Text Answers Research Articles

Transcribing and translating forensic speech evidence containing foreign languages—An Australian perspective

There is a growing body of literature on forensic transcription of covert recordings obtained by clandestine law enforcement operations. Due to the nature of these operations, the quality of the recordings, particularly those obtained by planting listening devices in a car or a house, is often extremely poor. When tendering such recordings as evidence in court for prosecuting an alleged crime, a transcript will often accompany the recording to assist the triers of fact (i.e., judges and jurors) to hear better. In the context of multilingual and multicultural Australia, often such forensic recordings may contain languages other than English, and therefore a translation into English is required to facilitate understanding of the verbal exchanges in the recording. Little is known, however, about the people engaged by law enforcement to undertake these forensic translation tasks, what qualification and training they possess, how they carry out the tasks, and if there is a system to safeguard the quality and reliability of their translation output. This paper reports on an online survey conducted in Australia on professional interpreters and translators who have been engaged to perform this type of work. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of text answers provide a qualitative account of the status quo which has not been documented before. Deficiencies of the current practice and its associated risks are identified. Recommendations are proposed as the first step to address the issues identified.

USING STRUCTURED LIGHT SCANNING TECHNOLOGY TO PRODUCE INTERACTIVE ORTHOPAEDIC ANATOMY INSTRUCTION TOOLS

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a pivot to online learning for many traditional, hands-on subjects such as anatomy. This, coupled with the increase in online education programmes, and the reduction of time students spend in anatomy dissection rooms, has highlighted a real need for innovative and accessible learning tools. This study describes the development of a novel 3-dimensional (3D), interactive anatomy teaching tool using structured light scanning (SLS) technology. This technique allows the 3D shape and texture of an object to be captured and displayed online, where it can be viewed and manipulated in real-time.Human bones of the upper limb, vertebrae and whole skulls were digitised using SLS using Einscan Pro2X/H scanners. The resulting meshes were then post-processed to add the captured textures and to remove any extraneous information. The final models were uploaded into Sketchfab where they were orientated, lit and annotated. To gather opinion on these models as effective teaching tools, surveys were completed by anatomy students (n=35) and anatomy educators (n=8). Data was collected using a Likert scale response, as well as free text answers to gather qualitative information.3D scans of the scapula, humerus, radius, ulna, vertebrae and skull were successfully produced by SLS. Interactive models were produced via scan data in Sketchfab and successfully annotated to provide labelled 3D models for examination. 94% of survey respondents agreed that the interactive models were easy to use (n=35, 31% agree and 63% strongly agree) and 97% agreed that the 3D interactive models were more useful than 2D images for learning bony anatomy (n=35; 26% agree and 71% strongly agree).This initial study has demonstrated a suitable proof-of-concept for SLS technology as a useful technique for producing 3D interactive online tools for learning and teaching bony anatomy. Current studies are focussed on determining the SLS accuracy and the ability of SLS to capture soft tissue/joints. We believe that this tool will be a useful technique for generating online 3D interactive models to study orthopaedic anatomy.

Chemotherapy-induced polyneuropathy in cancer care—the patient perspective

PurposeChemotherapy-related polyneuropathy (CIPN) is a very common, often dose-limiting side effect that affects the patients’ quality of life. Treatment usually consists of a combination of medicinal, medical, and individualized treatment approaches, although the effectiveness of these therapies is insufficient for many patients. The aim of this article is to review and evaluate the impact of CIPN on patients’ daily lives and possible effective treatment approaches.MethodsA standardized questionnaire was developed based on ten anonymous telephone interviews with CIPN patients. The content of the questionnaire was divided into 5 categories: demographics, clinical presentation, everyday symptoms, treatment of CIPN symptoms, and medical care. Mostly closed questions were used but multiple choice and individual additions by free text answers were possible.ResultsCIPN limits patients’ quality of life over a long period of time. In addition to diurnal and situational fluctuations, the emotional burden negatively affects patients’ daily lives in many ways. From the patients’ point of view, the individually implemented therapy measures were most effective in treating their complaints. But even the combination of different therapy methods insufficiently alleviates the symptoms of the patients.ConclusionIt is important and necessary to comprehensively inform patients about CIPN as a possible side effect, to point out prevention strategies, and to critically examine and evaluate different therapy approaches. In this way, misunderstandings of the doctor-patient relationship can be avoided. In addition, patient satisfaction and quality of life can be increased in the long term.

