Twelve tips for designing and implementing peer-led assessment writing schemes in health professions education.

Peer-led assessment (PLA) has gained increasing prominence within health professions education as an effective means of engaging learners in the process of assessment writing and practice. Involving students in various stages of the assessment lifecycle, including item writing, quality assurance, and feedback, not only facilitates the creation of high-quality item banks with minimal faculty input but also promotes the development of students' assessment literacy and fosters their growth as teachers. The advantages of involving students in the generation of assessments are evident from a pedagogical standpoint, benefiting both students and faculty. However, faculty members may face uncertainty when it comes to implementing such approaches effectively. To address this concern, this paper presents twelve tips that offer guidance on important considerations for the successful implementation of peer-led assessment schemes in the context of health professions education.

Classification of aerosol-generating procedures: a rapid systematic review.

In the context of covid-19, aerosol generating procedures have been highlighted as requiring a higher grade of personal protective equipment. We investigated how official guidance documents and academic publications have classified procedures in terms of whether or not they are aerosol-generating. We performed a rapid systematic review using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses standards. Guidelines, policy documents and academic papers published in english or french offering guidance on aerosol-generating procedures were eligible. We systematically searched two medical databases (medline, cochrane central) and one public search engine (google) in march and april 2020. Data on how each procedure was classified by each source were extracted. We determined the level of agreement across different guidelines for each procedure group, in terms of its classification as aerosol generating, possibly aerosol-generating, or nonaerosol-generating. 128 documents met our inclusion criteria; they contained 1248 mentions of procedures that we categorised into 39 procedure groups. Procedures classified as aerosol-generating or possibly aerosol-generating by ≥90% of documents included autopsy, surgery/postmortem procedures with high-speed devices, intubation and extubation procedures, bronchoscopy, sputum induction, manual ventilation, airway suctioning, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, tracheostomy and tracheostomy procedures, non-invasive ventilation, high-flow oxygen therapy, breaking closed ventilation systems, nebulised or aerosol therapy, and high frequency oscillatory ventilation. Disagreements existed between sources on some procedure groups, including oral and dental procedures, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, thoracic surgery and procedures, and nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabbing. There is sufficient evidence of agreement across different international guidelines to classify certain procedure groups as aerosol generating. However, some clinically relevant procedures received surprisingly little mention in our source documents. To reduce dissent on the remainder, we recommend that (a) clinicians define procedures more clearly and specifically, breaking them down into their constituent components where possible; (b) researchers undertake further studies of aerosolisation during these procedures; and (c) guideline-making and policy-making bodies address a wider range of procedures.

A generic cell surface ligand system for studying cell-cell recognition.

Dose-response experiments are a mainstay of receptor biology studies and can reveal valuable insights into receptor function. Such studies of receptors that bind cell surface ligands are currently limited by the difficulty in manipulating the surface density of ligands at a cell-cell interface. Here, we describe a generic cell surface ligand system that allows precise manipulation of cell surface ligand densities over several orders of magnitude. These densities are robustly quantifiable, a major advance over previous studies. We validate the system for a range of immunoreceptors, including the T-cell receptor (TCR), and show that this generic ligand stimulates via the TCR at a similar surface density as its native ligand. We also extend our work to the activation of chimeric antigen receptors. This novel system allows the effect of varying the surface density, valency, dimensions, and affinity of the ligand to be investigated. It can be readily broadened to other receptor-cell surface ligand interactions and will facilitate investigation into the activation of, and signal integration between, cell surface receptors.