CNS learn - Clinical Nurse Specialist Updated: 2023

Lazarus is an adjunct professor of psychiatry.

The future of medical students appears promising and challenging at the same time. While there will be abundant opportunities for medical students to explore various fields of medicine, they will be challenged by high stress levels, financial burden, and unprecedented competition for prestigious residencies. How will they fare? In what ways will tomorrow's medical students be different than past generations? Here is a brief overview of what medical school applicants can expect, and how their training will provide an advantage over previous graduates, in my opinion.

A main advantage comes from training prior to matriculation into medical school. Many of the standards for acceptance into medical school by which my generation (Baby Boomers) and others were judged are no longer relevant. The soft sciences -- as opposed to the hard sciences -- now have standing in premedical curricula, especially courses in psychology and sociology. At Philadelphia area medical schools, for example, calculus is required at only one of eight MD or DO granting institutions (Penn State).

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) added a psychology-sociology ("psych-sosh") section to its MCAT standardized admissions test in 2015. The revised MCAT reflects the importance of learning how to think and solve problems, with more questions requiring that future doctors use analytical skills rather than simply memorize material. Prerequisite courses in the social sciences may also yield students who are emotionally intelligent as well as clinically competent.

It's telling that in a survey of physicians trained in my era -- those graduating college between 1955 and 1982 -- the greatest unmet need was "skill with people," and my peers wished they had taken more courses in art, history, literature, and music while in college. Nowadays, some of those subjects are expected if students want to earn a spot in medical school, even if they reserve the right to "fall asleep in [their] seats during lectures," writes acclaimed physician-author Chris Adrian, MD.

After decades of welcoming science nerds, medical educators have finally placed more emphasis on the humanities in medicine. Medical students need to be competent in the humanities in order to converse intelligently with a heterogeneous health-conscious public. Once accepted into medical school, students can augment their literary competence through narrative medicine programs, now offered at roughly 80% of medical schools. These programs aim to teach medical students sensitive interviewing and empathic listening skills, combined with storytelling and writing skills to acknowledge the struggles of their patients, as well as their own.

The AAMC has also created an optional test to evaluate the "situational judgment" of students applying to medical school. The Professional Readiness Exam, formerly known as the AAMC Situational Judgment Test, consists of 30 hypothetical scenarios and 186 related questions that test the effectiveness of students' remedies to hypothetical situations encountered in the classroom and practice. The appropriateness of students' responses is a proxy for their readiness to enter medical school, as determined across eight core competencies such as service orientation, cultural competence, and teamwork.

Typical dilemmas presented to students include: (1) how to deal with a classmate who violates patient privacy on social media; (2) how to ensure a patient's cultural customs are respected in the event something unexpected occurs following surgery; (3) how to seek help when the stress of a clerkship in emergency medicine is beginning to affect sleep and judgment; (4) how to address a lecturer who is quick to dismiss multiple valid perspectives on a subject; and (5) how to deal with a classmate who has assumed a deceased immigrant was "undocumented," or a person's stomach pain was fabricated because they were homeless.

Another similar test, made by Toronto-based Acuity Insights, is called Casper. This assessment evaluates aspects of students' social intelligence and professionalism such as ethics, empathy, problem-solving, and collaboration. The evaluation offers admissions assessments that give each applicant the opportunity to showcase their attributes beyond their grades and to differentiate themselves from other applicants.

The removal of affirmative action admission policies by the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) this past June has not deterred medical schools from efforts to select diverse students, deemed necessary to reduce health disparities. Conducting holistic reviews of applicants and searching for unique personal characteristics complies with the SCOTUS ruling and supports diversity. In addition, some medical schools have instituted community outreach and "pipeline" programs to attract a more diverse applicant pool. The University of California Davis School of Medicine has maintained a remarkably diverse class of students by assessing their socioeconomic status rather than their race and ethnicity (affirmative action admissions have been banned in California public colleges since 1996). A heterogeneous workforce has been shown to Improve patient outcomes and increase trust in the doctor-patient relationship. Furthermore, teaching diversity, equity, and inclusion across medical school campuses fosters a sense of belonging among staff and faculty and the patients they serve.

Tomorrow's medical students will be vastly different from their predecessors not only due to their premedical training and selective screening for admission, but also due to changes in medical education methods, evolving technological advancements, and the continuously shifting healthcare landscape.

With the rise of digital health technologies such as telemedicine, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning, future medical students will be better technologically equipped. They will be trained in using advanced tools to diagnose, treat, and communicate with patients. In addition, improvements in virtual and augmented reality will provide students access to cutting edge learning tools. This will make their education more interactive and practical, potentially facilitating better understanding and knowledge retention.

AI in particular holds significant promise for medical students, training them to operate at a higher cognitive level and reducing time gathering data and information from multiple sources. According to Harvard Medical School educator Bernard Chang, MD, MMSc, "students ought to be able to move further along the developmental progression of reporter, interpreter, manager, and educator earlier in their training, reaching functional levels at which their cognitive talents will be most valuable in an AI-assisted clinical environment."

