Pub Date : 2024-06-23DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.20.24309260
Spencer E Harpe
Objectives: To describe the current attitudes, behaviors, and perceived disciplinary norms related to open science practices among full-time pharmacy faculty in the US and to examine differences in attitudes and behaviors across pharmacy disciplines. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the Center for Open Science's Open Scholarship Survey modules on data sharing, code sharing, materials sharing, preregistration, preprints, and open access publishing were administered to a random sample of 3,200 faculty from the AACP Roster of Pharmacy Faculty as of February 2022. Individuals with at least a 0.8 full-time equivalent faculty appointment in pharmacy practice or one of the pharmaceutical sciences were eligible to participate. Results: Responses were obtained from 663 faculty (502 complete; 161 partial). The most positive attitudes were for open access publishing (overall mean [SD]: 4.1 [0.9]) with the lowest attitudes for study preregistration (3.2 [0.9]) and posting preprints (3.1 [1.1]). Statistically significant differences in attitudes across pharmacy disciplines were identified for data sharing, code sharing, and study preregistration. The most commonly reported open science practice was open access publishing (mean [SD], 27.7% [29.1%]). Study preregistration was the least common (mean [SD], 1.7% [7.0%]). After accounting for respondent and institutional characteristics, differences in open science behaviors were noted across pharmacy disciplines. Conclusion: This study provides a baseline assessment of faculty attitudes towards and engagement in open science practices among US pharmacy faculty. Given the relatively low frequency with which open science practices were reported, there is considerable room for improvement in the uptake of open science practices.
{"title":"A Survey of Open Science Attitudes and Behaviors among US Pharmacy Faculty","authors":"Spencer E Harpe","doi":"10.1101/2024.06.20.24309260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.20.24309260","url":null,"abstract":"Objectives: To describe the current attitudes, behaviors, and perceived disciplinary norms related to open science practices among full-time pharmacy faculty in the US and to examine differences in attitudes and behaviors across pharmacy disciplines.\u0000Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the Center for Open Science's Open Scholarship Survey modules on data sharing, code sharing, materials sharing, preregistration, preprints, and open access publishing were administered to a random sample of 3,200 faculty from the AACP Roster of Pharmacy Faculty as of February 2022. Individuals with at least a 0.8 full-time equivalent faculty appointment in pharmacy practice or one of the pharmaceutical sciences were eligible to participate. Results: Responses were obtained from 663 faculty (502 complete; 161 partial). The most positive attitudes were for open access publishing (overall mean [SD]: 4.1 [0.9]) with the lowest attitudes for study preregistration (3.2 [0.9]) and posting preprints (3.1 [1.1]). Statistically significant differences in attitudes across pharmacy disciplines were identified for data sharing, code sharing, and study preregistration. The most commonly reported open science practice was open access publishing (mean [SD], 27.7% [29.1%]). Study preregistration was the least common (mean [SD], 1.7% [7.0%]). After accounting for respondent and institutional characteristics, differences in open science behaviors were noted across pharmacy disciplines.\u0000Conclusion: This study provides a baseline assessment of faculty attitudes towards and engagement in open science practices among US pharmacy faculty. Given the relatively low frequency with which open science practices were reported, there is considerable room for improvement in the uptake of open science practices.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141508485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-19DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.18.24309092
Avi A Gajjar, Harshitha Valluri, Tarun Prabhala, Amanda Custozzo, Alan S. Boulos, John C. Dalfino, Nicholas C. Field, Alexandra R. Paul
Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant potential in medicine, especially in diagnostics and education. ChatGPT has achieved levels comparable to medical students on text-based USMLE questions, yet there's a gap in its evaluation on image-based questions. Methods This study evaluated ChatGPT-4's performance on image-based questions from USMLE Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3. A total of 376 questions, including 54 image-based, were tested using an image-captioning system to generate descriptions for the images. Results The overall performance of ChatGPT-4 on USMLE Steps 1, 2, and 3 was evaluated using 376 questions, including 54 with images. The accuracy was 85.7% for Step 1, 92.5% for Step 2, and 86.9% for Step 3. For image-based questions, the accuracy was 70.8% for Step 1, 92.9% for Step 2, and 62.5% for Step 3. In contrast, text-based questions showed higher accuracy: 89.5% for Step 1, 92.5% for Step 2, and 90.1% for Step 3. Performance dropped significantly for difficult image-based questions in Steps 1 and 3 (p=0.0196 and p=0.0020 respectively), but not in Step 2 (p=0.9574). Despite these challenges, the AI's accuracy on image-based questions exceeded the passing rate for all three exams. Conclusions ChatGPT-4 can handle image-based USMLE questions above the passing rate, showing promise for its use in medical education and diagnostics. Further development is needed to improve its direct image processing capabilities and overall performance.
