Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) serve as a critical instrument bridging competency frameworks and clinical practice, and have garnered widespread attention in medical education both domestically and internationally. This article systematically reviews the origin, theoretical framework, and operational mechanisms of EPAs, summarizes their current application status and developmental trajectory in medical education across China and other countries, and provides an in-depth analysis of the core challenges confronting the localization of EPAs in China, including insufficient multi-center validation, lack of unified evaluation standards, poor articulation across training stages, and incomplete implementation conditions. On this basis, and in consideration of China′s medical education policy environment and practical needs, this article proposes strategic pathways for future localization efforts, with the aim of providing a reference for further research and practical promotion of EPAs in China.

Clinical reasoning is a core competency in the cultivation of competent medical professionals, requiring practitioners to integrate professional knowledge, clinical experience, and individual patient variability to make sound judgments and therapeutic decisions under conditions of incomplete information, uncertain evidence, and multiple treatment options. Traditional assessment modalities—including written examinations, case analyses, and the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)—can effectively evaluate learners′ theoretical knowledge and fundamental clinical skills, yet they have limited capacity to capture the dynamic reasoning processes deployed in complex clinical scenarios. The script concordance test (SCT) offers a novel approach to address this gap. Grounded in script theory, the SCT presents typical clinical situations with inherent uncertainty, examining learners′ abilities to interpret new information and their adjustments in diagnostic hypotheses, test selection, and treatment decisions. Responses are scored by comparison with a reference panel of experts using a weighted scoring system, thereby assessing the degree of concordance between the learner′s clinical reasoning and expert patterns. The SCT authentically mirrors real-world clinical decision-making logic, is applicable across various specialties and training stages, and demonstrates particular strength in formative assessment by facilitating early identification of learners′ thinking patterns and potential deficiencies in information analysis, hypothesis revision, and risk-benefit balancing. At present, the application of SCT in Chinese clinical medical education remains in its preliminary stages. Future efforts should focus on developing standardized SCT item banks and feedback mechanisms tailored to the domestic educational context, and incorporating artificial intelligence-assisted technologies to enhance instructional feedback, thereby improving the effectiveness of clinical reasoning training and the overall quality of medical education.

Interprofessional education (IPE) refers to students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration, enhance medical quality, and improve health outcomes. IPE is considered as a crucial educational model in contemporary clinical medical education. Taking the current state of IPE at renowned medical schools in China as an example, this article compares and summarizes the practice modes and achievements of IPE, such as improvement in team collaboration, role recognition, and communication skills, in well-known medical colleges in China and worldwide. From the aspects of policy support, teacher training, and student needs, this article also elucidates the driving forces and challenges faced by IPE development in China at the present stage. As an important topic in medical education in China, IPE should critically draw on advanced international experiences while considering the specific conditions of China to develop targeted courses, in order to provide robust support and drive the high-quality development of clinical medical education in China.

BACKGROUND: Disease-modifying therapies have been approved for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). The present study aims to examine the safety of teriflunomide in Chinese patients with RMS. METHODS: This non-randomized, multi-center, 24-week, prospective study enrolled RMS patients with variant (c.421C>A) or wild type ABCG2 who received once-daily oral teriflunomide 14 mg. The primary endpoint was the relationship between ABCG2 polymorphisms and teriflunomide exposure over 24 weeks. Safety was assessed over the 24-week treatment with teriflunomide. RESULTS: Eighty-two patients were assigned to variant ( n  = 42) and wild type groups ( n  = 40), respectively. Geometric mean and geometric standard deviation (SD) of pre-dose concentration (variant, 54.9 [38.0] μg/mL; wild type, 49.1 [32.0] μg/mL) and area under plasma concentration-time curve over a dosing interval (AUC tau ) (variant, 1731.3 [769.0] μg∙h/mL; wild type, 1564.5 [1053.0] μg∙h/mL) values at steady state were approximately similar between the two groups. Safety profile was similar and well tolerated across variant and wild type groups in terms of rates of treatment emergent adverse events (TEAE), treatment-related TEAE, grade ≥3 TEAE, and serious adverse events (AEs). No new specific safety concerns or deaths were reported in the study. CONCLUSION: ABCG2 polymorphisms did not affect the steady-state exposure of teriflunomide, suggesting a similar efficacy and safety profile between variant and wild type RMS patients. REGISTRATION NCT04410965, https://clinicaltrials.gov .
Humans ; Crotonates/adverse effects* ; Toluidines/adverse effects* ; Nitriles ; Hydroxybutyrates ; Female ; Male ; Adult ; ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily G, Member 2/genetics* ; Middle Aged ; Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting/genetics* ; Prospective Studies ; Young Adult ; Neoplasm Proteins/genetics* ; East Asian People