Future medical students will increasingly learn to work within and lead multidisciplinary teams. As the healthcare system shifts focus from treatment to prevention, medical students will pay closer attention to the social determinants of health and emphasize preventive care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of adaptability in healthcare. By virtue of having lived through the pandemic, medical students will show resilience and flexibility to changes in the healthcare environment, including changes in the way medicine is practiced and health systems achieve their goals. The whims of private equity and the business of medicine will become second-nature to them. With the rise of healthcare startups and new medical ventures, future medical students will learn entrepreneurial skills to innovate and Improve the healthcare system. In fact, approximately 80 medical schools in the U.S. offer a combined MD/MBA program.

Clearly, tomorrow's medical students will be unlike any cohort of doctors in my time.

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA, is a member of the editorial board of the American Association for Physician Leadership, an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, and a former Doximity fellow. He is the author of Every Story Counts: Exploring Contemporary Practice Through Narrative Medicine.

With the rapid development and extensive applications of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology across various sectors, Dr. Michael Co Tiong-hong from the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), and Dr. John Yuen Tsz-hon from the Department of Computer Science, HKU, have jointly developed Hong Kong's first "AI virtual patients" diagnostic application for training medical students.

Leveraging generative AI technology and real-life surgical cases, the research team has designed "humanized" AI virtual patients with distinct personalities and medical histories, which allow medical students to virtually simulate interactions with patients during bedside consultations. This initiative greatly enhances the students' professional skills and ability to accurately gather patients' medical history.

To provide students with a more diverse range of clinical learning opportunities, HKUMed collaborated with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to introduce cross-regional medical cases in the diagnostic app. This revolutionary approach has redefined traditional medical teaching methods. Looking ahead, HKUMed also plans to collaborate with other overseas medical schools.

The virtual mode of clinical teaching provides personalized patient cases tailored to the specific needs of individual medical students. In 2020, Dr. Co and Dr. Yuen initiated the development of an AI chatbot to help HKUMed students who could not attend hospital-based classes amid the pandemic. In 2021, a system prototype was available for trial with a selected group of HKUMed students. Teachers could design virtual patients suited to each student's diagnostic skill level. Students would compile the medical records for case discussions and analysis with their teachers. In 2022, the outcomes of this innovative teaching mode were published in Heliyon.

Through continuous research and improvement, the HKU team developed Hong Kong's first "AI virtual patients" diagnostic application. Integrated with generative AI technology, the latest model of the chatbot goes beyond standardized and monotonous replies, providing highly dynamic and lively responses. Even for the same medical case, the AI virtual patient is capable of providing distinct responses, interacting with students in a remarkably human-like and personality-driven manner.

This innovative virtual clinical teaching mode provides personalized teaching cases with equal access for all students, and addresses the limitations of the traditional teaching mode. Dr. Co explained, "Traditional clinical teaching relies heavily on in-person interaction with real patients. But for various reasons, like scheduling difficulties, not all medical students have equal opportunities to engage in face-to-face consultations. The 'AI virtual patients' app allows us to overcome time and geographical barriers, offering our students access to practice with rare cases and providing them with invaluable clinical experience. Through a virtual learning environment, equipped with a wide range of diverse patient cases, medical students can enhance their patient history-taking skills and Improve the accuracy of their diagnoses."

Dr. John Yuen Tsz-hon, from the Department of Computer Science, HKU, said, "The 'AI virtual patients' app has the capacity to accumulate information, resulting in each response it generates having a slight variation in tone and wording. This enables more authentic interactions between doctors and virtual patients. Additionally, teachers can utilize the data collected by the system to conduct in-depth analysis and assessment of students' performance, which allows them to provide specific feedback and guidance to individual students, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of clinical teaching."

Virtual clinical teaching can remove spatial and geographical barriers, fostering international exchange in medical education. In early October this year, Dr. Co collaborated with Dr. Serene Goh, a specialist surgeon from the National University of Singapore, to launch the world's first cross-regional virtual clinical teaching program. The two doctors devised distinct patient cases for students in their respective locations to practice consultations utilizing the 'AI virtual patients' app. Through online case discussions, the medical students jointly analyzed patients' imaging studies, endoscopic images and pathological slides in online case discussions.

"Collaboration and exchange with medical schools in other regions will enable medical students to learn from each other's strengths, broaden their horizons and knowledge, and promote international cooperation and development in medical education. This will set the foundation for boundless educational innovations in the future," Dr. Co added.