{"title":"Evaluating the Performance of ChatGPT-4o Vision Capabilities on Image-Based USMLE Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 Examination Questions","authors":"Avi A Gajjar, Harshitha Valluri, Tarun Prabhala, Amanda Custozzo, Alan S. Boulos, John C. Dalfino, Nicholas C. Field, Alexandra R. Paul","doi":"10.1101/2024.06.18.24309092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.18.24309092","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction\u0000Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant potential in medicine, especially in diagnostics and education. ChatGPT has achieved levels comparable to medical students on text-based USMLE questions, yet there's a gap in its evaluation on image-based questions. Methods\u0000This study evaluated ChatGPT-4's performance on image-based questions from USMLE Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3. A total of 376 questions, including 54 image-based, were tested using an image-captioning system to generate descriptions for the images. Results\u0000The overall performance of ChatGPT-4 on USMLE Steps 1, 2, and 3 was evaluated using 376 questions, including 54 with images. The accuracy was 85.7% for Step 1, 92.5% for Step 2, and 86.9% for Step 3. For image-based questions, the accuracy was 70.8% for Step 1, 92.9% for Step 2, and 62.5% for Step 3. In contrast, text-based questions showed higher accuracy: 89.5% for Step 1, 92.5% for Step 2, and 90.1% for Step 3. Performance dropped significantly for difficult image-based questions in Steps 1 and 3 (p=0.0196 and p=0.0020 respectively), but not in Step 2 (p=0.9574). Despite these challenges, the AI's accuracy on image-based questions exceeded the passing rate for all three exams. Conclusions\u0000ChatGPT-4 can handle image-based USMLE questions above the passing rate, showing promise for its use in medical education and diagnostics. Further development is needed to improve its direct image processing capabilities and overall performance.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141508486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.31.24308044
Caitlin Silvestri, Joshua Roshal, Meghal Shah, Warren D. Widmann, Courtney Townsend, Riley Brian, Joseph C. L’Huillier, Sergio M. Navarro, Sarah Lund, Tejas S. Sathe
Introduction While previous studies have demonstrated that generative artificial intelligence (AI) can pass medical licensing exams, AI’s role as an examiner in complex, interactive assessments remains unknown. AI-powered chatbots could serve as educational tools to simulate oral examination dialogues. Here, we present initial validity evidence for an AI-powered chatbot designed for general surgery residents to prepare for the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Certifying Exam (CE).
{"title":"Evaluation of a Novel Large Language Model (LLM) Powered Chatbot for Oral-Boards Scenarios","authors":"Caitlin Silvestri, Joshua Roshal, Meghal Shah, Warren D. Widmann, Courtney Townsend, Riley Brian, Joseph C. L’Huillier, Sergio M. Navarro, Sarah Lund, Tejas S. Sathe","doi":"10.1101/2024.05.31.24308044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.31.24308044","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Introduction</strong> While previous studies have demonstrated that generative artificial intelligence (AI) can pass medical licensing exams, AI’s role as an examiner in complex, interactive assessments remains unknown. AI-powered chatbots could serve as educational tools to simulate oral examination dialogues. Here, we present initial validity evidence for an AI-powered chatbot designed for general surgery residents to prepare for the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Certifying Exam (CE).","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141255716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-29DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.29.24308062
Renate Kahlke, Lauren A. Maggio, Mark Lee, Sayra Cristancho, Kori LaDonna, Zahra Abdallah, Aakashdeep Khehra, Kushal Kshatri, Tanya Horsley, Lara Varpio
Introduction Interviews are central to many qualitative studies in health professions education (HPE). However, researchers often rely only on oral questioning despite the existence of techniques tailored to elicit the rich data needed to address complex problems and meaningfully engage participants. Elicitation techniques are strategies – e.g. participant photography, neighbourhood walks – used to generate rich conversations, but guidance on these techniques is scattered across literatures from diverse fields. In this synthesis, we offer an overview of the elicitation techniques available and advice about how to choose between them.