Women’s experiences with using patient-reported outcome and experience measures in routine perinatal care in the Netherlands: a mixed-methods study

ObjectivesTo gain insight into the experiences of women with completing and discussing patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) and patient-reported experience measures (PREM), and tailoring their care based on their outcomes.DesignA mixed-methods...

Why We Should Look at Dinner Plates: Diet Changes in Cancer Patients

Malnutrition is often underestimated in the context of cancer therapy: the dietary trends initiated by patients after diagnosis are usually neither known to nor evaluated by the medical staff. Here, we propose a combined screening instrument evaluating malnutrition and dietary trends. The validated screening tool NRS-2002 was combined with a four-item questionnaire assessing whether (1) patients preferred certain foods, (2) avoided certain foods, (3) used dietary supplements or followed a special diet since the time of cancer diagnosis. The screening tool was routinely used by cancer patients in the daily practice of three oncological departments. The presented analysis was performed retrospectively and anonymized. Overall, 102 cancer patients undergoing systemic therapy (CP), 97 undergoing radiation therapy (RP), and 36 head-neck cancer patients (HNP) were screened. The CP cohort showed a higher rate of malnutrition (50.00%) than the HNP (28.13%) or RP (26.80%) cohort. Overall, diet changes were observed in 33.63% of all patients. Avoiding meat, stimulants, or hard and edgy food was often mentioned in free text answers, while patients reported a preference for fruit and vegetables. Nutritional supplements were used by 28.76% of the patients. While dietary changes were common, only 6.64% of the patients mentioned adhering to a specific cancer diet. Malnutrition is still underestimated nowadays. Diet trends, especially avoiding certain foods, are common in cancer patients, while adhering to a specific cancer diet is an exception. Diet trends should be assessed and addressed to avoid or aggravate malnutrition.

Leveraging Semantic Facets for Automatic Assessment of Short Free Text Answers

Free text answers to short questions can reflect students' mastery of concepts and their relationships relevant to learning objectives. However, automating the assessment of free text answers has been challenging due to the complexity of natural language. Existing studies often predict the scores of free text answers in a “black box” manner without analyzing their semantic components, which at least partially limit the prediction performance. In this article, we focus on fine-grained semantic facets in free text answers that correspond to knowledge to be mastered. Using a dataset with semantic facet annotation, we first show the correspondence of semantic facet matching states and answer quality, as well as the importance of semantic facets in automatic assessment of answer quality. We then extend the work to a dataset without semantic facet annotation and demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed automated methods in assessing answer quality, including semantic facet extraction, matching state prediction based on a neural framework, and feature engineering with semantic facets. The contribution of this research is twofold: 1) the proposed methods improve state-of-the-art performance of automatic assessment of free text answers and 2) it delves into fine-grained semantic components of free text answers, making it possible to explain the scores and generate detailed feedback.

N24 At Home Calprotectin a United Kingdom Patient Perspectives and Tertiary Center Experience