Interprofessional education (IPE) refers to students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration, enhance medical quality, and improve health outcomes. IPE is considered as a crucial educational model in contemporary clinical medical education. Taking the current state of IPE at renowned medical schools in China as an example, this article compares and summarizes the practice modes and achievements of IPE, such as improvement in team collaboration, role recognition, and communication skills, in well-known medical colleges in China and worldwide. From the aspects of policy support, teacher training, and student needs, this article also elucidates the driving forces and challenges faced by IPE development in China at the present stage. As an important topic in medical education in China, IPE should critically draw on advanced international experiences while considering the specific conditions of China to develop targeted courses, in order to provide robust support and drive the high-quality development of clinical medical education in China.

Objective:To screen lipid biomarker in sepsis patients with different survival outcome based on ultra high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry(UHPLC-MS/MS) technique.Methods:From September 2019 to April 2020, 30 septic patients admitted in Department of Intensive Care Unit and 30 cases of physical examination at the same time in Shanxi Bethune Hospital were studied. Lipid metabolite in serum were detected by UHPLC-MS/MS technique. According to the 28 day survival outcome of sepsis patients, they were divided into survival group (21 cases) and death group (9 cases). The baseline data of case group and control group, survival group and death group were compared respectively. Independent sample t-test and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were further performed to identify lipid biomarkers related to sepsis survival outcome. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to evaluate the predictive efficacy of differential lipids on the survival outcome of biomarker sepsis patients. Results:There were 32 lipid subclasses and 1 437 differential lipid molecules in the sepsis group compared with the control group. 196 differential lipid molecules in the sepsis survival group and the death group were screened according to the OPLS-DA model (variable weight of projection (VIP)>1), which were glycerophosphingolipids (129), sphingolipids (52), glycerides (14), and sterols (1).All the original data were statistically analyzed by univariate independent sample t-test. There were statistically significant differences in 15 lipid molecules between the two groups. Combined with VIP > 1 and P < 0.01, three lipid molecules were finally screened, which were sphingomyelin (SM) lipid molecules, SM (d30∶1), SM (d32∶2), SM (d32∶1). ROC curve analysis showed that the areas under curves of the above three lipid molecular were 0.915, 0.892, 0.898, respectively. The sensitivity was 77.27%, 95.45%,72.73%. The specificity was 100.0%, 87.5%,100.0%. Further Z-test showed that there was no significant difference in the area under the ROC curve ( Z(SM (d30∶1) and SM (d32∶1)) =0.36, P=0.722; Z(SM (d30∶1) and SM (d32∶2))=0.34, P=0.732; Z(SM (d32∶1) and SM (d32∶1))=0.07, P=0.942). Conclusions:Sphingomyelin may be involved in the formation of different clinical outcomes of sepsis, and has a good predictive effect on the survival outcome of sepsis.

