questions on demographics, attitudes, and perceptions; a baseline-knowledge quiz about health care costs; and 2 open-ended questions about what they wanted to learn and how they preferred to be taught. RESULTS: The survey response rate was 24%. Residents' agreement was stronger for statements relating to the role of physicians as "gatekeepers," patient-centered care, and the value of learning to work as a team than it was for statements about the benefits of government intervention in health care. International medical graduates, when compared with US medical graduates, had statistically significant differences in perceptions (P ≤ .004) on 3 questions related to government impact on health care. There was a slight decrease in overall knowledge about health care cost issues by residents in later postgraduate years. CONCLUSION: Residents are aware of gaps in their knowledge on business aspects of health care and health care reform. Their narrative responses identified coding and billing, legal issues, and comparative health systems as topics of interest, and the best venues for teaching included grand rounds and noon conferences. Residents indicated a preference for brief, highly focused, interactive sessions with knowledgeable guest speakers.

Criteria for creating and assessing mouse models of diabetic neuropathy.

Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is a serious and debilitating complication of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Despite intense research efforts into multiple aspects of this complication, including both vascular and neuronal metabolic derangements, the only treatment remains maintenance of euglycemia. Basic research into the mechanisms responsible for DN relies on using the most appropriate animal model. The advent of genetic manipulation has moved mouse models of human disease to the forefront. The ability to insert or delete genes affected in human patients offers unique insight into disease processes; however, mice are still not humans and difficulties remain in interpreting data derived from these animals. A number of studies have investigated and described DN in mice but it is difficult to compare these studies with each other or with human DN due to experimental differences including background strain, type of diabetes, method of induction and duration of diabetes, animal age and gender. This review describes currently used DN animal models. We followed a standardized diabetes induction protocol and designed and implemented a set of phenotyping parameters to classify the development and severity of DN. By applying standard protocols, we hope to facilitate the comparison and characterization of DN across different background strains in the hope of discovering the most human like model in which to test potential therapies.

Tetramethylcyclopentadienylselenium derivatives.

Bis(1,2,3,4-tetramethylcyclopentadienyl)selane (1) has been prepared by the reaction of tetramethylcyclopentadienyllithium (Cp(t)Li) with selenium bis(diethyldithiocarbamate). Treatment of Cp(t)Li with elemental selenium, followed by air oxidation, led to loss of the allylic hydrogen atom, and formation of the novel tricyclic compound 1,4,5,6,7,10,11,12-octamethyltricyclo[7.3.0.0]-2,8-diselenadodeca-3,5,9,11-tetraene (2). The sulfur analogue of 2 has been obtained by a similar procedure. The X-ray crystal structures of compounds 1 and 2 have been determined, and the molecular geometry observed for has been probed using DFT calculations.