The existing performance evaluation methods in robot-assisted surgery (RAS) are mainly subjective, costly, and affected by shortcomings such as the inconsistency of results and dependency on the raters' opinions. The aim of this study was to develop models for an objective evaluation of performance and rate of learning RAS skills while practicing…

Standard methods for the meta-analysis of medical tests, without assuming a gold standard, are limited to dichotomous data. Multivariate probit models are used to analyse correlated dichotomous data, and can be extended to model ordinal data. Within the context of an imperfect gold standard, they have previously been used for the analysis of…

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an important component of China's medical system. How to educate TCM practitioners in China, therefore, has become a crucial issue. To contribute to this issue, the current research identified the competency model of TCM practitioners in China and developed an evaluation for TCM students. We combined Bloom's…

This paper considers how teachers, psychologists and policymakers can respect the rights of all school students, through methods that are principled, humane, cost-effective and democratic. It examines how special educational needs and disability (SEND) services affect all school students and teachers, and their rights. The paper considers the…

Treatment integrity, in its broadest sense, is the extent to which an intervention is implemented as intended. Over the past 3 decades, understanding of treatment integrity has greatly evolved. This book summarizes the current state of our knowledge of treatment integrity on such topics as: (1) how it fits into the larger contexts of…

Vertical integration has been extensively implemented across medical school curricula but has not been widely attempted in the field of biochemistry. We describe a novel curricular innovation in which a near-peer learning model was used to implement vertical integration in our medical school biochemistry course. Senior medical students developed…

Borrowing the term "translational research" (TR) from medicine, along with some of the ideas and practices that define it, holds promise as a way of linking research more closely to the practice of youth development. However, doing so entails substantial adaptation. TR is more than a new name for applied research. It comprehends the…

Simulations provide opportunities for individuals to learn and develop skills for situations that may be expensive, time-consuming, or dangerous. Careful design can support a person's learning by tailoring the features of situations to his or her skill level(s), allowing repeated attempts, and by providing timely feedback. Furthermore, simulations…

Gericke and Hagberg (G & H, "Sci Educ" 16:849-881, 2007) recently published in this journal a thoughtful analysis of the historical progression of our understanding of the nature of the gene for use in instruction. This analysis, however, did not include the findings of the Human Genome Project (HGP), which must be included in any introductory…

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted to analyse the effect of mobile device intervention for student support services and to gauge its use for enhancing teaching--learning process as a future study in the context of offer of Distance Education programmes. The study was conducted with the learners of the coveted Post Graduate…

A current trend in physiology education involves the use of clinical vignettes to demonstrate the importance of knowing normal physiology to appreciate pathophysiology. Although laudable, in effect, such tactics promote the so-called "disease" model of medicine while at the same time suggesting that the only utility for the knowledge of physiology…

Presents a multilevel model of the information filtering process that permits document classification. Evaluates a document classification approach based on a supervised learning algorithm, measures the accuracy of the algorithm in a neural network that was trained to classify medical documents on cell biology, and discusses filtering…

Basic medical science has primary paradigms from which are derived secondary paradigms that allow the practice of medicine. Medical education consists in students acquiring this paradigm and in practitioners changing their paradigm in the light of medical research. (Editor/PG)

The increasing complexity of human body models enabled by advances in diagnostic imaging, computing, and growing knowledge calls for the development of a new generation of systems for intelligent exploration of these models. Here, we introduce a novel paradigm for the exploration of digital body models illustrating cerebral vasculature. It enables…

Introduces a cost-benefit transfer model which considers a performer's perception of need, sensibility, and effort to determine the likelihood of putting to use an idea learned in training. The model predicts use through a mathematical formula: the product of need and sensibility divided by effort. Case evidence of academic physicians are cited in…