While there are many examples of evaluations of faculty development programs in resource rich countries, evaluation of transnational programs for faculty from developing countries is limited. We describe evaluation of the effects of the FAIMER Institute, an international health professions education fellowship that incorporates not only education content, but also leadership and management topics and, in addition, strives to develop a sustained community of educators. Data were obtained via retrospective pre/post surveys, as well as interviews. Results indicate that participating health professions faculty from developing countries are augmenting their knowledge and skills in education leadership, management, and methodology, and applying that knowledge at their home institutions. Fellows' perceptions of importance of, and their own competence in, all curriculum theme areas increased. Interviews confirmed a nearly universal gain of at least one leadership skill. Findings suggest that the high-engagement experience of the FAIMER model offering integration of education and leadership/management tools necessary to implement change, provides knowledge and skills which are useful across cultural and national contexts and results in the development of a supportive, global, professional network.

Online role-play encouraged distributed participation among a highly diverse international group of participants, supporting the conclusion that role-playing can be used effectively with mid-career health professional faculty members in the online environment.

Seventeen dogs with chronic renal failure (CRF) were studied to evaluate the incidence, type, and etiology of anemia in CRF. A nonregenerative, normochromic, normocytic anemia was seen in 12 of 17 dogs (70.6%). There was a direct correlation between the degree of anemia and the extent of CRF as assessed by serum creatinine concentrations (P = .0386, r = S0923). Erythrocyte concentrations of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG) were significantly increased in anemic animals and showed a close correlation to the degree of anemia. The high DPG concentrations may compensate for the anemia by decreasing the hemoglobin-oxygen affinity and thereby facilitating tissue oxygenation at low hematocrits. Serum concentrations of erythropoietin (Epo) were in the low to normal range, despite mild to moderate anemia, documenting a deficiency of Epo in dogs with CRF. The nonregenerative nature of the anemia supports impaired hematopoiesis as a significant etiologic factor. Other factors, such as increases in serum parathyroid hormone and phosphorus, were not found to correlate significantly with the degree of anemia, although there were significant differences between their concentrations in anemic compared with non-anemic dogs. There was no change in erythrocyte osmotic fragility with uremia. The documentation of a nonregenerative, normochromic, normocytic anemia, with failure of an appropriate increase in Epo production, supports the therapeutic use of Epo in the management of the anemia seen

A system was developed~or olyective prediction oJsurvival which could be applied to all critL"cally ill patients, regardless oJdisease, at an early stage oJhospitaluation. Such a~stem would allow nsk assessment of groupsj?orexperimental studies according to probability oJsurvival and it might allow us to avoid expenditure oJscarce clinical resourceson anima~with little chance of survival. Theprospective study inc!uded200 critically ill dogs: 93Jemales and 107 males, represeno"ng62 breeds. With survival deJned as alive 30 days aj?eradmhsion to ZCL?the overall mortality rate was 40.5% (81 of 200 dogs). Data collected included s@na!ment and parameters that re~ected vital organfinction, the seven"y oJphysiologik derangement and the extent of physiologic reserve. Werecordedthe most abnormal valueJor each parameter within 24 hours oJadmission to ZCUand [o@tik re~ession anafyszk was used to anaZyzeJour d~erent waghting systems. The best model had a concordance0J86.5% with outcome, and it was then re-evaluated to determine whether individual variables cou[d be eliminated without losing predictive accuracy. Four van"ableswere eliminated, resuiti"ng in a~nal mode! with 18 van"ab[es which had 86.3% concordance with outcome. At a 0.5 cut-o~~or predicted risk, the model had sensitivity OJ69%, spea"-Jlci@ @86% and positive predictive value@ 77%. A Receiver Operating Curve was constructed using sen-alcut-o~sJorpredicted outcomefiom 0.1 to 0.9, and the area under the curve was 0.89. Thus, an equaflon was generated thatgives an esa"mateo~the probability o~survival.

National differences in project focus may offer insight into local conditions and needs. High rates of diffusion of projects and impact on faculty, students, and curriculum suggest that faculty development projects may be a strategy for institutional change in resource limited environments.