{"title":"More Than Words: An Integrative Review of Innovative Elicitation Techniques for Qualitative Interviews","authors":"Renate Kahlke, Lauren A. Maggio, Mark Lee, Sayra Cristancho, Kori LaDonna, Zahra Abdallah, Aakashdeep Khehra, Kushal Kshatri, Tanya Horsley, Lara Varpio","doi":"10.1101/2024.05.29.24308062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.29.24308062","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Introduction</strong> Interviews are central to many qualitative studies in health professions education (HPE). However, researchers often rely only on oral questioning despite the existence of techniques tailored to elicit the rich data needed to address complex problems and meaningfully engage participants. Elicitation techniques are strategies – e.g. participant photography, neighbourhood walks – used to generate rich conversations, but guidance on these techniques is scattered across literatures from diverse fields. In this synthesis, we offer an overview of the elicitation techniques available and advice about how to choose between them.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141191705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-28DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.28.24307860
Helen Hynes, Anél Wiese, Nora McCarthy, Catherine Sweeney, Tony Foley, Deirdre Bennett
An international medical graduate (IMG) is a doctor who has received their basic medical qualification from a medical school located in a different country from that in which they practice or intend to practice. IMGs are known to face difficulties in their working lives, including differential attainment in assessment.
{"title":"International medical graduates’ experiences of clinical competency assessment in postgraduate and licensing examinations: a scoping review protocol","authors":"Helen Hynes, Anél Wiese, Nora McCarthy, Catherine Sweeney, Tony Foley, Deirdre Bennett","doi":"10.1101/2024.05.28.24307860","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.28.24307860","url":null,"abstract":"An international medical graduate (IMG) is a doctor who has received their basic medical qualification from a medical school located in a different country from that in which they practice or intend to practice. IMGs are known to face difficulties in their working lives, including differential attainment in assessment.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141191667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-03DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.02.24306753
Allison Mool, Jacob Schmid, Thomas Johnston, William Thomas, Emma Fenner, Kevin Lu, Raya Gandhi, Adam Western, Brendan Seabold, Kodi Smith, Zachary Patterson, Hannah Feldt, Daniel Vollmer, Roshan Nallaveettil, Anthony Fanelli, Logan Schmillen, Shelley Tischkau, Anna T. Cianciolo, Pinckney Benedict, Richard Selinfreund
Background Medical educators who implement problem-based learning (PBL) strive to balance realism and feasibility when simulating patient cases, aiming to stimulate collaborative group discussion, engage students’ clinical reasoning, motivate self-directed learning, and promote the development of actionable scientific understanding. Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) offer exciting new potential for patient simulation in PBL
{"title":"Using Generative AI to Simulate Patient History-Taking in a Problem-Based Learning Tutorial: A Mixed-Methods Study","authors":"Allison Mool, Jacob Schmid, Thomas Johnston, William Thomas, Emma Fenner, Kevin Lu, Raya Gandhi, Adam Western, Brendan Seabold, Kodi Smith, Zachary Patterson, Hannah Feldt, Daniel Vollmer, Roshan Nallaveettil, Anthony Fanelli, Logan Schmillen, Shelley Tischkau, Anna T. Cianciolo, Pinckney Benedict, Richard Selinfreund","doi":"10.1101/2024.05.02.24306753","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.02.24306753","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Background</strong> Medical educators who implement problem-based learning (PBL) strive to balance realism and feasibility when simulating patient cases, aiming to stimulate collaborative group discussion, engage students’ clinical reasoning, motivate self-directed learning, and promote the development of actionable scientific understanding. Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) offer exciting new potential for patient simulation in PBL","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140887919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-17DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.16.24305892
Christopher J. Nash, Susan E. Farrell, Jossie A. Carreras Tartak, Alexei Wagner, Lea C. Brandt, Emily M. Hayden
Objectives This pilot study evaluated a telehealth training simulation program for practicing clinicians, specifically focused on addressing patient issues of equity and access to healthcare via improving telehealth communication.
