Second-year Fellows Research Articles

The use of videotaped lectures in surgical oncology fellowship education.

A video library of surgical oncology topics was initiated in 1991 as an educational forum for fellows in a surgical oncology training program. First-year and second-year fellows presented formal medical lectures on specific surgical oncology topics that were based on a comprehensive literature review. An abstract of the discussion, a list of references, and a copy of the presented slides were submitted at the time of presentation of each lecture. The lectures were videotaped in front of an audience made up of faculty and fellows of the Department of Surgical Oncology, The videotapes were subsequently edited to incorporate the presented slides, and these versions were shown separately to allow critique of presentation style and content by the faculty and the fellows within the Department. Nineteen videotaped presentations from academic years 1991-1992 and 1992-1993 were evaluated. These videotaped lectures are an informational resource, and, of equal importance, they provide an assessible record for self-analysis of lecturing technique and effectiveness.

Cordocentesis (Funipuncture) by Maternal-Fetal Fellows: The Learning Curve

One hundred cordocenteses were attempted at the University of Mississippi Medical Center between July 1, 1989, and June 1, 1991. There were 1.3 attempts for each successful umbilical blood sampling. The overall success rate was 94%. The first-year fellows-in-training attempted 61 procedures with a 90.2% success rate within two attempts and an overall success rate of 95.1%. Second-year fellows attempted 32 procedures with a 93.8% success rate within two attempts and an overall success rate of 93.8%. Procedure-related complications included five episodes of fetal bradycardia (one resulting in a stillbirth at 20 weeks) and a single case of chorioamnionitis. Of the three perinatal deaths, two were associated with severe congenital anomalies resulting in a corrected procedure-related mortality rate of 1%. The morbidity and mortality associated with cordocentesis appears to be relatively low and fellows-in-training can perform such procedures with no apparent increase in complications if appropriately supervised.

Studies of Adolescents Indicate Just How Complex the Situation Is for This Age Group

NOT SURPRISINGLY, participants at the Society for Adolescent Medicine's recent meeting often discussed drug abuse and sexual behaviors and diseases. In the keynote address, Robert Haggarty, MD, president of the William T. Grant Foundation, New York, NY, said there appears to be growing evidence that much of what is labeled problem behavior among young people—teen pregnancies, school dropouts, delinquency, and drug abuse—is related to economic difficulties and a resultant pessimistic view of the future. Some other studies presented at the meeting suggest: Peer pressure may be overrated, according to Seth Ammerman, MD, a second-year fellow in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Ammerman surveyed 163 adolescents at an urban high school, asking about their motivations for engaging in high-risk behavior, such as drug taking, drinking, smoking, and sex. What is most important, Ammerman says, is that only the abstainers (who usually cited health reasons)