Building a precision oncology workforce by multidisciplinary and case-based learning.

BACKGROUND: Participants in two recent National Academy of Medicine workshops identified a need for more multi-disciplinary professionals on teams to assist oncology clinicians in precision oncology. METHODS: We developed a graduate school course to prepare biomedical students and pharmacy students to work within a multidisciplinary team of oncology clinicians, pathologists, radiologists, clinical pharmacists, and genetic counselors. Students learned precision oncology skills via case-based learning, hands-on data analyses, and presentations to peers. After the course, a focus group session was conducted to gain an in-depth student perspective on their interprofessional training experience, achievement of the course learning outcomes, ways to improve the course design in future offerings, and how the course could improve future career outcomes. A convenience sampling strategy was used for recruitment into the focus group session. A thematic content analysis was then conducted using the constant comparative method. RESULTS: Major themes arising from student feedback were (1) appreciation of a customized patient case-based teaching approach, (2) more emphasis on using data analysis tools, (3) valuing interdisciplinary inclusion, and (4) request for more student discussion with advanced preparation materials. CONCLUSIONS: Feedback was generally positive and supports the continuation and expansion of the precision oncology course to include more hands-on instruction on the use of clinical bioinformatic tools.

Maintaining informatics training learning outcomes with a COVID-19 era shift to a fully online flipped course.

The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic forced us to adapt our recently developed informatics training serving a variety of students as well as faculty and staff. The successful flipped classroom course series (a hybrid-format with both asynchronous online learning and in-person synchronous components) was shifted to a fully online format with the synchronous portion now held via web-based video conference. We repeated our participant survey at the end of each of the 3 one-credit courses to compare student satisfaction and learning outcomes achievement to the original offering. The responses were overall very positive again with a slight response distribution improvement in some measures of satisfaction. Likewise, students reported similar achievement of the learning outcomes across all courses with some Unix coourse objectives receiving higher competency agreement in the new, fully online version. Overall, the fully online version of the course series was equally successful, if not more so, than the original version with a physical classroom session each week. Given that participants also had strong agreement with a new question that they would prefer online class meetings instead of in a classroom, even if there wasn't a global pandemic (citing a variety of logistical reasons such as "convenience of screen sharing," parking issues, and job-related time constraints), the fully online version of the informatics training will be retained.

Informatics Training for Pathology Practice and Research in the Digital Era.

Pathology informatics is a relatively new field with limited structured training programs for pathologists, especially for computer programming. Here, we describe our efforts to develop and implement a training program in the department of pathology at the University of Florida to meet these additional needs of current students as well as faculty and staff. Three one-credit courses were created using a flipped classroom design. Each course was assessed with a novel survey instrument, and the impact of the program was further measured 6 months after program completion with interviews of 6 participants and thematic analysis. Course objectives were met but with room for improvement. Major factors that had a positive impact included collaborative learning and real-world practice problems. Also, it improved communication with informatics colleagues as well as job task efficiency and effectiveness. Overall, the program raised awareness of informatics professional development and career path opportunities within pathology.

Novel poxvirus infection in northern and southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni and Enhydra lutris neiris), Alaska and California, USA.

Small superficially ulcerated skin lesions were observed between October 2009 and September 2011 during captive care of two orphaned sea otter pups: one northern (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) in Alaska and one southern (Enhydra lutris nereis) in California. Inclusions consistent with poxviral infection were diagnosed by histopathology in both cases. Virions consistent with poxvirus virions were seen on electron microscopy in the northern sea otter, and the virus was successfully propagated in cell culture. DNA extraction, pan-chordopoxviral PCR amplification, and sequencing of the DNA-dependent DNA polymerase gene revealed that both cases were caused by a novel AT-rich poxvirus. Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses found that the virus is divergent from other known poxviruses at a level consistent with a novel genus. These cases were self-limiting and did not appear to be associated with systemic illness. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a poxvirus in a mustelid species. The source of this virus, mode of transmission, zoonotic potential, and biological significance are undetermined.

Phylogenetic analysis of marine mammal herpesviruses.

Five novel DNA-dependent DNA polymerase (Dpol) herpesviral sequences were generated using nested consensus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in clinical samples from a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), orca (Orcinus orca), California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), and a Phocid herpesvirus 2 (PhHV-2) isolate from a harbor seal (used as positive control). These novel sequences and other representative herpesvirus sequences were included in Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood analyses to illustrate the phylogeny of herpesviruses amongst the marine mammal host species and in comparison to those of other animals. All 19 novel and known marine mammal herpesviruses included in the analyses aligned with members of the Alphaherpesvirinae or Gammaherpesvirinae subfamilies. The novel harbor seal herpesvirus clustered with members of the Macavirus genus, subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae. The novel bottlenose dolphin herpesvirus clustered together in a monophyletic group with another delphinid alphaherpesvirus but could not be associated with an established genus. The orca herpesvirus also clustered with a delphinid alphaherpesvirus and formed a separate clade. The sea lion herpesvirus clustered with PhHV-2. PhHV-1 clustered with varicelloviruses and PhHV-2 clustered strongly in the Gammaherpesvirinae genus Percavirus. All cetacean gammaherpesviruses formed a monophyletic clade and could not be associated with an established gammaherpesviral genus.