SUMMARYMedical students at the Cambridge Clinical School are provided with a list of 42 core conditions they should encounter and 20 core skills they should perform during their attachment. By self-completion questionnaires we assessed their clinical experience and the amount of teaching they received, relating the results to marks gained in end-of-attachment assessments.103 (93%) of 110 students in year one and 123 (96%) of 128 in year two completed the questionnaires. Of the 42 core conditions, 13 were seen by under 70% of the students in year one. In year two, exposure rate increased for 26 core conditions by a median of 7% (range 2-40) and decreased in 13 core conditions by a median value 4% (range 5-13) (P=0.0005, X2). Only mandatory core skills were performed by over 90% of students. 5% of students did not perform any newborn examinations and under 60% observed neonatal resuscitation or a high-risk delivery.Students' core condition score was associated with their core skill score (r=0.5), hospital grade (r=0.3) and exposure to acute paediatrics (r=0.3) (P<0.005). There was no significant association between clinical experience and the objective examination score or the amount of teaching received. There was an inverse association between the number of students at a hospital and the number of core conditions with an exposure rate above 70% at that hospital (r=0.7, P<0.05).This study suggests that clinical experience may be better judged by the clinical supervisor than by assessment of theoretical knowledge.

Study Design Survey. Introduction AO Spine Research Objectives and Common Data Elements for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (RECODE-DCM) is an international initiative that aims to accelerate knowledge discovery and improve outcomes by developing a consensus framework for research. This includes defining the top research priorities, an index term and a minimum data set (core outcome set and core data elements set – core outcome set (COS)/core data elements (CDE)). Objective To describe how perspectives were gathered and report the detailed sampling characteristics. Methods A two-stage, electronic survey was used to gather and seek initial consensus. Perspectives were sought from spinal surgeons, other healthcare professionals and people with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). Participants were allocated to one of two parallel streams: (1) priority setting or (2) minimum dataset. An email campaign was developed to advertise the survey to relevant global stakeholder individuals and organisations. People with DCM were recruited using the international DCM charity Myelopathy.org and its social media channels. A network of global partners was recruited to act as project ambassadors. Data from Google Analytics, MailChimp and Calibrum helped optimise survey dissemination. Results Survey engagement was high amongst the three stakeholder groups: 208 people with DCM, 389 spinal surgeons and 157 other healthcare professionals. Individuals from 76 different countries participated; the United States, United Kingdom and Canada were the most common countries of participants. Conclusion AO Spine RECODE-DCM recruited a diverse and sufficient number of participants for an international PSP and COS/CDE process. Whilst PSP and COS/CDE have been undertaken in other fields, to our knowledge, this is the first time they have been combined in one process.

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