We compared the effects on clinical clerkships of an electronic medical record (EMR) system and a standard medical record system. Using an EMR system, students described medical records with a problem-oriented medical record system/subject objective assessment, and plan that was much better than the standard medical record system. In the EMR system, students cannot see physicians' medical records, including laboratory data and X-ray films. Instead, students themselves must obtain the patient history and request examinations as physicians do. This system helps supervisors give suitable comments and provide data that students have requested. Directors can also evaluate supervisors by reviewing their comments. Therefore, an EMR system has the advantage of problem-oriented medical record system-based learning for students and is also useful for clinical clerkships.

Objective To determine the concordance in various hepatitis C (HCV) genotyping methods and to investigate the distribution of HCV genotypes in Guizhou area of Southwest China.Methods Serum samples from 206 patients (100 with chronic hepatitis and 106 with hemopathy) were detected for antibody of HCV by second generation enzyme-labelled immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Thirty-five anti-HCV positive samples were detected for HCV RNA by RT-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 30 HCV RNA positive samples were determined for their genotypes by three various genotyping methods [PCR with type-specific primers at the core region (primer-set), slot-blot hybridization with type-specific probes at NS5B region (blotting) and the restric fragment length polymorphism analysis of PCR products of 5'NC region (RFLP)]. Ten samples with the known genotype were analysed by the direct sequencing.Results Of 30 samples with positive HCV RNA, the types of 22 could be classified by three methods, and the genotypes determined by various methods had complete concordance. The types of 6 samples could be classified by two methods and 5 had agreement subtypes. The types of two samples could be classified only by RFLP. Overall, 27(90.0%) had subtype 1b infection and 3(10.0%) had subtype 2a infection. The nucleotide sequence of 8 samples with subtype 1b and one with subtype 2a were analysed by the direct sequencing. The subtypes determined by sequence analysis were in complete concordance with those decided by various genotyping methods.Conclusions Subtype 1b is the predominent HCV genotype in Guizhou area, while subtype 2a is less common. There was a good concordance with the genotyping results obtained by various HCV genotyping methods.

Problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials were introduced at our university in April 2001. Because a complete PBLbased curriculum could not be adopted, a transitional curriculum incorporating 3-hour PBL tutorial sessions into the traditional curriculum was introduced. More than 80% of students agreed that PBL is an effective way of learning problem solving at the bedside. Twenty percent to 40% of teachers felt that students who took PBL were more motivated for bedside learning and self-directed learning and had better at presentation than were students who did not take PBL. Because of 80% of the curriculum comprised didactic lectures, most students considered PBL tutorials a type of lecture. For this reason, motivating students to learn additional material originating from PBL tutorials was difficult. Although the combination of a traditional curriculum and PBL tutorials may appear to be a new curriculum, this type of PBL has limited value as a method for studying problem solving.