The LHS researcher core competencies can be used to guide the development of learning objectives, evaluation methods, and curricula for training programs.

In many communities of South Africa, traditional healers are often the only means of health care delivery available. The level of knowledge and ability to recognize oral lesions of 32 traditional healers and 17 care-givers were assessed after a two-day workshop. The data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire, complimented by enlarged clinical photographs of the common oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS. Prior to the workshop, 46 (93.9%) of the 49 respondents had never had any formal information on oral health and 43 (87.8%) were unfamiliar with the symptoms of oral diseases. Thirty-five (71.4%) recognized bleeding gums from A4-size photographs and 11 (22.4%) recognized oral thrush. The recognition of other oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS were; oral hairy leukoplakia (41.0%), angular cheilitis (43.6%), herpes virus infection (56.4%), oral ulcerations (56.8%), and in children, parotid enlargement (27.3%), and moluscum contagiosum (56.8%). Traditional healers and caregivers constitute an untapped resource with enormous potential. A positive bridge should be built to link traditional healing with modem medicine in the struggle against HIV/AIDS

Objective: To evaluate prevalence, types and severity of drug-drug interactions in paediatric outpatient department. Methods: An observational study was carried out in Shree Krishna Hospital (SKH), a tertiary care teaching hospital after obtaining Institutional Ethics Committee approval. In SKH outpatient prescriptions are uploaded on software "Solace" , and these online prescriptions were collected from IT department. Potential Drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) were identified by using Medscape drug interaction checker. The prescriptions were analysed for demographic characteristics, medical and detailed drug history. Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) were evaluated for total numbers, types and severity of DDIs. Result: Total 300 prescriptions with mean age 6.33 ± 5.24 years were analysed. Total 96 pDDIs were recorded. The prevalence of pDDI was 16%. Most common pDDI was Valproic acid + Acetaminophen. There were 61 (63.54%) DDIs of pharmacokinetic, 24 (25%) pharmacodynamic and 11 (11.46%) had an unknown mechanism. Out of all interactions, 41 (42.71%) were of minor, 48 (50%) were of moderate and 07 (7.29%) were of severe in nature. The number of drugs prescribed and the occurrence of DDIs were significantly associated. (p<0.001). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) constitute important cause of morbidity and mortality affecting all age groups. Most of the studies in past have explored and reported knowledge and perception toward ADRs among health-care professionals, pharmacists, and medical students. But studies on awareness among patients are limited. To improve understanding of ADR and its reporting, it is important to find out the same among patients. Aims and Objective: To assess knowledge and perception toward ADR among patients visiting tertiary-care rural hospital, and to sensitize patients on ADR reporting system. Materials and Methods: This observational study was conducted at tertiary-care teaching hospital and 150 patients were selected randomly. Demographic details of respondents were noted and questionnaire regarding knowledge and perceptions was given to fill up. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Result: Demographic analysis showed that 59% patients were men, 56% were from rural areas, and 45% were graduates. Regarding knowledge about ADR, 78.6% patients were aware that medicines can cause ADRs and 33% had experienced side effects in past. None of the respondents were aware of ADR reporting center. Regarding perceptions toward ADR, 86.7% agreed to report ADR in future and 56% respondents believed ADR reporting may strengthen the patient safety. According to 70% patients, awareness campaign is the best way to educate them regarding ADR. Conclusion: Educational interventions are needed to improve awareness among patients regarding importance of ADR reporting.

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