The MSMP may serve as an effective pipeline program to promote future diversity in college and graduate training programs for future careers in science and medicine.

Rationale, aims and objectives Efforts to implement evidence-based medicine (EBM) training in developing countries are limited. We describe the results of an international effort to improve research capacity in a developing country; we conducted a course aimed at improving basic EBM attitudes and identified challenges. Method Between 2005 and 2009, we conducted an annual 3-day course in Perú consisting of interactive lectures and case-based workshops. We assessed self-reported competence and importance in EBM using a Likert scale (1 = low, 5 = high). Results Totally 220 clinicians participated. For phase I (2005–2007), self-reported EBM competence increased from a median of 2 to 3 (P < 0.001) and the perceived importance of EBM did not change (median = 5). For phase II (2008–2009), before the course, 8–72% graded their competence very low (score of 1–2). After the course, 67–92% of subjects graded their increase in knowledge very high (score of 4–5). The challenges included limited availability of studies relevant to the local reality written in Spanish, participants’ limited time and lack of long-term follow-up on practice change. Informal discussion and written evaluation from participants were universally in agreement that more training in EBM is needed. Conclusions In an EBM course in a resource-poor country, the baseline self-reported competence and experience on EBM were low, and the course had measurable improvements of self-reported competence, perceived utility and readiness to incorporate EBM into their practices. Similar to developed countries, translational research and building the research capacity in developing countries is critical for translating best available evidence into practice.

The management of corporate social responsibility (CSR) requires dialogue between the organisation and its stakeholders. Considering that, today, interaction among any members of society is becoming increasingly faster and easier due to the use of Web 2.0, this latter can be considered a suitable tool for CSR management. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the use of online social networks by enterprises as a communication strategy tool in the field of CSR management. To this end, all the messages from the verified Twitter accounts of 50 leading European blue-chip companies (EuroStock 50) from the year they were activated until June 2016 (127,811) were analysed using automated and manual content analysis. The conclusions drawn by this study show that this social network is only used for informative purposes, no two-way collaborative communication strategy being found. This leads to the need to proactively make companies aware of the advantages of social networks as CSR management tools and drivers of a collaborative interaction with stakeholders that would allow a more sustainable and more inclusive performance of CSR principles in their activities.