Abstract Background Home faecal calprotectin tests (HFCT) have been available for some years with slow uptake to use in the UK. During the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic use increased as it allowed a measure of disease activity when lab testing in some areas ceased. In a United Kingdom tertiary referral IBD unit, CalproSmart was introduced in 2020. We analysed completion rates of HFCT and the barriers and enablers patients experienced in its use. Methods Data from the CalproSmart portal was analysed. Total patients registered was compared against the number that had completed a test. Age, sex and return rates per annum as well as local or out of area patients were included. All patients who enrolled to receive a HFCT were sent an anonymous online questionnaire using MS Forms. Descriptive statistics were used to analysis the results with a thematic analysis of free form text answers. Results A total of N=304 patients were enrolled on the CalproSmart portal over a three-year period from October 2020 until July 2021. HFCT was completed by 118 (39%) of these patients. Completion was highest in 2020 78% of patients who enrolled on the system completed a HFCT. There was a slight trend towards females being more likely to complete at 23% versus 16% of males. There was no sign of age as a determinant to completion. Of the 118 patients who completed the HFCT 84 (71%) were out of local area patients and 34 (29%) local patients. There were 54 (17%) questionnaires returned. All but 4 (7%) respondents had attempted or completed the HFCT. When asked why they wanted to try a HFCT 39 (72%) patients indicated not having to go to hospital/GP as their primary reason with getting an instant result 29 (54%) and seeing your own result 27 (50%) coming in next. 13 (24%) cited more disease control as a reason to try the test. People found the test mostly easy to use but when comparing overall happiness with the HFCT kits 9 people reported they were somewhat unhappy or unhappy. People were either happy or unhappy with the HFC test usability is a theme that is generated as a barrier and a facilitator for some (see figure 1). When asked which they would prefer to do in future CalproSmart at home or bring your sample to either your GP or hospital n=45 (83%) preferred HFCT. Figure 1 Q 12 Overall how happy were you with CalproSmart home calprotectin kit? Free text answer comparison Conclusion During the pandemic HFCT were popular and out of area patients were more likely to complete the kits. Despite the low return rates those that chose to complete HFCT were in most of cases happy to continue HFCT. With, attention to patient selection and enhanced training on the HFCT there is a case for the continued use in services that have altered significantly since the pandemic.

A Cross-Lingual Hybrid Neural Network With Interaction Enhancement for Grading Short-Answer Texts

Automatic Short-Answer Grading (ASAG) is an application for recognizing textual entailment in smart education. With the continuous expansion of the application scope of artificial neural networks, many deep learning models have been applied to grading short-answer texts. However, the coding structures and interaction forms of existing models are still too simple to meet the requirements of the ASAG task, resulting in low scoring accuracy. To address these challenges, we propose a cross-lingual hybrid neural network with interaction enhancement for ASAG. First, we sequentially use a convolutional neural network and bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network to encode the answer text. Then, we introduce an interaction enhancement layer consisting of reference-answer-to-student-answer and student-answer-to-reference-answer attentions, and we combine the attentions and their inputs to form enhanced representations of answer texts. Finally, we introduce two Siamese Bi-LSTM networks to fuse the enhanced representations of answer texts and combine their multiple pooled vectors for grade classification on a multi-linear prediction layer. The experimental results show that our model significantly improves the performance of various simple models for Chinese and English ASAG tasks. The code is available online at https://github.com/wuhan-1222/DL_ASAG.

Students experience the effects of climate change on children's health in role play and develop strategies for medical work - an interactive seminar.

This project report describes the development and evaluation of an interactive seminar on the topic "medical effects of climate change on children's health". The learning objectives are learning the basics and the direct and indirect connections between climate change and children's health. Future scenarios for affected children, parents and doctors are developed interactively. Subsequently, communication strategies concerning climate change are discussed so that students identify and analyze possibilities to become active. The seminar was offered as an obligatory seminar for a total of 128 third-year medical students with one appointment of 45 minutes per course group as part of the interdisciplinary seminar series "Environmental Medicine". A course group consisted of 14 to 18 students. The seminar for the 2020 summer semester was developed as part of the interdisciplinary field of environmental medicine with the special feature of an interactive role play. The role play intends to give the students the opportunity to put themselves in the situation of affected children, parents and doctors of the future in order to develop detailed solution strategies. From 2020 to 2021, the seminar took place as online self-study due to the lockdown requirements. Since winter semester 2021/22, the seminar was held as an attendance event for the first time, although the switch to an online presence seminar with obligatory attendance had to take place after four seminar dates due to renewed lockdown requirements, which also took place four times. The evaluated results here refer to a total of eight dates in the winter semester 2021/22 and were carried out using a specially developed questionnaire, which was filled out voluntarily and anonymously by the students immediately after the respective seminar date. An overall grade as well as the appropriateness of the time and content of lectures and role play were asked for. Free text answers were possible for each question. A total of 83 questionnaires were evaluated, 54 of which were from the four seminars in attendance, 15 were from the four online presence seminars that took place as an online live stream. The evaluation of the seminar resulted in an average grade of 1.7 for the face-to-face seminars and 1.9 for the online seminars. Content-related comments in the free-text answers addressed the desire for concrete solution strategies, more time for discussions and a more in-depth study of the topic. Numerous positive responses described the seminar as "very exciting", "good food for thought", "interesting and important topic". There is a very high interest on the topic of "climate change & health" among students There is an obvious need to integrate the topic on a larger scale into medical education. Ideally, the focus on children's health should be an integral part of the pediatric curriculum.

