Spaced radiology: encouraging durable memory using spaced testing in pediatric radiology.

Applied memory research in the field of cognitive and educational psychology has generated a large body of data to support the use of spacing and testing to promote long-term or durable memory. Despite the consensus of this scientific community, most learners, including radiology residents, do not utilize these tools for learning new information. We present a discussion of these parallel and synergistic learning techniques and their incorporation into a software platform, called Spaced Radiology, which we created for teaching radiology residents. Specifically, this software uses these evidence-based strategies to teach pediatric radiology through a flashcard deck system.

Medical student identification of domestic violence as measured on an objective, standardized clinical examination.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the incidence and predictors of domestic violence screening by third-year medical students at an end of clerkship Objective Standardized Clinical Examination. STUDY DESIGN: Two hundred and seventy-five third-year medical students completed an 8-station end of clerkship Objective Standardized Clinical Examination as part of this retrospective observational study, one with nonspecific abdominal pain and possible domestic violence. Checklists on history, physical, communication, and interpersonal skills were collected. Domestic violence screening was analyzed by logistic regression and analysis of variance. RESULTS: The incidence of domestic violence screening by history alone was 34% before the physical. Interpersonal scores on the overall exam and domestic violence station, but not gender or rotation sequence, predicted domestic violence questioning. CONCLUSION: In this standardized patient study there was a low rate of domestic violence screening by history.

Constructed charts of vaccination strategies.

Various vaccination rates are mathematically modeled as if they simply spread from area to next nearest area across a 'constructed landscape' of developing countries. A technique that had previously been used to model the spread of diseases effectively models the spread of disease prevention. Multidimensional scaling successfully summarizes complex patterns in vaccination rates in developing countries as a 'constructed chart' from 'functional distances'. Countries that have similar vaccination rates are close together in this constructed chart, and countries that have different rates are far apart, regardless of the physical distance between the countries. A statistically significant (p < 0.001) chart was made of seven different vaccination rates (diphtheria, polio, measles in adults, measles in infants, tuberculosis in adults, tuberculosis in infants, and total percentage of routine epidemic vaccines financed by government) in 49 developing countries (from Belarus, Belize and Benin to Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe).