This is the report of the 1st Workshop on Basic Clinical Competence Education held on November 22-24, 1996, in Tokyo. Twenty eight medical teachers from 28 medical schools in Japan participated in the workshop. The many aspects of clinical skills education were discussed ; Goals, teaching strategy and evaluation of clinical skills, Teaching methods of medical interviewing and physical examination, Training methods of standardized patients, and Organizing OSCE. Post-workshop questionnaire revealed a great satisfaction among participants. Many participants expressed the need to have this kind of workshop on a regular basis.

The Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences has introduced an integrated education management system to improve the quality of education. The management system was implemented by the Academic Affairs Committee and is run by the newly-created Kyouiku Suishin Shitsu (Educational Development Services). The management system evaluated past curricula and coordinated the introduction of new courses and integrated curricula designed to stimulate selflearning by students. The management system also integrated the student evaluation system and simultaneously coordinated faculty development workshops for all university staff to improve teaching skills. Several questionnaires showed that the new curricula met students' learning needs and provided a more objective evaluation system. The integrated education management system functions as a positive component in the improvement of the education system for students of allied health professions.

BACKGROUND: The existence of a gap between research evidence and clinical practice has been described recently. Several drugs are effective in preventing secondary events after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but it is not certain whether this evidence is employed in daily practice. We investigated the drugs currently employed for patients with a history of AMI in Japan.
METHODS: Medical records of patients who developed AMI during the calendar year of 1999 were retrospectively identified at three teaching hospitals in Japan. We collected data on drugs prescribed at three time points (upon admission for AMI, at the time of discharge, and one year after discharge) for each patient.
RESULTS: Data were available for 149 patients with AM!. Drugs prescribed at the time of discharge were aspirin (77.5%), nitrates (68.3%), and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (52.8%) . β-blockers were prescribed for only 12.0% of patients. The drugs used one year after discharge were to a large extent similar to those at the time of discharge. There were no significant correlations between the use of these drugs and comorbidity.
CONCLUSION: Despite established evidence that β-blockers offer benefits to patients with a history of AMI, they have not been prescribed frequently, for reasons that remain unclear. To improve the quality of clinical care, further systematic effort is needed to bridge this evidence to practice gap.

Our aim was to study the scan protocol of 16 DAS (Data Acquisition System) multidetector-row CT (MDCT) and to ascertain whether we could reduce radiation exposure and scanning time, while maintaing image quality in the Virtual endoscopy (VE).We made a mimic gastrointestinal tract and examined the result by changing a scan protocol of 16 DAS MDCT.We found that a reduction of radiation exposure and scanning time depended on slice width, angle of the table, rotation time, table speed, mAs/slice and resolution.The study confirmed that it was possible to use the scan protocol of MDCT with a radiographic dose of 40% and scanning time of 50%, without changing image quality in the VE.
Radiation ; amsonic acid ; Protocols documentation ; Endoscopy ; Accident due to exposure to weather conditions