Factors promoting willingness to practice medicine in rural regions and awareness of rural regions in the university's catchment area - cross-sectional survey among medical students in central Germany.

Many universities offer rural medical internships for medical students. The present survey was designed to show how rural medical work is perceived by students, whether these perceptions are associated with origin and previous experience, and how well medical students know rural regions in the vicinity of their university. In addition, students were asked how to support and inspire medical students to later work in a rural region. This cross-sectional study was based on an anonymous online survey of medical students at the Universities of Halle-Wittenberg and Leipzig. The evaluations included descriptive statistics, statistical group comparisons, and qualitative content analysis of free text answers. A total of 882 students took part in the survey. Students who had grown up in a rural region or had lived there for a longer time (71.7% of the respondents) rated the work-life balance better (p<0.01) and the patient variety in the countryside slightly higher (p<0.05) than their fellow students from the big city. Students who had worked in a rural practice or hospital before (62.2%) rated patient diversity (p<0.001) and work variety (p<0.001), as well as workload (p<0.01), slightly higher in rural areas than students with no prior experience. On average, the specified rural model regions were still unknown to more than 60% of the students. The suggestions for attracting medical students to later work as rural physicians included financial incentives and, above all, better information about life as a rural physician and the rural regions. Thus, the medical faculties of the universities as well as the counties threatened by medical undersupply should further expand the transfer of knowledge and experience regarding rural physician life for the students.

Researching relations between hearing Sign Language interpreters and their deaf clients: Methodological considerations on empirical data collection with prelingually Deaf participants

The present paper discusses necessary adaptations in research methodology to include Deaf Sign Language users in a survey on Sign Language interpreting. Prelingually Deaf Sign Language users have, on average, lower literacy levels than their hearing counterparts. Many of them disfavour reading and writing texts and prefer to be addressed with, and communicate in Sign Language. The present paper reports on a survey among hearing Sign Language interpreters and Deaf Sign Language users that included qualitative expert interviews and a questionnaire with multiple choice as well as free text answers. In total, the questionnaire was processed by 771 participants, 325 of whom are hearing Sign Language interpreters and 446 Deaf Sign Language users. The paper reports on how the data was collected among the Deaf participants including the use of Sign Language and Sign Language oriented Easy Language Plus in order to meet their communicative preferences. The paper is a contribution to the current efforts in Accessible Communication research to adapt methodology according to the participant’s communicative needs.

HOW DO LONELY OLDER PEOPLE TALK ABOUT LONELINESS? PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE BBC LONELINESS EXPERIMENT

Abstract Three types of loneliness, social, emotional and existential, are identified in research, policy and practice. Do these categories reflect the language used by older adults to describe their experiences of loneliness? We use data from the 2018 BBC Loneliness Experiment and focus upon lonely adults aged 60 and older, living in the UK and with a maximum score of 9 on the UCLA loneliness scale. 1619 participants meet these criteria, 1480 provided a response to the question ‘’What does loneliness mean to you?" Participants ages ranged from 60-94; 90% aged 60-74 and 38% male. Free text answers ranged from 1-189 words, included both subjective (feeling alone) or objective (being alone) words and described social (no one to talk to), emotional (lack of closeness) and existential (lack of purpose) loneliness. Lonely older adults ‘talk’ about the three different types of loneliness singly or in combinations when explaining what loneliness means to them. We conclude that:- (a) existential loneliness merits more attention as it is less prominent in research compared with other types of loneliness and (b) lonely older adults describe different types of loneliness in the same answer.

