Teaching parasitology in a modular veterinary curriculum – The Vienna experience

Joachim, Anja; Hinney, Barbara; Duscher, Georg Gerhard; Preusche, Ingrid; Winter, P.

doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2018.02.002

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…Providing human health science students with the most relevant knowledge of this scientific subject to protect humans and animals represents a real challenge, as students cannot acquire a comprehensive knowledge of parasitology that covers the exponential increase of parasitology knowledge that scientific progress is generating. Therefore, medical parasitology curricula should be appropriately adapted to ensure that students are provided with the most up-to-date body of core knowledge and acquire the necessary skills and tools to resolve clinical problems, receive professional competencies and acquire the appropriate tools for promoting life-long learning, so students are able to resolve clinical problems and analyse and acquire newly-generated information (Fox, Blake, & Jacobs, 2018;Joachim et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a novel digital environment for learning medical parasitology

Pena-Fernandez

Acosta

Fenoy

et al. 2020

Higher Education Pedagogies

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Eukaryotic parasites represent a serious human health threat requiring health professionals with parasitology skills to counteract this threat. However, recent surveys highlight an erosion of teaching of parasitology in medical and veterinary schools, despite reports of increasing instances of food and waterborne parasitic infections. To address this we developed a web-based resource, DMU e-Parasitology®, to facilitate the teaching and learning of parasitology, comprising four sections: theoretical; virtual laboratory; virtual microscopy; virtual clinical case studies. Testing the package was performed using a questionnaire given to ninety-five Pharmacy students in 2017/18 to assess effectiveness of the package as a teaching and learning tool. 89.5% of students reported appropriate acquisition of knowledge of the pathology, prevention and treatment of some parasitic diseases. 82.1% also welcomed the clinical specialism of the package as it helped them to acquire basic diagnostic skills, through learning infective features/ morphology of the parasites. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a novel digital environment for learning medical parasitology

Pena-Fernandez

Acosta

Fenoy

et al. 2020

Higher Education Pedagogies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Novel Resources for Learning the Identification of Human-Related Parasites

Pena-Fernandez¹,

Lobo-Bedmar²,

Acosta³

et al. 2018

ICERI2018 Proceedings

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Microscopic detection of human-related parasites in a range of clinical samples remains the cornerstone of parasitological diagnosis despite recent advances in technology and molecular sciences. However, the use of the light microscope for diagnostic purposes requires comprehensive training, skills and parasitology knowledge that is difficult to appropriately provide to future health professionals due to different challenges including shortages of health science academics, resources, time and specimens for delivering appropriate training. An international teaching innovation team from different European universities, led by De Montfort University (UK), is building a novel resource for learning and teaching parasitology, which is equipped with a Virtual Laboratory and Microscope. In the Virtual Laboratory (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/learn/laboratory.htm), we are building a complete subsection with a series of engaging units for learning different parasitological staining/fresh preparation techniques for detecting common and rare (emerging and re-emerging) human parasites from several taxa: protozoa (mostly cysts and oocysts) and helminths (eggs and organs for parasitological differentiation such as scolex or proglottids for Taenia spp.) and fungi (spores), which will be publicly available in 2019. Examples of staining techniques included are Kinyoun, Trichrome and Modified Trichrome stain and fresh preparations for investigating eggs as well as more recent techniques such as immunofluorescence. The Virtual Laboratory will also provide resources to undertake appropriate sample (faeces, blood and urine) collection, management and preparation for parasitological diagnosis and the use of different microscopes including the light microscope for parasite analysis. These units will be equipped with short videos of academics and technicians performing the different techniques, which will include audio and subtitles in English, and will be supported by photos, artworks, designs and self-assessment mini-quizzes and exercises, to provide students with the most practical experience possible. Finally, a complete library of digitised clinical slides of different specimens and parasites is provided here: http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/learn/microscope.htm. Each virtual slide is provided with the functionality of a microscope, so the user will be able to zoom in and out and explore all of the clinical sample to learn the morphological characteristics of cysts, oocysts, eggs, spores and other important structures for parasitological diagnosis. When relevant, a variety of virtual slides for the different species for the same parasite will be provided to enhance the identification of parasites to species level in conjunction with a short description and tips for easy identification. The resources that are being created will cover the theoretical foundation and current scientific information so they will be suitable for undergraduate/postgraduate students as well as for more professional training. This paper will present a complete...

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Teaching parasitology in a modular veterinary curriculum – The Vienna experience

Cited by 2 publications

References 17 publications

Evaluation of a novel digital environment for learning medical parasitology

Evaluation of a novel digital environment for learning medical parasitology

Novel Resources for Learning the Identification of Human-Related Parasites

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