Objective:To explore the value of multi-parametric MRI for thyroid gland in differentiating benign and malignant thyroid nodules.Methods:From December 2018 to May 2020, 78 patients with 91 post-surgically pathologically confirmed thyroid nodules were enrolled in Cancer Hospital & Shenzhen Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. For each patient, the following MRI findings were obtained including the nodules′ location, size, shape, margin, signal intensity, cystic change, degree and pattern of contrast enhancement, involvement of surrounding structure, and ADC values. The time-intensity curve (TIC) were plotted and subtyped based on dynamic contrast enhancement MRI. The MRI findings between the benign and malignant thyroid nodules were compared using Mann-Whitney U test, χ 2 test or Fisher exact test. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to select independent predictive variables and build a combined model, and the ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of each MRI finding and the combined model. Results:Between the benign and malignant thyroid nodules, the significant differences were found in size, shape, margin, presence of cystic changes, T 1WI signal intensity, ADC value, enhancement homogeneity, TIC subtypes and presence of thyroid capsule involvement ( P<0.05). Multivariate logistic analysis showed that ill-defined margin (OR=77.61), no presence of cystic changes (OR=36.11) and difference between TIC subtypes (OR=83.41) were independent predictive variables, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.879, 0.788, and 0.751, respectively. The AUC, sensitivity and specificity of the combined model were 0.977, 0.986, and 0.904, respectively. Conclusions:Thyroid multi-parametric MRI derived findings can be used for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant nodules. Combined with the independent risk factors with ill-defined margin, no presence of cystic changes, TIC of type plateau or washout, the diagnostic model has a higher diagnostic efficiency.

Objective To investigate nurses' scientific research competency and training demand in Chinese tertiary hospital.Methods It was a multi-stage large-scale survey.A total of 27 335 nurses from 22 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities were recruited to complete the self-designed questionnaire,including demographic data(7 items),scientific research competency(objective index of 4 items,and subjective index of 6 subscales with 40 items),and training demand evaluation(6 subscales with 16 items).Results There were 1 130(4.14％) nurses who had managed or were managing the research projects as principal investigators(PIs),2 147(7.85％)nurses who had attended or were attending research programs,1 463(5.35％) nurses had published papers,and 557(2.04％) nurses obtained patents.The self-evaluated competency score was 25.00 (12.50,37.50)(rangedfrom 0 to 100)and training demand score was 53.13(37.50,75.00)(ranged from 0 to 100).Conclusion The nurses' scientific research competency should be improved and they had strong training demands.In order to improve nurses' research competency and quality,nursing administrators should pay more attention to post-graduate training focusing on research competency.

Objective To explore a new method which could detect the misplacement of peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC).Methods The action of coughing was applied to 252 patients and observing the changes in dripping speed.Results The accuracy rate of this new method was 100.00％ (252/252).The success rate of first PICC in these patients was also 100.00％ (252/252).Conclusions It suggests that the new method Should be effective and convenient in the assessment of PICC misplacement and it can be applied to detect the misplacement occurred in and after the process of PICC.

Objective To investigate DNA methylation markers in the whole blood of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE),in hope to facilitate the evaluation of SLE severity.Methods Whole blood samples were obtained from 58 patients with SLE(including 14 cases of severe SLE,25 moderate SLE,19 inactive SLE)and 50 healthy controls.Bisulphite sequencing was performed to determine the methylation status of interleukin-2 common receptor gamma chain(IL-2RG)promoter region,and real-time reverse transcriptionPCR to quantify the expression level of IL-2RG mRNA,in these subjects.Results The methylation level of IL2RG promoter region was 0.217 ± 0.140,0.325 ± 0.230,0.342 ± 0.085 and 0.175 ± 0.036 in the patients withsevere,moderate and inactive SLE and healthy controls,respectively.A significant increase was observed in the methylation level of IL-2RG promoter region in the patients with inactive SLE compared with the patients with severe SLE and healthy controls(both P ＜ 0.01),and in the patients with SLE compared with the healthy controls(0.263 ± 0.047 vs.0.175 ± 0.036,P ＜ 0.05).The expression level of IL-2RG mRNA was significantly lower in the patients with SLE than in the healthy controls(2.550 ± 0.823 vs.4.293 ± 1.283,P ＜ 0.05).A negative correlation was observed between the expression level of IL-2RG mRNA and methylation level of IL2RG promoter region in 20 patients with SLE(r =-0.44,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The methylation status of IL2RG promoter region is statistically higher in patients with SLE than in healthy controls,and significantly different between patients with active SLE and those with stable SLE.