PERCEIVED THREATS AND DIFFICULTIES OF MOTHERS OF YOUNG CHILDREN AFTER 9 MONTHS IN A COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The current coronavirus pandemic poses challenges to psychological well-being. Children and mothers of young children are especially vulnerable. The present qualitative study further extends and deepens the understanding of psychological response to COVID-19 pandemic of mothers of young children and their children (0-4 years of age). The aim of the present study is to outline perceived threats and difficulties 9 months after the COVID-19 outbreak in Bulgaria in a period of high infection rate and childcare closures. Using conceptual cluster analysis, the free text answers of 77 mothers were grouped into clusters and subclusters.&nbsp; Mothers of young children continue to report a wide range of perceived threats and difficulties later on in the pandemic. The most frequently perceived threats were the lockdown and social isolation of the child, the coronavirus disease itself, and the capacity of the health system. Almost half of the respondents did not perceive any difficulties. Among the other respondents the most frequently reported difficulties were the lack of social contacts, the fact that the child does not go out, childcare closures and boredom. Dynamics of experiences of the pandemic over time were examined by comparing the present results with ones from a previous study (Paunova-Markova, 2020) conducted during the first month of COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown in Bulgaria.

Understanding Hydroxyurea Utilization in Sickle Cell Disease: Exploring Patient and Provider Attitudes and Beliefs

Introduction Hydroxyurea (HU), a first line sickle cell disease (SCD) modifying drug, has a 22%-48% utilization rate, according to national estimates (Lanzkron 2006, Stettler 2015, Knisely 2020). There are numerous factors identified as barriers to adherence of hydroxyurea such as access to care (Badawy 2017). Given the high frequency of SCD inpatient admissions at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) and thus the limited opportunity for outpatient care where disease modifying therapies can be initiated, we proposed a quality improvement project to monitor HU education and usage during inpatient encounters. Methods Our project was reviewed by the UCMC Institutional Review Board and approved to meet quality improvement (QI) determination. To address the question of HU initiation in SCD during inpatient encounters, we surveyed key stakeholders including patients with SCD and providers. We identified consecutive patients with SCD who were either established with primary care or hematology at UCMC (n=197) and distributed our deidentified survey through a REDCap secure link to patients with active email accounts (n=135). We designed a provider survey eliciting knowledge, beliefs, and perspectives on HU use in SCD and distributed this through REDCap to 182 frontline providers. We analyzed the data qualitatively, identifying patterns and common themes from aggregate responses and free text answers. Results The patient survey response rate was 31% (n=42/135). Forty-five percent (n=18) of patients agreed that they missed follow up appointments due to admissions. Approximately half of patient respondents indicated they were not taking HU (n=19). Additionally, of those patients, 72% (n=14) indicated they would be willing to deal with the side effects of HU if it improved their SCD symptoms and 32% (n=6) said they would consider initiation of HU during an inpatient encounter. Patient respondents cited the benefits of HU, including improving quality of life (33%; n=13), preventing pain episodes (43%; n=17), improving mortality (18%; n=7), and helping prevent hospitalizations (36%; n=14). In terms of further education, 35% (n=14) of patient respondents indicated they would like to learn more about HU. 88% (n=35) indicated they would like to learn more about other disease modifying therapies. The provider survey response rate was 73% (n=132/182), of whom, 40% (n=52) were IM or Med/Peds residents, 28% (n=37) were medicine attendings, and 11% (n=15) were Hematology/Oncology faculty or fellows. 98% (n=129) of respondents overall agreed that HU initiation should be offered to patients with SCD during inpatient encounters and that the benefits of HU in SCD outweighed the potential harms. Providers requested tools to facilitate prescribing HU during inpatient encounters, including bundled orders ("orderset") within the EMR (55%; n=73), an option for inpatient SCD consult services (28%; n=37), education sessions and materials (45%; n=59), and a linked outpatient hematology referral system (58%; n=77). Conclusion: Results from our patient survey demonstrate an unmet need for expanding access to HU into inpatient encounters and providing access to other disease modifying therapies and potential cures. Providers would be comfortable with initiation and monitoring of HU during inpatient SCD encounters. To facilitate this, providers request additional education and process resources. Results from both surveys inform a plan to address disparities in HU utilization rates among patients with SCD at UCMC, in addition to providing opportunities to enhance SCD care overall. The path forward will include building curricula for providers, educational handouts on disease modifying therapies for patients, generating a HU prescribing orderset embedded in the EMR, and innovating a SCD inpatient consult service at UCMC.

