PURPOSE: In order to apply the item response theory to test results, the assumptions made about unidimensionality and item goodness-of-fitness should be tested before analysis. To know if the Korean Medical Licensing Examination results fulfill these assumptions, appropriate tests were done on these two features. METHODS: Three results(from three subjects) of the Korean Medical Licensing Examination, done in January 2004, were converted into 1, 0 data. The Holland and Rosenbaum Method(HRMH) and DETECT were used to test unidimensionality. The Winsteps was used to test goodness-of-fitness according to the Rasch model. RESULTS: Unidimensionality was rejected by HRMH but accepted by DETECT. With the Rasch model, 2 out of 550 items were inadequate. Each 137, 73 and 455 examinees out of 3,881 were inadequate in three subjects of 126, 400 and 24 items. CONCLUSION: The above results suggest that DETECT is desirable for testing unidimensionality of high-stakes tests with more than 100 items. According to the Rasch model, the Korean Medical Licensing Examination fulfills the goodness-of-fitness to be analyzed according to the item response theory.
Licensure* ; Netherlands

No abstract available.
Netherlands* ; Salpingectomy*

No abstract available.
Humanities* ; Humans ; Netherlands

No abstract available.
Humans ; Students, Medical* ; Netherlands

BACKGROUND: In Korea, the problem of physician workforce imbalances has been a debated issue for a long time. This study aimed to draw key lessons and policy implications to Korea by analyzing projection models of physician demand/supply among five countries. METHODS: We adopted theoretical framework and analyzed detail indicators used in projection models of demand/supply comparatively among countries. A systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar with key search terms and it was complimented with hand searching of grey literature in Korean or English. RESULTS: As a results, Korea has been used a supply-based traditional approach without taking various variables or environmental factors influencing on demand/supply into consideration. The projection models of USA and Netherlands which considered the diversity of variables and political issues is the most closest integrated approach. Based on the consensus of stakeholder, the evolved integrated forecasting approach which best suits our nation is needed to minimize a wasteful debate related to physician demand/supply. Also it is necessary to establish the national level statistics indices and database about physician workforce. In addition, physician workforce planning will be discussed periodically. CONCLUSION: We expect that this study will pave the way to seek reasonable and developmental strategies of physician workforce planning.
Consensus ; Forecasting ; Hand ; Korea ; Netherlands

No abstract available.
Caribbean Region* ; Learning* ; Schools, Medical* ; Netherlands

No abstract available.
Caribbean Region* ; Curriculum* ; Schools, Medical* ; Netherlands

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

Although nutritional assessment tools have been available internationally, local data for their use in foreseeing adverse outcomes among admitted patients are currently unavailable. The primary objective of this study was to determine the association of nutritional status using Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ) and malnutrition risk using the MST (Malnutrition Screening Tool) with ICU admission and in-hospital mortality.

This was a prospective-cohort study which included 122 purposively-selected adult participants who were non-intubated, admitted for medical and surgical managements, stayed for at least 24 hours, had no COVID-19 infection, and were not admitted in any critical care unit. The SNAQ and MST questionnaires, which are validated tools and consists of  two to three easy-to-answer questions, were used among the participants and their scores were tallied in order to get their nutritional status and malnutrition risk. Primary endpoints measured were length of hospital stay, incidence of mortality, and ICU admission rate. Comorbidities were taken into account using the Charlson Comorbidity Index.

Categorizing the SNAQ scores showed 33.61% were severely malnourished which was similar when using the MST classification, wherein 34.43% were at risk of malnutrition. None of the participants were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Malnutrition risk and nutritional status was not significantly associated with 30-day in-hospital mortality (p >0.05). On the other hand, results of the Cox proportional hazards showed that SNAQ and MST significantly predicted the hazard of 30-day in-hospital mortality, increasing the hazard of mortality by 2.58 times and 3.67 times, respectively, for every 1-unit increase in SNAQ and MST scores. Similarly, nutritional status using the SNAQ classification indicated the severely malnourished category significantly predicted the hazard of mortality, increasing it by 9.22 times for those who are severely malnourished. Also, malnutrition risk using the MST classification indicated that those who were at risk of malnutrition were 9.80 times at greater hazard of mortality than those who were not at risk of malnutrition.

The MST and SNAQ classification are screening tools for nutritional status (SNAQ) and malnutrition risk (MST) that can be administered at the onset of the patient’s hospital course and have been demonstrated in this study to predict 30-day in-hospital mortality. It is important to note that none of the patients included in this study required intensive care unit admission.

OBJECTIVES: Health informatics programs usually are evaluated by national accreditation committees. Not always are the members of these committees well informed about the international level of (education in) health informatics. Therefore, when a program is accredited by a national accreditation committee, this does not always mean that the program is of an international level. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has expertise in the field of education. The IMIA Recommendations on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics guide curricula development. The goal of this article is to show that IMIA can also play the role of accreditation agency and to present the IMIA accreditation protocol and experiences obtained with it. METHODS: The accreditation procedure used in the Netherlands and Belgium was taken as a template for the design of the IMIA accreditation protocol. In a trial period of one and a half year the protocol is tested out on six health informatics programs. RESULTS: An accreditation protocol was designed. For judging the curriculum of a program the IMIA Recommendations are used. The institution has to write a self-assessment report and a site visit committee visits the program and judges its quality, supported by the self-assessment report and discussions with all stakeholders of the program. CONCLUSIONS: After having visited three programs it appears that the IMIA accreditation procedure works well. Only a few changes had to be introduced. Writing the self-assessment report already appears to be beneficial for the management of the program to obtain a better insight in the quality of their program.
Accreditation ; Belgium ; Curriculum ; Informatics ; Medical Informatics ; Netherlands ; Self-Assessment ; Writing

PURPOSE: The patient's perspective in the assessment of quality of care has become increasingly important. The purpose of this paper was to introduce the concept of 'QUality Of care Through patient's Eyes (QUOTE)', to analyze the papers using QUOTE through an integrative review method, and to present the attributes of the QUOTE evaluation. METHODS: Data were collected from electronic databases. Inclusion criteria were publication in English from 1997 to 2013, as a peer-reviewed research article, with an empirical study focused on QUOTE. Thirty two papers met the criteria and were analyzed. RESULTS: QUOTE had been applied to various groups of patients such as those with various diseases since 1997 in the Netherlands. Four themes were retrieved from synthetic analysis of the thirty-two papers using QUOTE; 1) acceptance of individuation of the patient and family, 2) evaluation of diverse nurses' competencies, 3) evaluation of quality of nursing environments, and 4) participation of patient in the whole process of evaluation. CONCLUSION: The strengths of QUOTE are that it attempts to overcome the conceptual and methodological problems associated with evaluation of quality of care. Our results imply that QUOTE evaluation could be an effective strategy to improve care of patients in clinical setting.
Humans ; Individuation ; Netherlands ; Nursing ; Publications ; Quality of Health Care