In the areas of home medical care and self-medication, the role of the pharmacist is growing, partly as a result of Japan’s aging society and the need to reduce medical costs. In response, the Kinki University Faculty of Pharmacy implemented a physical assessment practical training seminar in order to improve the physical assessment skills of practicing pharmacists. A series of questionnaires were conducted among pharmacists to investigate their perceptions of physical assessment practical training seminars. The results of the questionnaires were analyzed using Customer Satisfaction (CS) analysis and text mining. Based on a 5-point scale (1-low∼5-high), questionnaires revealed satisfaction for physical assessment practical training seminars was 4.6±0.6 (Ave.±S.D.). CS analysis revealed that the items “lectures” and “case seminars” had the highest level of satisfaction. However, items showing low levels of satisfaction were “auscultation of respiratory sounds” and “SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation).” Results of text mining suggested a relationship between “physical assessment” and “difficult”. Analysis of the questionnaires showed a high level satisfaction with physical assessment practical training seminars, notably physical assessment practice methods. However, CS analysis and text mining indicate the finer techniques of physical assessment were difficult to acquire.

  We analyzed the career options of students who had graduated from Kyoto University School of Medicine from 2002 through 2009. The percentage of graduates who chose to train as junior residents in the Kyoto University Hospital group, including Kyoto University Hospital and its related hospitals, did not differ between before and after the new clinical training system was enforced; however, after the start of the new system, the percentage of graduates choosing to train at Kyoto University Hospital significantly decreased, and the career options of graduates at hospitals related to the Kyoto University Hospital became diversified. An analysis of physicians who had trained at the Kyoto University Hospital group as junior residents from 2004 through 2008 showed no significant difference in the percentage of senior residents at the Kyoto University Hospital or its related hospitals who had graduated from Kyoto University or any other universities.

In the medical interview portion of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), we usually use both detailed checklists and a global rating scale to evaluate a student's performance. In the present study we investigated a problem with the detailed checklists.
1) The quality of the assessment of information-gathering capability was investigated in a station for the medical interview in a pharmaceutical OSCE.
2)A video review revealed a 7% error in the detailed checklist assessment at the OSCE station.
3) Following the interview in this study, the students wrote down the information they had gathered. These results differed by 15.6% from those of the detailed checklist assessment at the OSCE station.
4) In the present style of OSCE, the detailed checklist assessment at the OSCE station is problematic. The style in which the students write down the gathered information after the interview might be re-considered.

Clinical clerkships have been gradually introduced in medical schools in Japan. Because all students do not rotate through the same departments, the satisfaction of medical students differs among the departments, although the underlying reasons for such differences are unclear. To investigate the factors associated with student satisfaction with clinical clerkships, we performed a questionnaire survey.1) Questionnaires were distributed to 99 fifth-year medical students at Kyoto University Medical School. The questionnaire consisted of Likert-type 5-level scales of satisfaction, clinical clerkship assignments, and the attitudes of clerkship supervisors and other attending staff. Eighty-nine students responded.2) The independent factors for students' satisfaction were the attitude of attending staff (beta coefficient, 0.34), the attitude of the clerkship supervisor (0.30), and the frequency of physical examinations (0.09).3) Twenty-two of the 34 students who expressed the lowest level of satisfaction (level 1) reported that "the attending staff rarely had contact with students."4) Factors not associated with satisfaction were: whether the rotation was in internal medicine or surgery; whether the rotation was in a community hospital or a university hospital, and the department.5) These results suggest that medical students are satisfied with a clerkship if they perform frequent physical examinations and if the attending staff have an enthusiastic attitude.

Topic of the conference was evaluation of attitude and competence of candidates on the entrance examination, and concrete procedures of interview, essay test and so on and notes for assessing process were discussed.Further improvement in the method of interview and essay test and the standardization of their assessment and clarification of the validity of these tools by accumulation of their follow-up data were important.

Qualitative research has gained greater attention in medical research, but it might seem to be unscientific because qualitative and quantitative research methods are grounded in different paradigm.
In this article, we introduce three major qualitative research methods frequently used in studies of patient-doctor communications: 1) in-depth interviews; 2) focus group interviews and, 3) semi-structured interviews.
Each qualitative research method has different or common advantages and disadvantages, and which methods should be used depends on the study objectives. Qualitative research and quantitative research are complementary: while quantitative research explains the prevalence or variation of an issue, qualitative research explains the reasons or processes of that prevalence or variation. Combination of the two methods enables the gathering of more comprehensive and explanatory results.

1) Common training for the introduction of research and the elective and individual guidance for research should be devised in a manner attractive to graduate students of medicine.
2) To train researchers, a graduate school of clinical medicine should be established as a professional school, separate from an ordinary graduate school.
3) To promote basic medical sciences, the capacity of graduate schools of basic medical sciences should be reduced despite the number of teachers and the bold plan for the financial support of students.

1) We compiled lists of accredited training hospitals for postgraduate education from the matching program list and of hospitals that employ board-certified specialists in emergency medicine.We then evaluated the number of training hospitals that employ board-certified specialists.
2) There are 1072 accredited hospitals for postgraduate education. However, only 546 (50.8%) of these hospitals employ board-certified specialists in emergency medicine.
3) Accredited training hospitals with emergency-medicine specialists are prevalent in Okinawa, Tokushima, and Kagawa prefectures.However, the prevalence of these hospitals is surprisingly low in metropolitan areas.

The interval between undergraduate medical education and graduate medical education causes residents to become disorganized when they start their first-year residency programs.This disorganized transition may be stressful for residents and preceptors and may cause resident to make medical errors.We performed a pilot study to examine the degree to which program directors agree about the abilities required for the start of the first of year residency.
1) We asked the residency directors at university hospitals and residency hospitals nationwide (343 institutions) to indicate what abilities residents were expected to have at various stages of the residency program.The data received were then analyzed.
2) A total of 134 residency directors (39%) returned the questionnaire.We calculated the percentage (expectation rate) of institutions that reported expected prerequisites at the start of the first year of residency and calculated the accumulated values (cumulative rate) of the percentages.
3) Only 43 (30%) of 141 abilities upon the completion of residency-preparatory programs had a cumulative rate of more than 50%.
4) Domains for which the expectation rate was more than 50% at the start of residency were medicine and related knowledge and practical skills for obtaining physical measurements.
5) Physical examination and practical skills for which the cumulative rate was less than 50% on completion of residency-preparatory programs were those for the reproductive and urinary systems and pediatrics and the insertion and maintenance of intravenous lines and indwelling urinary catheters.
6) Disparities are likely between the abilities of residents and the tasks expected of them upon entry into a residency program.This problem must be urgently addressed through medical education and graduate medical education.

Departments of general medicine in medical schools have a mission to innovate in clinical education. However, the kind of work departments should do to promote a newly developed method of clinical education is unclear. In our medical school, the department of general medicine was organized in 1997. In that year, the first task of this department was to strengthen a program of physical-diagnosis skills. Since 1999, this program has developed further and been reorganized. The basic clinical skills course has been organized to include communication, physical diagnosis, basic laboratory examination, and basic surgical skills. In this course students do not rotate through clinics in groups but learn together via a systematic program with simulators. The department of general medicine played a central role in establishing this course. This course led to the introduction of clinical clerkships at our medical school.