PURPOSE: Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, is the only private medical school and university that has offered a wide range of new curricula in the early age of innovation in medical education. The aim of the study is to review how the educational goal of this institution is realized in its curriculum. METHODS: Descriptive study of the educational goal, foundation history, and structure of Witten-Herdecke University's curriculum, as well as its organizational style, through analysis of the literature and publications. RESULTS: Witten/Herdecke University provides an integrated education that ranges from medicine and music therapy to economics and art. This structure is intended to ensure that students receive the broadest education possible to build their own humanity. The results of its innovative education have been recognized as admirable in recent objective publications. CONCLUSION: Through its curriculum, Witten/Herdecke University uses a unique approach in educating its students to become sentient, compassionate human beings. Their program shows us that the direction of innovative medical education in recent decades is justified.
Curriculum ; Dietary Sucrose ; Education, Medical ; Empathy ; Germany ; Humans ; Music Therapy ; Professional Competence ; Schools, Medical

PURPOSE: As the importance of teaching professionalism has become more emphasized in medical education, Korean medical educators are trying to introduce and revise new learning materials concerning professionalism. The purpose of this study is to analyze the transition of curricula subjects related to medical professionalism in Korean medical schools. METHODS: A search for the learning subjects was done by reviewing the' Korean Medical Education Guide'from 1998 to present. Subject titles relating to medical professionalism and the time allocation of these subjects in lectures and laboratories in the 41 Korean Medical Schools were identified. The annual increasing rate of related subjects, as well as some characteristic differences between medical schools were analyzed. RESULTS: There were 28 subjects with content on medical professionalism in 1998/99. There was a rapid increase in the introduction of professionalism to the curriculum annually. Although private medical schools outnumber the public system, there was no significant difference between them in the number of established subjects. But schools with fewer students had more programs relating to professionalism. This may be seen as a reflection of the relatively newly established schools with fewer students being more ready to adopt curriculum reform than older, larger medical schools. CONCLUSION: The results show that there has been a rapid growth in the number of subjects relating to medical professionalism in the curriculua at Korean medical schools. This study focused mainly on analyzing the current subject constellation in the curricula. A further study on the specifics of curriculum content and its teaching method is required.
Curriculum ; Education* ; Education, Medical ; Ethics ; Humans ; Learning ; Lectures ; Schools, Medical* ; Teaching

PURPOSE: We observed the actual half life of the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) had clinical meaning in that it reflected the long term prognosis more individually at a certain level of preoperative alpha-fetoprotein. METHODS: From preoperative and postoperative measurements of alpha-fetoprotein in 96 hepatocellular carcinomas the actual half lives were calculated with the formula: AHL T1/2 (days) = -0.3x(T/log(C1/C0)), where T was the time interval between C1 and C0, in which C1 meant the level of AFP at postoperative 7 day, C0 the original AFP level. We investigated overall survival and disease free survival rate between delayed AHL group and non-delayed AHL group under various definitions of delay. RESULTS: The average actual half life of all cases was 5.1+/-13.6 days. One, three and five year overall survival rates of the group with actual half life less than 4 days were 82.1%, 66.7%, 61.1% respectively, whereas those of the group with actual half life more than 4 days showed 83.0%, 36.5%, 18.2% respectively. The significance of different survival rates was much higher, when only the patients with preoperative alpha-fetoprotein above 100 ng/ml were taken into account (n=53, P=0.0019). The disease free five year survival rates were also significantly different. CONCLUSION: We can predict the elevated postoperative survival rate in the patients with actual half life of alpha-fetoprotein less than 4 days. And this has also relevant clinical meaning in the prognostication of disease free survival, if the preoperative alpha-fetoprotein of patients has elevated up to over 100 ng/ml. The measurement of actual half life of postoperative hepatocellular carcinoma patientscan be a clinical useful parameter for the prognosis of long term survival.
alpha-Fetoproteins* ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Disease-Free Survival ; Half-Life* ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND: Due to its high diagnostic accuracy, preoperative sonographic evaluation of gallbladder disease is accepted as the most reliable and effective procedure. However we have encountered, though not so often, cases in which the sonographic tumor revealed only sludge material in reality. METHODS: A retrospective review of 11 cases that had been preoperatively diagnosed as a gallbladder mass or stone focused on the features of the patients and the characteristics of the sonographic findings. RESULTS: Of the cholecystectomized 2486 cases in which gallstones or gallbladder polyps had been preoperatively diagnosed, 0.4% had only sludge in reality. Symptomatic patients were 7 (64%). Pseudo- tumorous lesions of the gallbladder resembled the shapes of the stones, as well as the shapes of polyps, in their echogenic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Gallbladder sludge alone can make the sonographic image of a stone or a polyp. The application of more advanced sonography, such as contrast-enhanced Doppler sonography, may contribute to the differential diagnosis of pseudo-tumorous lesions of the gallbladder; however, an indefinite lesion on sonography always deserves operative intervention.
Diagnosis, Differential ; Gallbladder Diseases ; Gallbladder* ; Gallstones ; Humans ; Polyps ; Retrospective Studies ; Sewage* ; Ultrasonography*

Because of the significant reduction in complications from transfusion owing to the development in the technique of preservation of blood, the tendency of hemoglobinuria during anesthesia and surgery has decreased. it seems that there are many causes of hemoglobinuria, and its prognosis is varied. The incidence of Rb negative blood in Korea is no more than 0.2%. Therefore, such a rare blood type may be presserved by freesing for longterm storage. But this freesing and thawing of blood leads to partial hemolysis of the red cells. A case of hemoglobinuria occured during transfusion of Rh negative type B frozen blood.
Anesthesia* ; Erythrocytes* ; Hemoglobinuria* ; Hemolysis ; Incidence ; Korea ; Prognosis