{"title":"Telehealth Equity and Access Communication Skills Pilot Simulation for Practicing Clinicians","authors":"Christopher J. Nash, Susan E. Farrell, Jossie A. Carreras Tartak, Alexei Wagner, Lea C. Brandt, Emily M. Hayden","doi":"10.1101/2024.04.16.24305892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.16.24305892","url":null,"abstract":"<strong>Objectives</strong> This pilot study evaluated a telehealth training simulation program for practicing clinicians, specifically focused on addressing patient issues of equity and access to healthcare via improving telehealth communication.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140629074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-10DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.09.24305491
John M. Pezzuto, Natalia Shcherbakova, Kimberly A. Pesaturo
Over the past three years, 7,978 graduates of pharmacy programs have failed the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) on the first attempt. At present, the ACPE monitors programs with a passage rate of ≥2 standard deviations (SD) below the national mean pass rate. In 2023, this would lead to monitoring seven programs that produced 140 failures out of the total of 2,472 failures (i.e., 5.7%). In our view, this is neither equitable nor demonstrative of sufficient accountability. Analysis of failure counts among the 144 programs reported by NABP demonstrates a distribution curve highly skewed to the right. After evaluating average failure counts across all the programs, we suggest that schools with absolute failures ≥2 SD higher than the average number of failures of all programs should be flagged for monitoring. Based on the 2023 data, this corresponds to ≥35 failures/program. This threshold would flag 18 programs and 36.5% of the total failures. Of the seven programs that will be monitored based on the current Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education criteria, only one would be captured by the ≥35 failure method of selection with the remaining six contributing only 85 total failures to the pool. Thus, if both criteria were to be applied, i.e., ≥35 failures and of ≥2 standard deviations below the national mean pass rate, a total of 24 programs would be monitored (16.6% of the 144 programs), that contribute 987 (39.9%) of the total failures.
{"title":"North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination Absolute Failures Warrant Monitoring of Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy","authors":"John M. Pezzuto, Natalia Shcherbakova, Kimberly A. Pesaturo","doi":"10.1101/2024.04.09.24305491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.09.24305491","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past three years, 7,978 graduates of pharmacy programs have failed the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) on the first attempt. At present, the ACPE monitors programs with a passage rate of ≥2 standard deviations (SD) below the national mean pass rate. In 2023, this would lead to monitoring seven programs that produced 140 failures out of the total of 2,472 failures (i.e., 5.7%). In our view, this is neither equitable nor demonstrative of sufficient accountability. Analysis of failure counts among the 144 programs reported by NABP demonstrates a distribution curve highly skewed to the right. After evaluating average failure counts across all the programs, we suggest that schools with absolute failures ≥2 SD higher than the average number of failures of all programs should be flagged for monitoring. Based on the 2023 data, this corresponds to ≥35 failures/program. This threshold would flag 18 programs and 36.5% of the total failures. Of the seven programs that will be monitored based on the current Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education criteria, only one would be captured by the ≥35 failure method of selection with the remaining six contributing only 85 total failures to the pool. Thus, if both criteria were to be applied, i.e., ≥35 failures and of ≥2 standard deviations below the national mean pass rate, a total of 24 programs would be monitored (16.6% of the 144 programs), that contribute 987 (39.9%) of the total failures.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140563311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-03DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.02.23297238
Yahaya H. K. Sekagya, Charles Muchunguzi, Payyappallimana Unnikrishnan, Edgar M. Mulogo
Traditional medicinal knowledge and healing practices of indigenous spiritual healers play important roles in health care, and contribute towards achieving Universal Health Care. Traditional spiritual healers (TSHs) are grouped into three categories. One category of Baganda TSHs, Balubaale, engage ancestral spirits during health management. Balubaale are socially significant but not legally accepted. Their initiation and training practices have not been documented in Uganda. The study purpose was to understand and establish the training of traditional spiritual healers. Twelve (10M, 2F); practicing TSHs in Central Uganda were purposively selected and recruited between 15th July 2019 and 29th April 2020, and were prospectively interacted with for 24 months. Transcribed data was coded and thematically analyzed using ATLAS ti. 22 computer software and presented based on an inductive approach. Findings show key areas of TSHs training include connecting with ancestral spirits and the spiritual powers of non-materials and materials such as living and non-living things through rituals. Spiritual healers train in diagnosis and health management based on ancestral spirits and they finally pass out in a communal ceremony witnessed by family and community members. We conclude that TSHs undergo training and are supervised and supported by experienced spiritualists, family and the community. We recommend similar studies among other ethnic groups to contextualize the process of becoming a TSH, compare and harmonize findings to facilitate inter-medical systems communication and policy considerations.