The Biomedical Engineering Labor Market in Greece: A Survey Investigating Job Outlook, Satisfaction and Placement

In this study, we have evaluated the real-world conditions, the job outlook and the job satisfaction in the Biomedical Engineering (BME) sector in Greece on the basis of the experience of about 12% of the graduates of the BME Department of the University of West Attica, Greece. An anonymous online questionnaire, implemented on the Microsoft Forms platform using multiple choice questions, short text answers and Likert-based scales, became publicly available to the graduates of the BME department. About 12% of the department’s graduates responded to the survey. Results show that the time to first employment is very fast for both men and women. About 51.4% of men and 69.4% of women find their first job employment in the BME sector even before their graduation. The internship is considered important for first job placement by more than 50.6% of participants. BME jobs are perceived as most interesting (73.6%), in a good environment (71.9%), with satisfactory career prospects (45.9%), with satisfactory monthly net salary (44.2%) and satisfactory working hours (52.8%). Men are mostly employed in Service (40.5%), whereas women are mostly employed in Sales (33.3%). Most graduates with BSc degree are employed in Service (39.1%) and Sales (21.8%), most graduates with MSc degree are employed in Service (34.6%) and Hospitals/Health care centers (21.2%), and most graduates with PhD degree are employed in Academia and R&D (62.5%). Most well-paid participants (>1500 euros net salary) were PhD holders (71.5%), followed by MSc holders (25%) and BSc holders (16.2%). Maximum monthly salaries were found for those with more than 10 years of experience. In terms of BME sector, most well-paid participants (>1500 euros monthly net salary) are those working with R&D (86.7%), Sales (86.7%) and Management (60%). There is a high demand for biomedical engineers in the labor market in Greece, despite the continuing economic recession that the country is suffering from the past 12 years.

Dental education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany - cross-sectional lecturer-side evaluation for the application of digital teaching concepts.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant restrictions on dental teaching. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the attitudes of faculty members towards digital teaching formats and the effort creating digital lectures. We hypothesized that on the lecturer side there is no difference between the various digital teaching concepts in terms of workload and effort and that there is no increase in workload and effort when switching to digital teaching concepts. Methods: All German dental faculties were invited to the online survey by an anonymous voluntary questionnaire from January to April 2021. The questionnaire consisted of 27 questions that could be answered with a visual analog scale, free text answers, or with fixed answer options. Data was analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and an exploratory data analysis (α=0.05). Results: Before the pandemic, 24.8% of the participating lecturers were using digital teaching and 64.4% had no previous experience. After the outbreak of the pandemic 100% of the dental teaching was initially held online. More than 80% of the lecturers stated that they offer online lectures (86.1%), online seminars (81.2%), and/or online bedside teaching (33.7%). 88.1% see face-to-face teaching as the preferred teaching format. The lecturers also see the greatest opportunities for interaction in the area of analog teaching and significantly worse in synchronous and asynchronous digital teaching. In the course of the pandemic, respondents' attitudes towards online teaching improved in the median of 24.0 to a median of 50.0. Conclusions: Faculty members have positively changed their attitudes towards online teaching formats over the course of the pandemic. Although they see the greatest learning success in conventional face-to-face teaching formats and the creation of digital lectures is associated with a higher effort, they want more online lessons in the future.

Farm animal careers and perception of 'fit' in undergraduate veterinary students: A mixed methods study.

Recruitment and retention of farm veterinarians have been the focus of recent research. Previous work suggests that a feeling of 'fit' is important for students to consider a farm career. The aim of this study was to identify whether students feel that they 'fit' in farm practice and reasons for their answer. An online survey was distributed to students at all British and Irish veterinary schools. A mixed methods approach was considered, with thematic analysis on free text answers and regression analysis on demographic variables. Thematic analysis identified six themes: career opportunities, nature of farm veterinary work, relationships and interactions, individual experiences, expectations and perceptions, and no perceived barriers. Females, marginalised ethnic groups and those from an urban/suburban background were all identified as having significantly (p < 0.05) less agreement with the statement 'I feel able to pursue a career in farm practice'. Survey limitations include those with a clear bias being likely to respond. However, alignment of the qualitative and quantitative results increased confidence in the findings of this mixed methods approach. This study confirms that biases that exist within wider society do have an influence on veterinary undergraduates' intentions to pursue a farm animal career. This is vital to consider both at a university level and when considering students' experiences on placements. Urgent action is required to improve inclusivity in the farm animal veterinary sector.