A pathological fracture occurs spontaneously or with minimal trauma. The underlying pathological changes may be subtle and the diagnosis not obvious. The two goals in the treatment of pathologic fracture in weight bearing long bones are to provide relief of pain by secure fixation of the fracture and to permit early smbulation and a prompt return to prefracture status. Thirteen cases of pathological fracture were treated during the period from June, 1986 to February, 1988 at Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital. The results are as follows. 1. Most patients were over 45 of age. 2. Malignancy was the common cause. 3. Most frequent involved site was femur. 4. Occured by trivial trauma such as slip down injury. 5. Satisfactory result by curettage, open reduction and internal fixation, bone graft or bone cement augmentation.
Clinical Study ; Curettage ; Diagnosis ; Femur ; Fractures, Spontaneous ; Heart ; Humans ; Transplants ; Weight-Bearing

With the goal of providing optimal care to patients, student-centered active learning and the development of clinical competency have become vital components of the education of future physicians capable of sustainably coping with future challenges. However, the shape of future medicine is dramatically changing based on advances in information and communication technology, and the current classroom model seems to have difficulties in fully preparing students for the future of medicine. New trends in teaching and assessment methods include computer-aided instruction, virtual patients, augmented reality, human patient simulations, and virtual reality for the assessment of students’ competency. The digital technologies introduced in medical and dental education include Google Forms to collect students’ answers, YouTube livestreaming, Google Art & Culture (an online art museum), and choose-your-own-adventure as a story-telling technique. Innovations in digital technology will lead the way toward a revolution in medical and dental education, allowing learning to be individualized, interactive, and efficient.

With the goal of providing optimal care to patients, student-centered active learning and the development of clinical competency have become vital components of the education of future physicians capable of sustainably coping with future challenges. However, the shape of future medicine is dramatically changing based on advances in information and communication technology, and the current classroom model seems to have difficulties in fully preparing students for the future of medicine. New trends in teaching and assessment methods include computer-aided instruction, virtual patients, augmented reality, human patient simulations, and virtual reality for the assessment of students’ competency. The digital technologies introduced in medical and dental education include Google Forms to collect students’ answers, YouTube livestreaming, Google Art & Culture (an online art museum), and choose-your-own-adventure as a story-telling technique. Innovations in digital technology will lead the way toward a revolution in medical and dental education, allowing learning to be individualized, interactive, and efficient.

BACKGROUND: In spite of the development of diagnostic tools, gallbladder carcinoma is often diagnosed at a late stage because of the lack of symptomatic awareness of patients in early stage. Early diagnosis and proper resectional treatment is, therefore, the most important factor for the prognosis. This study aims at the analysis of clinical characteristics and the effect of various modes of surgical treatment on long-term survival. METHODS: From January 1989 to December 1997 we operated on 132 patients with gallbladder carcinoma. Age, sex, stage distribution, clinical manifestations and mode of operations were analyzed. The cumulative survival rates were also analyzed for 107 patients who had been finally followed up, and the significance of survival difference was tested (p<0.05). RESULTS: The average age of 132 patients was 64 years old, and female patients suffered more frequent incidence than male patients by a ratio of 1.7:1. The distribution of patients according to the pathologic TNM staging showed early stage (stage 0 & I) accounted for only 9.8% whereas the advanced stages (stage II, III, IVa, IVb) accounted for the majority of the patients (90.2%). The chief complaints were abdominal pain (84.8%), indigestion, weight loss, palpable mass and so forth in a decreasing frequency order. Among the patients, 30 cases (22.7%) were irresectable, 50 cases (38%) were curative resected, and 52 cases (39%) were palliative resected. The overall cumulative survival rates of 107 patients were 53.7%, 41.7% and 30.1% for 1-year, 2-year and 5-year survival respectively. Although the 5-year survival rate of curative resected patients showed a significantly better survival rate (p<0.005) than that of non-curative resected patients, the different modes of combined radical surgery did not affect the survival rates. CONCLUSION: Combined curative resection ameliorated long-term survival of patients with gallbladder carcinoma. For the further evaluation of the efficacy of combined radical surgery on survival, more extensive data needs to be accumulated.
Abdominal Pain ; Dyspepsia ; Early Diagnosis ; Female ; Gallbladder* ; Hospital Distribution Systems ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate ; Weight Loss

PURPOSE: The role of graduate medical education(GME) has become more important at the flood of knowledge and technical development. The korean board system in general surgery has a short history and has been developed mostly by the executive authorities rather than by autonomous civil organizations which is the case in america and europe. The aim and curriculum of our residency education is not yet well established, so that there requires the need to evaluate and analyze the training system of other well-established countries. METHODS: The structures of residency education and their characteristics in U.S.A., England and Germany were reviewed from the literatures and internet sites in terms of aims and objects of learning during the training period. The korean system was compared to these characteristics. RESULTS: Comparing the residency training programmes of U.S.A., Germany and England to our system there found some characteristic points as following that would be recommendable to be adopted for the renewal of our training programme. 1) Autonomous civil organizations endeavor for the regulations of educational goal, requirements and their accreditation. 2) The understanding of basic sciences that provide the fundamental principles of surgery was emphasized during the education. 3) Modern surgical techniques as a part of minimal invasive surgery can be easily acquired during the training course. 4) Participation in emergency medicine and intensive medicine was almost mandatory. 5) Interdisciplinary training and effective rotation schedule were highly recommended. All these characteristics could be actively integrated into our education, if we elaborate more well-established educational goal and curriculum for the residentship.
Accreditation ; Americas ; Appointments and Schedules ; Curriculum ; Education* ; Emergency Medicine ; England ; Europe ; Germany ; Internet ; Internship and Residency* ; Learning ; Social Control, Formal