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Many Japanese physicians were unable to provide an acceptable response to challenges to professionalism in several issues and few had received education in professionalism during school curricula. Greater teaching of professionalism is needed in medical education in Japan.

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BackgroundProfessionalism is deemed as the basis of physicians’ contract with society in Japan. Our study in 2005, using a questionnaire with scenarios to professionalism, suggested that many physicians at various levels of training in Japan encounter challenges when responding to these common scenarios related to professionalism. It is unclear how medical professionalism has changed among Japanese residents in over time.MethodsWe conducted a follow-up survey about challenges to professionalism for Japanese residents using the same Barry Questionnaire after a seven-year interval from the prior survey. The survey uses six clinical scenarios with multiple choice responses. The six cases include the following challenges: acceptance of gifts; conflict of interest; confidentiality; physician impairment; sexual harassment; and honesty in documentation. Each scenario is followed by 4 or 5 possible responses, including the “best” and the “second best” responses. The survey was conducted as a part of nationwide general medicine in-training examination.ResultsWe collected data from 1,049 participants (290 women, 28%; 431 PGY-1 and 618 PGY-2 residents). Overall, the current residents performed better than their colleagues in the earlier survey for five scenarios (gifts, conflict of interest, confidentiality, impairment, and honesty) but not for the harassment scenario. PGY-2 residents were more likely to select either the best or 2nd best choices to gifts (p = 0.002) and harassment (p = 0.031) scenarios than PGY-1 residents. Residents in the current study chose either the best or 2nd best choices to the gifts (p < 0.001) and honesty (p < 0.001) scenarios than those of the previous study conducted seven years ago, but not for the harassment scenario (p = 0.004).ConclusionsOur study suggests that there is improvement of medical professionalism with respect to some ethical challenges among the Japanese residents in the current study compared to those in our previous study.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-015-0313-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background. Oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the principal underlying cause of a dramatic rise in oropharyngeal cancer. Dentistry can play an important role in developing clinical algorithms for secondary prevention. Methods. This cross-sectional pilot study was conducted with practices of the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network. It evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of screening and testing procedures as judged by practitioners and patients. Tablets were used for patient screening, obtaining consent and administering a confidential oral HPV risk factor survey. Results. Most patients (85%) were comfortable being asked about cigarette use, their sexual behavior (69%), and were interested in participating again (79%). Over 90% of practitioners were comfortable with study procedures except the extra time required for patient participation (75% comfortable). There were no problems with oral rinse collection as reported by patients or practitioners. Conclusions. It is feasible in community dental offices to collect oral rinses for HPV detection and to ask patients explicit questions about sexual history when using a tablet device for confidentiality Practical Implications. Discussing high-risk types of HPV and appropriately assessing that risk is a challenge for dental professionals. These results are positive from a research perspective but do not address the advisability of routine HPV screening in dentistry.