Effectiveness of innovative instructional module for professional competence in health literacy in medical students.

BACKGROUND: Physicians should be equipped with professional competence in health literacy to communicate more effectively with patients with limited health literacy. However, the health literacy curriculum has not yet been refined globally, and is scarce in Taiwan's medical education. We implemented an innovative instructional module to attain professional competence in health literacy among medical students and investigated its effects. METHODS: We adopted a quasi-experimental design and recruited 204 fifth-year Taiwanese medical students between December 2019 and May 2020. Participants who worked as clerks at the Department of Family Medicine of three medical schools in northern Taiwan were assigned to the experimental group through convenience sampling. A total of 98 students received a three-hour innovative instruction, including medical simulation videos, role-playing, and board games. Both the experimental and control groups completed the online pre-test and mail-in post-test. A generalized estimating equation was applied to measure the effects of the intervention. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of professional competence in health literacy in all three aspects. In terms of knowledge, the experimental group improved 12% more than the control group (𝛽=0.12, 95% CI: 0.05 ~ 0.19, p = 0.001). In terms of attitude, the experimental group improved by an average of 0.27 more points per question than the control group (𝛽=0.27, 95% CI: 0.08 ~ 0.46, p = 0.007). As for skill, the experimental group improved by an average of 0.35 more points per question than the control group (𝛽=0.35, 95% CI: 0.14 ~ 0.55, p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The proposed innovative instructional module significantly improved fifth-year medical students' professional competence in health literacy, which is expected to benefit their future medical practices.

[Compatible principles of Xiebai decoction family based on complex network analysis].

In order to explore the compatible principles of Xiebai decoction family, formulae from ancient and modern Xiebai decoction family were collected and sorted in this study. The compatible characteristics, core herbs, as well as the relativity of herbs nature in Xiebai decoction family were analyzed based on scale free network and other data-mining methods such as association rules, clustering analysis and correspondence analysis. The scale free network results showed that in Xiebai decoction family, Mori Cortex-Lycii Cortex-Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma was used as the core compatible group and formed the complicated compatible network with other additional herbs; association rules results showed that the core herbs in such formulae included Mori Cortex, Lycii Cortex, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, scutellaria root, Platycodon root, Anemarrhena, and almond, which formed corresponding herbal pairs and compatibility; clustering analysis showed that Mori Cortex was the core herb in Xiebai decoction family, and Mori Cortex-Lycii Cortex-Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma was its main combination unit, which was always compatible with herbs of clearing heat, reducing phlegm, supplementing Qi and nourishing Yin to form the series prescriptions. The results indicated that the core compatibility features of Xiebai decoction family were clearing heat in lung and relieving cough and asthma, providing a basis for the clinical application of Xiebai decoction family.

[Research on application status of Chinese herbal decoction pieces based on clinical survey].

Chinese herbal decoction pieces are the basic approaches for clinical traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), reflecting the features and advantages of TCM. In order to investigate the clinical application status and features of Chinese herbal decoction pieces, the questionnaire on application of commonly used Chinese herbal decoction pieces was designed in this study for analysis of the application situations of Chinese herbal decoction pieces from 56 medical institutions in 10 provinces. The results showed 549 varieties of Chinese herbs and 801 varieties of decoction pieces were used on clinic. They can be classified into 19 categories according to their effects. The varieties of Gancao (Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma), Huangqi (Astragali Radix), Dihuang (Rehmanniae Radix), Chuanxiong (Chuanxiong Rhizoma), Baizhu (Atractylodis Macrocephale Rhizima), Huangqin (Scutellariae Radix), Danggui (Angelicae Sinenses Radix), Baishao (Paeoniae Radix Alba) and Maidong (Ophiopogonis Radix) were most common ones; the application of Chinese herbal decoction pieces from different medical institutions was differentiated from areas to areas. The survey results reflected the general situation about application of decoction pieces, providing the basic data for recording and completing Chinese herbal decoction pieces in essential drug system, with certain reference significance for the production of Chinese medicinal materials and the allocation of the varieties of Chinese herbal decoction pieces.