News Briefs: Professional Development Opportunities

This roundup includes the following professional development opportunities briefs:

In a "first-of-its-type marathon training session" held earlier this month, the entire fourth-year class of the State University of New York, or SUNY, Downstate Medical Center's College of Medicine in Brooklyn was taught to use portable ultrasound to guide invasive medical procedures.

According to a SUNY news release, "This represents the first time that all students graduating from an American medical school will be trained universally in this latest technological innovation." Dubbed the "stethoscope of the 21st century" by many clinicians, the portable ultrasound device permits physicians to readily locate and draw fluid for testing, drain cysts and abscesses, and biopsy tissues with minimal trauma to surrounding structures.

Specifically, the SUNY students were taught to use the devices to perform vascular access procedures, paracentesis and thoracentesis. According to Amy McGaha, M.D., assistant director of the AAFP Division of Medical Education, ultrasonography can be a valuable tool for medical students to learn to use in preparation for clinical practice.

The American Urological Association, or AUA, has released a core curriculum designed to teach medical students the essentials of urology.

According to the association, less than one-fifth of medical students today receive didactic training in this area of medicine. In creating the curriculum, the AUA surveyed residency directors in various medical disciplines and graduating medical students to identify what these stakeholders said all medical students should know about the field.

The new curriculum, which is available online, includes lessons on common urologic conditions, such as prostate cancer, incontinence and erectile dysfunction, as well as videos and Web-based interactive case studies.

According to the AUA, primary care physicians often are counted on to diagnose these conditions, which are expected to become more prevalent as the U.S. population ages.