Background: Medical schools differ, particularly in their teaching, but it is unclear whether such differences matter, although influential claims are often made. The Medical School Differences (MedDifs) study brings together a wide range of measures of UK medical schools, including postgraduate performance, fitness to practise issues, specialty choice, preparedness, satisfaction, teaching styles, entry criteria and institutional factors. Method: Aggregated data were collected for 50 measures across 29 UK medical schools. Data include institutional history (e.g. rate of production of hospital and GP specialists in the past), curricular influences (e.g.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been identified in over 110 million people with no studies comparing pre-infection pulmonary function to post-infection. This study's aim was to compare preinfection and post-infection pulmonary function tests (PFT) in COVID-19 infected patients to better delineate between preexisting abnormalities and effects of the virus. Methods: This was a retrospective multi-center cohort study. Patients were identified based on having COVID-19 and a pre-and post-infection PFT within one year of infection during the time period of March 1, 2020 to November 10, 2020. Findings: There was a total of 80 patients, with an even split in gender; the majority were white (n = 70, 87¢5%) and never smokers (n = 42, 52¢5%). The majority had mild to moderate COVID-19 disease (n = 60, 75¢1%) with 25 (31¢2%) requiring hospitalization. There was no difference between the pre-and post-PFT data, specifically with the forced vital capacity (FVC) (p = 0¢52), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) (p = 0¢96), FEV1/FVC(p = 0¢66), total lung capacity (TLC) (p = 0¢21), and diffusion capacity (DLCO)(p = 0¢88). There was no difference in the PFT when analyzed by hospitalization and disease severity. After adjusting for potential confounders, interstitial lung disease (ILD) was independently associated with a decreased FEV1 (-2¢6 [95% CI, -6¢7 to -1¢6] vs. -10¢3 [95% CI, -17¢7 to -2¢9]; p = 0¢03) and an increasing age (p = 0¢01) and cystic fibrosis (-1¢1 [95% CI, -4¢5 to-2¢4] vs. -36¢5 [95% CI, -52¢1 to -21¢0]; p < 0¢01) were associated with decreasing FVC when comparing pre and post infection PFT. Only increasing age was independently associated with a reduction in TLC (p = 0¢01) and DLCO (p = 0¢02) before and after infection. Interpretation: This study showed that there is no difference in pulmonary function as measured by PFT before and after COVID-19 infection in non-critically ill classified patients. There could be a relationship with certain underlying lung diseases (interstitial lung disease and cystic fibrosis) and decreased lung function following infection. This information should aid clinicians in their interpretation of pulmonary function tests obtained following COVID-19 infection.

Background: What subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL). Method: The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey used detailed timetables provided by 25 schools with standard 5-year courses. Timetabled teaching events were coded in terms of course year, duration, teaching format, and teaching content. Ten schools used PBL. Teaching times from timetables were validated against two other studies that had assessed GP teaching and lecture, seminar, and tutorial times. Results: A total of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in the academic year 2014/2015 were analysed, including SSCs (student-selected components) and elective studies. A typical UK medical student receives 3960 timetabled hours of teaching during their 5-year course. There was a clear difference between the initial 2 years which mostly contained basic medical science content and the later 3 years which mostly consisted of clinical teaching, although some clinical teaching occurs in the first 2 years. Medical schools differed in duration, format, and content of teaching. Two main factors underlay most of the variation between schools, Traditional vs PBL teaching and Structured vs Unstructured teaching. A curriculum map comparing medical schools was constructed using those factors. PBL schools differed on a number of measures, having more PBL teaching time, fewer lectures, more GP teaching, less surgery, less formal teaching of basic science, and more sessions with unspecified content. Discussion: UK medical schools differ in both format and content of teaching. PBL and non-PBL schools clearly differ, albeit with substantial variation within groups, and overlap in the middle. The important question of whether differences in teaching matter in terms of outcomes is analysed in a companion study (MedDifs) which examines how teaching differences relate to university infrastructure, entry requirements, student perceptions, and outcomes in Foundation Programme and postgraduate training.

The safety and efficacy of 0*3% ofloxacin in treating bacterial ocular

Introduction Digital health (DH) is continuously evolving by use of information and communications technology to improve healthcare provision, thereby reshaping systems and clinical practices. Recent studies identified an overwhelming lack of awareness of DH within the profession. This study aimed to analyse student perceptions and knowledge of DH to assess confidence in its use to develop greater DH awareness and literacy. Methods Students enrolled in undergraduate medical degrees were invited to take part in an online survey assessing aspects of DH including demography, familiarity, attitudes, level of knowledge and confidence. Anonymised data was collated and subsequently analysed to review DH awareness. Results A total of 143 students participated from nine British universities with 28.7% of respondents admitting low levels of familiarity of DH concepts. Students anticipated negative repercussions of DH including reduced data security (42.7%) and deterioration in doctor-patient relationship (30%); while improvements in healthcare access and health-outcomes are expected by 89.5% and 68.5%, respectively. 71.4% of participants believed they had minimal experience of exposure to DH and 76% believed they did not possess the necessary skills to utilise DH. Only 3.5% of students had some exposure to DH teaching during their course. Conclusion There is an important requirement to address the lack of knowledge and exposure of students to DH, particularly as the world targets the COVID-19 pandemic. DH is forming the basis of the ‘new normal’ in healthcare, however the full potential of DH cannot be achieved unless there is an increase in its teaching incorporated into medical school curricula.