1.Student Engagement in Student Support System Reform: A Case Study
Yena JANG ; Seo Yoon KIM ; Ji Yoon KANG ; Donghwa KANG ; Na Hyeon KWEON ; Ga Yeon KIM ; Narae KIM ; Sang Hun KIM ; Seongwoo KIM ; Juhee KIM ; Chae Yeon KIM ; Shinyoung PARK ; Ju Yeon PARK ; Ji Su PARK ; Geon Ho LEE ; Bora IM ; Bo Young YOON
Korean Medical Education Review 2023;25(2):174-183
Educational evaluation involves data collection and the analysis of various education-related factors to make decisions that improve educational quality. Systematic educational evaluation is essential for enhancing the quality of education. This study reports a case of student-conducted process evaluation of a medical school’s student support system and the procedure for devising improvement plans. Sixteen Inje University College of Medicine students participated in the Education Evaluation Committee (IUCM-EEC) to understand the educational improvement process as learners and actively achieve improvement. The Quality Improvement Committee of the Inje University College of Medicine (IUCM-QIC) decided to reform its student support system based on a previous educational evaluation in 2019. The evaluation of the student support system was conducted for 10 months in 2021 by the student subcommittee, under the guidance of the IUCM-EEC. The CIPP (context-input-process-product) evaluation model was used for a systematic evaluation. Accordingly, the subcommittee developed evaluation criteria and indicators, and analyzed relevant data collected from surveys and the previous literature. For further recommendations and revision ideas, the student subcommittee members interviewed faculty members from six other medical schools and also conducted a focus group interview with the dean and vice deans of IUCM. Finally, the student subcommittee submitted a report to the IUCM-QIC. Communication with various stakeholders is essential for a successful evaluation process. In this case, students, as key stakeholders in education, evaluated the student support system. Their active participation helped improve their understanding of the evaluation process.
2.Efficacy of the Ketogenic Diet for Pediatric Epilepsy According to the Presence of Detectable Somatic mTOR Pathway Mutations in the Brain
Ara KO ; Nam Suk SIM ; Han Som CHOI ; Donghwa YANG ; Se Hee KIM ; Joon Soo LEE ; Dong Seok KIM ; Jeong Ho LEE ; Heung Dong KIM ; Hoon-Chul KANG
Journal of Clinical Neurology 2022;18(1):71-78
Background:
and Purpose A multifactorial antiepileptic mechanism underlies the ketogenic diet (KD), and one of the proposed mechanisms of action is that the KD inhibits the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. To test this clinically, this study aimed to determine the efficacy of the KD in patients with pathologically confirmed focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) due to genetically identifiable mTOR pathway dysregulation.
Methods:
A cohort of patients with pathologically confirmed FCD after epilepsy surgery and who were screened for the presence of germline and somatic mutations related to the mTOR pathway in peripheral blood and resected brain tissue was constructed prospectively. A retrospective review of the efficacy of the prior KD in these patients was performed.
Results:
Twenty-five patients with pathologically confirmed FCD and who were screened for the presence of detectable somatic mTOR pathway mutations had received a sufficient KD. Twelve of these patients (48.0%) had germline or somatic detectable mTOR pathway mutations. A response was defined as a ≥50% reduction in seizure frequency. The efficacy of the KD after 3 months of dietary therapy was superior in patients with detectable mTOR pathway mutations than in patients without detectable mTOR pathway mutations, although the difference was not statistically significant (responder rates of 58.3% vs. 38.5%, p=0.434).
Conclusions
A greater proportion of patients with mTOR pathway responded to the KD, but there was no statistically significant difference in efficacy of the KD between patients with and without detectable mTOR pathway mutations. Further study is warranted due to the smallness of the sample and the limited number of mTOR pathway genes tested in this study.