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From
the Editor
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This issue of the journal is a special Educational
Feature with a special editorial on regional
concerns and Continuous Medical Education and
papers on a National model, in addition to various
other papers from the region
In the CME Needs Assessment: National Model.
This CME Needs Assessment paper was written
to provide analysis on a particular regional
country's <<the country>> proposed
CME in Primary Care program. It has been provided
as a National Model that other countries may
wish to replicate. The vision of <<the
country>> is "To Provide World Class
Healthcare." One of the first steps to
achieve this vision is to start comprehensive
educational programs to improve the skills of
the primary health care team as Primary Health
Care is essentially the first level of contact
of the patient with the health care system.
The suggested programs include the following:
o Interdisciplinary Primary Care Training Program.
To assist medical centers in organizing their
delivery of care around the of primary care
principals.o Primary Care Physician Education
Initiative (PCPEI). The goals of the educational
intervention are to better prepare current physicians
to deliver care under this new paradigm.
A paper from UAE studied the impact of a 6-month
Team- based Educational and Refill Monitoring
(TERM) intervention in improving BP control
among UAE adult citizens diagnosed with hypertension.
In This is a clinical trial, where, 214 hypertensive
UAE citizens ?18 years participated in a 6 months
TERM intervention compared with 214 hypertensive
UAE citizens receiving a usual care. At baseline
there was no significant difference between
both groups in regard to occupation, education,
smoking, blood lipids, body mass index (BMI),
SBP, DBP and MRA. Meanwhile, at baseline, only
35% of TERM patients compared to 34.9% of usual
care patients had controlled blood pressure
(defined as BP< 140/90 mmHg). At 6 months,
TERM participants achieved greater improvements
compared to usual care group in regard to SBP
(139.3 ± 14.2 mmHg vs. 152± 13.4
mm Hg, P<0.001), DBP (85.3± 9.3 vs.
92.4± 6.8 mm Hg, P<0.001), BP control
(50% vs. 36%, P = 0.01) and medication refill
adherence (92% vs.86%, P<0.001), The authors
concluded that a team-based educational intervention
for both staff and patients led to significant
improvement in SBP, DBP, MRA and BP control
in adult hypertensive patients, primary health
care setting, Sharjah Medical District, UAE.
A cross sectional study from Sultanate of Oman
explored the stress sources, prevalence of anxiety
and depression and coping strategies among preclinical
and clinical under graduate medical students.
Data was collected using Medical Student Stressor
Questionnaire (MSSQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression
scale (HAD) and COPE questionnaire. A total
of 288 participants were enrolled in which 123
were pre-clinical and 165 were clinical medical
students. Nearly two third (78.1%) of students
were aged between 20-24 years. Among all 87.5%
(252) were females and 12.5% (36) were males.
Collective score of academic stress factors
in the pre-clinical group was not statistically
different (p = 0.865) to the clinical group.
No significant difference (P: 0.826; 95% CI:
-3.511-2.804) in the mean score of preclinical
and clinical group regarding Social Stress factors.
Coping strategies to control stress score in
the pre-clinical group was statistically significantly
(p < 0.001) higher than the clinical group.
The authors concluded that the higher level
of stress is associated with poor academic performance
large content of study material, exam and time
constrain. Coping strategies in students mainly
better time management, emotional support, talking
to family members/friends helps and good sleep
relaxes them to control stress.
Ertimeh T et al, report a case of Herlyn-Werner-
wunderlich syndrome with recurrent lower abdominal
pain. Congenital anomalies of the Mullerian
duct system can result in various urogenital
anomalies. Herlyn -Werner- Wunderlich (HWW)
syndrome is a rare anomaly characterized by
uterus didelphys with blind hemivagina and ipsilateral
renal agenesis. This syndrome was described
for the first time in 1922, and was suspected
in a young woman with regular menstruation and
gradually increasing pelvic pain and a pelvic
mass formation, usually noticed after menarche
.
In the Educational Feature two further papers
look at the glorious past of medical education
in the region and education generally and then
look at the current issues besetting students
and academia in the region, with recommendations
on how the system can be improved to restore
science, medicine and education in the Middle
East to its past position and status as world
leader in these disciplines.
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