{"title":"An exploratory study on becoming a traditional spiritual healer among Baganda in Central Uganda","authors":"Yahaya H. K. Sekagya, Charles Muchunguzi, Payyappallimana Unnikrishnan, Edgar M. Mulogo","doi":"10.1101/2024.04.02.23297238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.02.23297238","url":null,"abstract":"Traditional medicinal knowledge and healing practices of indigenous spiritual healers play important roles in health care, and contribute towards achieving Universal Health Care. Traditional spiritual healers (TSHs) are grouped into three categories. One category of Baganda TSHs, <em>Balubaale</em>, engage ancestral spirits during health management. <em>Balubaale</em> are socially significant but not legally accepted. Their initiation and training practices have not been documented in Uganda. The study purpose was to understand and establish the training of traditional spiritual healers. Twelve (10M, 2F); practicing TSHs in Central Uganda were purposively selected and recruited between 15<sup>th</sup> July 2019 and 29<sup>th</sup> April 2020, and were prospectively interacted with for 24 months. Transcribed data was coded and thematically analyzed using ATLAS ti. 22 computer software and presented based on an inductive approach. Findings show key areas of TSHs training include connecting with ancestral spirits and the spiritual powers of non-materials and materials such as living and non-living things through rituals. Spiritual healers train in diagnosis and health management based on ancestral spirits and they finally pass out in a communal ceremony witnessed by family and community members. We conclude that TSHs undergo training and are supervised and supported by experienced spiritualists, family and the community. We recommend similar studies among other ethnic groups to contextualize the process of becoming a TSH, compare and harmonize findings to facilitate inter-medical systems communication and policy considerations.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140563015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-19DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.17.24304428
maryana kabbaa, Ekbal Fadel, Flora Mayhoub
Abstract The environmental situation in Syria needs a comprehensive assessment, especially in light of the conditions it has been experiencing for thirteen years, which have exacerbated pollution with heavy metals (HM) in various regions, including the coastal one. This preliminary and first survey in Syria aims to evaluate the exposure of human fetus in the population to HM by measuring the toxic metals spread in the coastal environment in the umbilical cord blood (UCB), which are lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni). The study was conducted between May 2022 and April 2023 among healthy newborns of the National Maternity Hospital in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tartous. This study adopted the official method of the American Association for Analytical Chemistry (AOAC, 2002) in collecting, preserving and processing UCB samples, and the heavy metals were measured using an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer. The statistical study was carried out using SPSS Statistics 23.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The lower and upper limits for the concentrations of the studied elements in UCB range between: Pb (6.18-17.60µg/L), Hg (1.05-7.62µg/L), Cd (0.01-0.67µg/L), As (0.30-5.70µg/L), Cr (0.02-0.43µg/L), Ni (0.01-0.94µg/L). The concentrations of all HM measured in UCB are below the recommended international reference limits. This paper represents the first step in studying the assessment of fetal exposure to HM in our region. The current and future studies aim to expand the study area to include all of Syria, in addition to linking laboratory levels of HM with various sources of exposure and pregnancy outcomes observed at birth.
{"title":"A preliminary study to evaluate the exposure of human fetus to heavy metals in the umbilical cord blood in Syria","authors":"maryana kabbaa, Ekbal Fadel, Flora Mayhoub","doi":"10.1101/2024.03.17.24304428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.17.24304428","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000The environmental situation in Syria needs a comprehensive assessment, especially in light of the conditions it has been experiencing for thirteen years, which have exacerbated pollution with heavy metals (HM) in various regions, including the coastal one.\u0000This preliminary and first survey in Syria aims to evaluate the exposure of human fetus in the population to HM by measuring the toxic metals spread in the coastal environment in the umbilical cord blood (UCB), which are lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni).\u0000The study was conducted between May 2022 and April 2023 among healthy newborns of the National Maternity Hospital in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tartous. This study adopted the official method of the American Association for Analytical Chemistry (AOAC, 2002) in collecting, preserving and processing UCB samples, and the heavy metals were measured using an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer. The statistical study was carried out using SPSS Statistics 23.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).\u0000The lower and upper limits for the concentrations of the studied elements in UCB range between: Pb (6.18-17.60µg/L), Hg (1.05-7.62µg/L), Cd (0.01-0.67µg/L), As (0.30-5.70µg/L), Cr (0.02-0.43µg/L), Ni (0.01-0.94µg/L).\u0000The concentrations of all HM measured in UCB are below the recommended international reference limits. This paper represents the first step in studying the assessment of fetal exposure to HM in our region. The current and future studies aim to expand the study area to include all of Syria, in addition to linking laboratory levels of HM with various sources of exposure and pregnancy outcomes observed at birth.","PeriodicalId":501387,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Medical Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140166816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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