Medical education refers to education and training delivered to medical students in order to become a practitioner. In recent decades, medicine has been radically transformed by scientific and computational/digital advances—including the introduction of new information and communication technologies, the discovery of DNA, and the birth of genomics and post-genomics super-specialties (transcriptomics, proteomics, interactomics, and metabolomics/metabonomics, among others)—which contribute to the generation of an unprecedented amount of data, so-called ‘big data’. While these are well-studied in fields such as medical research and methodology, translational medicine, and clinical practice, they remain overlooked and understudied in the field of medical education. For this purpose, we carried out an integrative review of the literature. Twenty-nine studies were retrieved and synthesized in the present review. Included studies were published between 2012 and 2021. Eleven studies were performed in North America: specifically, nine were conducted in the USA and two studies in Canada. Six studies were carried out in Europe: two in France, two in Germany, one in Italy, and one in several European countries. One additional study was conducted in China. Eight papers were commentaries/theoretical or perspective articles, while five were designed as a case study. Five investigations exploited large databases and datasets, while five additional studies were surveys. Two papers employed visual data analytical/data mining techniques. Finally, other two papers were technical papers, describing the development of software, computational tools and/or learning environments/platforms, while two additional studies were literature reviews (one of which being systematic and bibliometric).The following nine sub-topics could be identified: (I) knowledge and awareness of big data among medical students; (II) difficulties and challenges in integrating and implementing big data teaching into the medical syllabus; (III) exploiting big data to review, improve and enhance medical school curriculum; (IV) exploiting big data to monitor the effectiveness of web-based learning environments among medical students; (V) exploiting big data to capture the determinants and signatures of successful academic performance and counteract/prevent drop-out; (VI) exploiting big data to promote equity, inclusion, and diversity; (VII) exploiting big data to enhance integrity and ethics, avoiding plagiarism and duplication rate; (VIII) empowering medical students, improving and enhancing medical practice; and, (IX) exploiting big data in continuous medical education and learning. These sub-themes were subsequently grouped in the following four major themes/topics: namely, (I) big data and medical curricula; (II) big data and medical academic performance; (III) big data and societal/bioethical issues in biomedical education; and (IV) big data and medical career. Despite the increasing importance of big data in biomedicine, current medical curricula and syllabuses appear inadequate to prepare future medical professionals and practitioners that can leverage on big data in their daily clinical practice. Challenges in integrating, incorporating, and implementing big data teaching into medical school need to be overcome to facilitate the training of the next generation of medical professionals. Finally, in the present integrative review, state-of-art and future potential uses of big data in the field of biomedical discussion are envisaged, with a focus on the still ongoing “Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19) pandemic, which has been acting as a catalyst for innovation and digitalization.

No abstract

Orthodontic treatment is highly popular for restoring functional and facial esthetics in juveniles and adults. However, the prevalence of biofilm-related complications remains high. The objectives of this review are to 1) identify which of the two professional prophylaxis systems analyzed, rubber cup polishing (RCP) and air-powder polishing (APP), is the most effective in removing bacterial biofilm in patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment, and 2) the comfort expressed by the patient and any damage caused to the orthodontic device. The search yielded 23 scientific articles, 14 of which were excluded, and 6 met the inclusion criteria. From the studies analyzed, it is, therefore, possible to state that the APP technique is more effective than the RCP technique in removing dental plaque, and treatment is less time-consuming and safer concerning orthodontic devices, as none of the scientific articles examined did APP cause any damage to the orthodontic device or debonding of the brackets.

The aim of this study was to analyze tooth surface roughness and clinical parameters by a systematic review of the literature to compare the efficacy of air polishing with hand or ultrasonic instrumentation during supportive periodontal therapy (SPT). This study used a research question based on the PICO method. Bibliographic research was performed using four different databases. For the search of the articles, the work was divided into two parts: the first part analyzed the clinical parameters of air polishing in supportive periodontal therapy, and the second part analyzed the effects of air polishing on hard tissues. Of 164 articles concerning clinical parameters, 49 met the inclusion criteria; from 64 articles concerning hard tissues, it reached 4. Excluding these doubles, 12 were chosen for the literature review: eight RCTs, one retrospective cohort study, and three in vitro studies. The scientific literature has shown that air polishing, scaling, and root planing in supportive periodontal therapy give similar clinical results. However, air polishing seems to preserve the hard tissues of the tooth more than the traditional treatment with ultrasonic or manual instrumentation.