ODP578 Utility of the ACR-TIRADS Score – A Survey of Primary Care Providers

Abstract Background The American College of Radiology – Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (ACR-TIRADS) score is an ultrasound-based tool used to assess the risk of malignancy in thyroid nodules. Despite evidence supporting its efficacy, the use of this score in clinical practice has not yet been reported. Since primary care providers commonly identify and manage thyroid nodules, we aimed to determine 1) current diagnostic approach to thyroid nodules and 2) perceived utility of ACR-TIRADS in Canadian primary care providers. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey study with family medicine physicians and nurse practitioners working in Canada. The 23-question survey was developed and distributed electronically on Qualtrics using convenience sampling from August 31 2021 to January 3, 2022. Sociodemographic and other quantitative questions using Likert scales were analyzed using descriptive statistics; Likert scale responses were analyzed as proportion of individuals who agreed or strongly agreed. Qualitative data from free text answers was assessed using content analysis. Results One hundred and four primary care providers responded to our survey. Of these, 90 (87%) completed the entire survey and were included. Fifty-six percent were female, 58% were aged &amp;lt;40 years, and 48% were in practice for five or fewer years. In terms of management of thyroid nodules, only 47% were confident in their ability to risk-stratify. Ninety-four percent of participants risk-stratified using imaging characteristics, but only 57% of respondents reported using a risk stratification tool. Despite 64% percent of participants agreeing with being familiar with the ACR-TIRADS score, only 28% used this scoring system, and 80% of participants had a desire to learn more about it. Only 68% of physicians believed the score was present on ultrasound reports, and &amp;lt;5% requested it on reports themselves. After being shown a diagram demonstrating the ACR-TIRADS scoring system, 93% thought that the ACR-TIRADS score was useful. Of the 31 (34%) participants who were not initially familiar with the score, 61% would use the ACR-TIRADS score more, and 77% would ask radiology to report the ACR-TIRADS score more often. In terms of qualitative data, respondents believed educational tools and increased reporting by radiologists would increase use of ACR-TIRADS. Conclusion In this Canadian survey study, the majority of respondents were not confident with risk stratification of thyroid nodules, and only half used a risk stratification tool. With education, almost all participants thought ACR-TIRADS was useful, and most participants would use it more often. Further interventions to educate primary care providers regarding the ACR-TIRADS score may help enhance its uptake and improve systematic management of thyroid nodules. Presentation: No date and time listed

Sociodemographic factors affecting paediatric surgical training in Malaysia: Gender matters

BackgroundA shortage of specialist paediatric surgeons in Malaysia led to establishment of a national postgraduate training programme in 2004. We aimed to identify sociodemographic factors impacting training experience, and to define pressure points during training to inform targeted trainee support strategies. MethodsWe conducted an anonymized online survey in June 2021 on all programme graduates. Participants were asked for sociodemographic data, both current and during training. Likert scale responses were required for questions regarding adequacy of support received for family, health and personal issues during training. A free text response question soliciting suggestions for programme improvement was included. Data are reported as median (range). Chi-square/Fisher's exact tests for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney U tests for continuous variables were used, with p<0.05 significance. ResultsOf 53 eligible participants, 52 (98%) responded, 24 (46%) were female. Marital status was similar between genders at entry, but female trainees were more likely to be unmarried on exit (p = 0.001), and less likely to have children while training (p = 0.017). Of the 6 female and 18 male trainees who had children while training, women were more likely to take parental leave (p = 0.01). The majority felt advice given regarding parental leave and managing training while having children were poor. In thematic analysis of free text answers, lack of hands-on experience was the most common concern. ConclusionFactors related to marriage and parenthood significantly associate with gender amongst trainees in Malaysia despite both genders being well represented. Concerns regarding adequacy of hands-on training highlight the need for educational innovations such as simulation models. Level of studyLevel III.

P72 Research experience across the paediatric rheumatology multi-disciplinary team

P72 Research experience across the paediatric rheumatology multi-disciplinary team