ObjectivesTo evaluate the attitudes and readiness of students of healthcare professions towards interprofessional learning.MethodologyA cross-sectional study design was used. Two different scales were used to measure the readiness for and perception of interprofessional learning; these were the 'Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale' and the 'Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale'. A convenience sampling method was employed. The sample was drawn from undergraduate students enrolled in years 1 to 5 of medical, dental, pharmacy and health sciences programme. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.ResultsThe overall response rate was 83%. The students mentioned that shared learning with other healthcare professional students will increase their ability to understand clinical problems. The students also mentioned that such shared learning will help them to communicate better with patients and other professionals. The students preferred to work with individuals from their own profession. Participants from medical, dental, pharmacy, and health sciences had a difference in opinion about 'negative professional identity', a domain of the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale. Based on the different year of study of the students, 'team work and collaboration', 'negative professional identity' and 'roles and responsibility' were the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale domains where students had a difference in opinion.ConclusionsAttitudes and readiness towards interprofessional learning showed significant differences among students of various healthcare professions; these differences also depended on the students' year of study. Interprofessional learning should be incorporated in the curriculum of all healthcare professional programs, which may foster students to become competent healthcare providers and understand each profession's role.

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Numerous studies have been conducted in the previous years with an objective to determine the ideal biomarker or set of biomarkers in temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). It was recorded that tumour necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin 8 (IL-8), IL-6, and IL-1 were the most common biomarkers of TMDs. As of recently, although the research on TMDs biomarkers still aims to find more diagnostic agents, no recent study employs the biomarker as a targeting point of pharmacotherapy to suppress the inflammatory responses. This article represents an explicit review on the biomarkers of TMDs that have been discovered so far and provides possible future directions towards further research on these biomarkers. The potential implementation of the interactions of TNF with its receptor 2 (TNFR2) in the inflammatory process has been interpreted, and thus, this review presents a new hypothesis towards suppression of the inflammatory response using TNFR2-agonist. Subsequently, this hypothesis could be explored as a potential pain elimination approach in patients with TMDs.

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Background. Interprofessional education provides students of healthcare programme an opportunity to collaborate with students from other disciplines and help them to get a training prior to entering the healthcare workforce. This study may help to select a suitable tool to discriminate attitude differences of healthcare professional students towards interprofessional education.Methods. A study, which was cross-sectional, was conducted at a private university in Malaysia to explore the two scales (RIPLS and IEPS) and their psychometric properties. Study participants comprised students from four different professions with at least one exposure or no previous exposure to IPE.Results. Both the scales (RIPLS and IEPS) have their own ability to detect differences in students’ attitude towards IPE in their own way. However, the IEPS scale was able to detect differences within the gender, professions (both junior and senior students), and prior exposure to IPE.Conclusions. This study revealed that though both scales can be used to follow the impact of IPE in curricula, IEPS scale is more suitable than RIPLS to discriminate attitude differences among healthcare students. Educators may develop various strategies to observe students’ behaviours and perceptions qualitatively and conduct longitudinal study to assess the outcomes of including IPE in curricula.