Generic Scientific Skills for Medicine

Jim AitonBute Medical SchoolUniversity of St Andrews

Pre-Honours HonoursYear 1 MD2000 Year 3 MD4000Year 2 MD3000

Foundations of Medicine 1

Musculo-skeletal

Cardiovascular

Renal

Nervous System

Research Dissertation

Applied Medical Science

Respiratory

ReproductiveGastrointestinal

EndocrinePatient Strand, Communication skills, Clinical Skills, Health

Psychology, ePortfolio, Ethics, Public Health Medicine, Generic Research Skills

Family interviewGP Attachments

Hospital ElectivesCommunity HealthAttachments

Foundations of Medicine

2

Introduction to Medicine

Generic scientific skills matrix

Mapping skills in the curriculum

MD2001: The Scientific Method1. Identify the key features of a refereed scientific

paper - how is a scientific paper constructed? how is the information presented? how are the conclusions reported?

2. What is evidence based medicine? Who is Dr Gillian McKeith?

3. Quality of information the NHS Scotland eLibrary Ovid, PubMed, Google Scholar

MD2001: Reading a Scientific Paper Was this good science?

Workbook-based task to

– analyse the structure of a scientific paper

– understand the use of control and experimental groups

– interpret data

Example workbook tasks4 Explain how the patients were selected for the study

7 Describe the experimental findings reported in Figure 1

13 Give three reasons why references are used in a scientific paper

14 Write a short scientific abstract of the Wakefield paper in the style of the British Medical Journal (BMJ)

MD2002 Write a scientific report on a recent

development in medicine (1500 words)

– Searching Cochrane, Ovid and PubMed– Scientific writing and referencing– Plagiarism and plagiarism detection

Student submission to ‘Turnitin’

MD3001 Evidence based medicine

– Research study design– Key statistical concepts– Literature searching (NHS Scotland eLibrary) and

citation management (RefWorks)

Interpreting the literature– Exercise physiology practical report

methods for measuring health status and fitness (BMI, body fat, and VO2 max)

assess the validity of these methods

Example workbook tasksRead the Gallagher study (Gallagher et al. 1996) which tested the

hypothesis that body mass index (BMI) is representative of body fatness independent of age, sex or ethnicity.

What age range did the authors use in their study? – Are you within this age range? Yes/No

What BMI range did the authors use in this study?– Are you within this BMI range? Yes/No

Look at the data on pages 232 and 233 of the paper– Does the raw data look widely scattered or relatively tight?

MD4001: Analysing and summarising You are provided with

an edited version of a paper (introduction and methods), a glossary and the figures from the results section.

Interpret the figures and draw your own conclusions.

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Figure 6

The effect of amylin (2.2 g/rat i.c.v.) on ethanol (EtOH)-induced

ulcers in rats pre-treated (30 min before amylin) with indomethacin

(10 mg kg-1, s.c.). Each value is the mean ± standard error of the

mean of 6 – 7 animals. Black column, EtOH; stippled column,

amylin + EtOH; cross-hatched column, indomethacin + EtOH and

open column, indomethacin + amylin + EtOH. *P < 0.05 v EtOH

treated group.

Questions about Figure 630. In this experiment, how is indomethacin being

administered?

31. What is the purpose of this route of administration for this experiment? (you may need to re-read the method section to answer this)

32. What do the two left-hand columns compare and what conclusion can you draw?

MD4002: Honours research dissertationStudent-Selected Component (SSC) which allows students to

pursue an area of particular interest

Applied Physiology and Pharmacology Health Psychology / Healthcare in the Community Molecular Oncology Musculo-skeletal System Practice of Medicine

MD4002 Learning outcomesDevelop an understanding of scientific methods

Use research and scientific methodologies to interpret an investigation

Demonstrate critical thinking and analysis of the scientific literature

Display competency in accessing on-line sources of information

Present the dissertation findings as an oral presentation

Formulate a work plan to complete a task in a defined time frame

Reflect on a significant learning event

Conclusions

A progressive approach to the acquisition of generic scientific research skills has been effective

Curriculum time constraints limit the scope of training

The curriculum mapping process helped reveal research-teaching linkages

Thanks to:Simon Guild - Director of Teaching

Julie Struthers - Learning Technology Consultant

Sue Whiten - MD2000 Module Controller

Bob Pitman - MD3000 and 4001 Module controller

Amanda Fleet - MD3000 and 4001 Module controller

Andrew Riches - MD4002 Module Controller