BackgroundIt is not known whether the characteristics of a good clinical teacher as perceived by resident physicians are the same in Western countries as in non-Western countries including Japan. The objective of this study was to identify the characteristics of a good clinical teacher as perceived by resident physicians in Japan, a non-Western country, and to compare the results with those obtained in Western countries.MethodsData for this qualitative research were collected using semi-structured focus group interviews. Focus group transcripts were independently analyzed and coded by three authors. Residents were recruited by maximum variation sampling until thematic saturation was achieved.ResultsTwenty-three residents participated in five focus group interviews regarding the perceived characteristics of a good clinical teacher in Japan. The 197 descriptions of characteristics that were identified were grouped into 30 themes. The most commonly identified theme was “provided sufficient support”, followed by “presented residents with chances to think”, “provided feedback”, and “provided specific indications of areas needing improvement”. Using Sutkin’s main categories (teacher, physician, and human characteristics), 24 of the 30 themes were categorized as teacher characteristics, 6 as physician characteristics, and none as human characteristics.Conclusions“Medical knowledge” of teachers was not identified as a concern of residents, and “clinical competence of teachers” was not emphasized, whereas these were the two most commonly recorded themes in Sutkin’s study. Our results suggest that Japanese and Western resident physicians place emphasis on different characteristics of their teachers. We speculate that such perceptions are influenced by educational systems, educational settings, and culture. Globalization of medical education is important, but it is also important to consider differences in educational systems, local settings, and culture when evaluating clinical teachers.

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The notion of naïve liftability of DG modules is introduced in [9] and [10]. In this paper, we study the obstruction to naïve liftability along extensions A → B of DG algebras, where B is projective as an underlying graded A-module. We show that the obstruction to naïve liftability of a semifree DG B-module N is a certain cohomology class in Ext 1 B (N, N ⊗ B J), where J is the diagonal ideal. Our results on obstruction class enable us to give concrete examples of DG modules that do and do not satisfy the naïve lifting property.

Background: Although community-based training is included in medical undergraduate education in Japan, little assessment of the outcomes of community-based education programs has been performed. The aim of this study was to investigate the outcomes of a community-based education program using a mixed method. Methods:The study design utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed method). The subjects (n = 278) were fifth-grade medical students who were involved in the program from 2008 to 2010 inclusive. We collected two types of data: a six-item pre-and-post questionnaire (quantitative) and an open-ended questionnaire (qualitative) to evaluate the impressions this experience left on the students.Results: Pre-and-post questionnaires were completed by 263 (95%) of 278 subjects; on all items, the scores of the postdata were significantly higher than that of pre-data (P < 0.001). General Medicine 2014, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 21-28. Original Article -21 -Conclusions: We found that medical students gained four major perspectives from their experiences: Inter-professional cooperation, trust based relationships, roles of community hospitals and clinics, and patient-centered medicine, respectively. Our findings suggest this program contributed significantly to their understanding of community medicine.