Over the past few years, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (Society) has been analyzing topics of importance to the MS community across a variety of communication channels. The data show a trend toward decreased trust in pharmacologic approaches and increased interest in more holistic approaches to MS treatment. People living with MS want to know what they can do today—particularly related to diet, exercise, and emotional wellness—to feel and function at their best. In addition, they want the support of knowledgeable healthcare professionals who are armed with accurate information about wellness interventions. This article reports the findings and conclusions from a recent meeting convened by the Society, during which clinicians, researchers, people with MS, and Society staff reviewed what is currently known about diet, exercise, and emotional issues in MS; identified key questions to be answered in each of these domains, along with the research gaps and challenges to be addressed to arrive at the answers; made specific programmatic recommendations to ensure that people living with MS are getting the personalized support and information they need to achieve wellness; and determined next steps to move this important priority forward, some of which are already underway.
The development of critical thinking, the ability to solve problems by assessing evidence using valid inferences, abstractions, and generalizations, is one of the global goals advocated by most medical schools. This study determined changes in critical thinking skills between entry and near the end of the third year of medical school, assessed the predictive ability of a test of critical thinking skills, and assessed the concurrent validity of clerkship components and final grade. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Assessment (WGCTA) was administered to one class of students at entry to medical school and near the end of year 3. Performance data for those students who completed their clinical clerkships on schedule were also recorded. Critical thinking improved modestly but significantly from entry to medical school to near the end of year 3. The ability of a critical thinking test to predict clerkship performance was limited; the correlation between WGCTA total score at entry and the components and final grade of five major clerkships ranged from near 0 to 0.34. The concurrent validity of clerkship components and final grade was also limited; correlations with WGCTA total score near the end of year 3 ranged between 0.08 and 0.49. The correlation between WGCTA total score and United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 was higher at year 3 than at medical school entry. Critical thinking skills improve moderately during medical school. Used alone, tests of critical thinking may be of limited value in predicting which students will be successful in clinical clerkships. Clerkship evaluation components and final grade have limited concurrent validity when a test of critical thinking is the criterion.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.