Introduction The physician-patient relationship is at the heart of the art of medicine. Patient-centered care is rapidly evolving as the standard of care as well as the optimal vehicle to achieve high-quality healthcare and good clinical outcomes. This study aims to examine the attitudes of pre-clinical (third-year) students from Alfaisal University (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) toward the physicianpatient relationship. Methods This cross-sectional study took place during the spring 2017 academic year. All third-year students (n=210) were requested to voluntarily complete an online and anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire covered students' demographical characteristics (gender, nationality, and cumulative grade point average) and their response to a previously validated instrument, the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS), which explores the attitudes of medical students toward the doctor-patient relationship. Results In total, 132 students participated in the survey (n=132/210) with an overall response rate of 62.9%. Most respondents were female (56.8%), non-Saudi citizens (53.0%), and high achievers (70.5%). Most of the mean scores on the PPOS statements indicated patient-centered attitudes-that is, mean scores were higher than "3". The mean score for the overall PPOS was 4.0 ± 1.5, whereas the mean scores for the sharing and caring domains were 4.2 ± 1.5 and 3.8 ± 1.4, respectively. Univariate correlations between the students' demographics and their mean scores for the sharing domain, caring domain, and overall PPOS showed no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05). Conclusion The pre-clinical medical students showed favorable patient-centered attitudes. There were no statistically significant differences between students' demographics (gender, nationality, and academic performance) and PPOS scores (sharing domain, caring domain and overall score).

Submissions should be made via our electronic submission system at http://ees.elsevier.com/ thelancet/ This letter is an an initiative of SIAARTI, and is endorsed by Gonzalo Barreiro (President of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists [WFSA]), Zeev Goldik (President of the European Society of Anaesthesiology [ESA]), Jannicke Mellin-Olsen (Secretary of the ESA and President-Elect of the WFSA) and many national and international societies (see appendix for a full list of societies). AC is the President of SIAARTI. FP is the President-Elect of SIAARTI and an ESA National Anaesthesiologists Societies Committee (NASC) delegate. EDR is Treasurer of the European Board of Anaesthesiology (EBA) section of the European Union Medical Specialities (UEMS). We declare no competing interests.

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Drug advertisement brochures (DABs) contain claims that are often supplemented by references in medical literature. Several studies have evaluated the DABs as they are commonly distributed by drug companies to practicing physicians. The objective of this study is to assess the consistency between the claims and references referred to in the DABs in Saudi Arabia. DABs were collected from medical practitioners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Authors developed a protocol to be followed for quality assessment of the DABs. The vast majority of cited scientific papers were indexed in PubMed. Consequently, each reference was categorized as: justifiable, false, exaggerated or ambiguous. A total of 89 DABs were collected; 48 (53.9%) brochures were excluded from further analysis and the remaining 41 brochures (46.1%) contained 240 references with an approximate average of 5.9 references per DAB. A total of 201 cited papers were traced (83.8%). The majority of references (93.0%) supported the claims for which they were cited. However, 1.5%, 4.0% and 1.5% of claims were deemed inaccurate/false, exaggerated, and ambiguous, respectively. This study supports that the majority of the claims made in the DABs of pharmaceutical companies in Saudi Arabia were unreferenced. However, most of the evidence presented to substantiate claims made was considered true.

IntroductionStrengthening the relationship between a doctor and a patient is an essential element for a advancing a healthcare system. As previous studies have ubiquitously demonstrated this phenomenon, studying the perception of medical students towards this relationship in one of the developing countries is highly important. The perception is measured by Patient ‐ Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) which contains both caring items, assessing how much care provided to your patients and sharing items, which reflect the amount of information shared with patients. As PPOS score increases, the practice becomes more towards patient – centeredness and hence, more coherence in doctor‐patient relationship.MethodA total of 132 third year medical students at Alfaisal University were enrolled in this cross sectional study. The quantitative questionnaire was carried out using Patient‐ Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS). The overall scores of patient caring and sharing were calculated and the statistical difference was assessed using the independent samples t‐test. The effect of various factors including gender and academic level (measured by GPA) was measured using independent samples t‐test and one‐way multiple variance of analysis (ANOVA), respectively. The linear regression model was also utilized to determine whether these factors predict the caring, sharing and the overall PPOS scores.ResultsThe mean scores of caring, sharing and overall PPOS were 4.21, 3.98 and 4.10, respectively. Students have demonstrated higher scoring in caring items compared to sharing ones (P<0.01). Male students have scored more in sharing components compared to their female peers (4.20 vs. 3.81, P<0.01). In addition, students with good GPA rated higher in caring items than those with average GPA (P<0.05). None of the factors have really predicted the caring, sharing and overall PPOS scores.ConclusionOur findings suggest that our students' perception towards patient‐centeredness was lower than previous studies and more education along with practice are required to improve this attitude. Moreover, students had lower perception towards the importance of sharing adequate information with the patient, an attitude that needs to be further rectified in order to enhance the advancement of healthcare system in Saudi Arabia.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.