Medical schools, although the gatekeepers of much biomedical education and research, rarely engage formally with K-12 educators to influence curriculum content or professional development. This segregation of content experts from teachers creates a knowledge gap that limits inclusion of current biomedical science into high school curricula, impacting both public health literacy and the biomedical pipeline. The authors describe how, in 2009, scientists from Tufts Medical School and Boston public school teachers established a partnership of formal scholarly dialog to create 11th–12th grade high school curricula about critical health-related concepts, with the goal of increasing scientific literacy and influencing health-related decisions. The curricula are based on the great diseases (infectious diseases, neurological disorders, metabolic disease, and cancer). Unlike most health science curricular interventions that provide circumscribed activities, the curricula are comprehensive, each filling one full term of in-class learning and providing extensive real-time support for the teacher.
In this article, the authors describe how they developed and implemented the infectious disease curriculum, and its impacts. The high school teachers and students showed robust gains in content knowledge and critical thinking skills, while the Tufts scientists increased their pedagogical knowledge and appreciation for health-related science communication. The results show how formal interactions between medical schools and K-12 educators can be mutually beneficial.
The cough assessment is fundamental in the weaning process as it gives information on the possibility to expel food and secretion from the airways. The majority of persons suffering from severe acquired brain injury (ABI) are not able to cough voluntarily due to severe motor deficits. In the present study, we evaluated the cough reflex in ABI patients using a new method based on a capsaicin spray stimulation test. 100 Healthy controls demographically matched with 50 ABI patients were included in this study. Clinical observations demonstrated robust cough response in both healthy controls and ABI patients, as well as the safety and tolerability of capsaicin spray stimulation. ABI patients with dysphagia were characterized by slower and delayed cough responses. Further studies are needed to validate this feasible, less-invasive, and simple-to-comprehend technique in inducing cough reflex. According to this preliminary evidence, we believe that this test might be translated into a simple and effective treatment to improve cough strength training reflexive cough modulation in ABI patients.
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