Medical doctor in Pineville – Dr. Joseph Palmer II (1818-1906), of St. John’s Springfield Plantation, son of Joseph Palmer and Elizabeth Catherine Porcher and husband of Margaret C. Allen (m. 1864), Mary Louise Singleton (m. 1870) and Ida Vernon (m. 1875). He graduated from South Carolina College in 1839 and practiced medicine and planted for the remainder of his life. After his marriage in 1864, Dr. Palmer, having been living at The Rocks with his father and family, reopened the house at Springfield and once again its old spirit of hospitality revived. Everything that could be done to aid the Confederacy was done. Dr. Palmer, over the age for military service, remained at home and attended the sick over a large area of country. His partner, Dr. P. Sidney Kirk, a much younger man, went into the army. All cotton was given to the Confederate government, and even the leaden weights at the windows were removed and given to be melted into bullets. Dr. Palmer was known as “Uncle Joe” to many of the whites, and “Mausse Josie” or “Mass Josie” to the Blacks. For years, after age and ill health forced him to give up active practice, he went to all the family and kept his office open for the Blacks. Sometimes, his fees were never paid, sometimes they were paid in chickens, eggs, corn or peas. Always, medicines were furnished, (with medicine bills running up into hundreds of dollars). His skill in diagnosis was almost uncanny; time and time again, often at his request, doctors from various places were called to see some of his patients, and, always, his diagnosis was confirmed. (Dr. Joe Palmer was my second great-granduncle.)

Medical doctor in Pineville – Dr. Henry Thorne (1819-1869) of St. Stephen’s; son of Mary Thorne. Dr. Thorn was born in England and came to this country to live and work. His wife was Ann Patience Nelson. Dr. Thorne was a practicing physician in Pineville (see Chas. News & Courier, Aug. 20, 1929). He died in October of 1869; see Charleston Daily News, Oct. 8, 1869, where it states, “We learn that this gentleman died very suddenly of heart disease on Thursday last at St. Stephen’s Depot. He was in his usual health, and had traveled that day from his residence, in Pineville, to the depot, where, while standing on the platform, he suddenly dropped dead. He was a gentleman of fine intelligence, and was well known in Williamsburg District, where he formerly lived and practiced his profession for a number of years.”  

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- Ashton Glover Gatewood decided to give medical school a second try after learning about a new campus designed for Indigenous students like herself.

Gatewood is now set to be part of the first graduating class at Oklahoma State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation. Leaders say the physician training program is the only one on a Native American reservation and affiliated with a tribal government.

"This is the school that is everything that I need to be successful," said Gatewood, a member of the Choctaw Nation who also has Cherokee and Chickasaw ancestry. "Literally, the campus, the curriculum, the staff -- everything was built and hired and prepared and planned for you."

The program in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, aims to increase the number of Cherokee and other Indigenous physicians. It's also focused on expanding the number of doctors from all backgrounds who serve rural or tribal communities.

Natasha Bray, DO, an osteopathic physician and dean of the program, said most medical schools teach about barriers that can make it difficult for rural or Indigenous patients to get care and Improve their health.

But she said students in Tahlequah get to see these barriers firsthand by studying on the Cherokee Reservation and doing rotations in tiny communities and within facilities run by the federal Indian Health Service.

"Unless you are living in that community, you're part of that community, you're seeing patients from that community -- you can't begin to understand what those barriers to care are," said Bray, who is not Native American.

For example, Bray knows that one town on the reservation is a 50-minute drive to the nearest delivery room, and that some patients trying to eat healthier live far from supermarkets and settle for convenience store food.

Rural America has a shortage of healthcare providers. The Indian Health Service, which serves Indigenous patients in mostly rural areas, has also struggled to recruit and retain staff.

Rural residents make up about 14% of the U.S. population but fewer than 5% of incoming medical students, according to a study of 2017 data. Native Americans are 3% of the population but represented only 0.2% of those accepted to medical school for the 2018-19 school year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Gatewood, 34, who grew up in a city between the Chickasaw Reservation and Oklahoma City, first attended medical school at the University of Missouri. She said it was a great program, but it didn't match her learning style. And with few Native American students, it left her feeling disconnected from her culture.

She ended up leaving after three semesters. Gatewood went on to become a nurse and earned a master's degree in public health.

Then, in 2019, 6 years after dropping out of the Missouri medical school, Gatewood learned about Oklahoma State's new campus in Tahlequah. She decided to once more pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. After taking classes in Oklahoma, she's now getting hands-on experience through a family medicine rotation in Baltimore.

Half the 202 medical students in Tahlequah are from rural areas, and nearly a quarter are Native American. Most of the Indigenous students are from Oklahoma tribes. Others come from tribes outside the state, including from Alaska and New Mexico.

Tahlequah has about 16,800 residents. It's more than an hour east of Tulsa, home to Oklahoma State's other osteopathic medicine campus.

Osteopathic physicians, or DOs, attend separate medical schools from allopathic doctors, or MDs. The schools have similar curricula, but osteopathic colleges also teach how to ease patient discomfort through physical manipulation of muscles and bones. Osteopathic schools graduate more students who decide to work in primary care and in rural areas.

The Cherokee Reservation spreads across roughly 7,000 square miles in eastern Oklahoma. It's home to about 150,000 Cherokee citizens, most of whom live in rural areas, said Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. Hoskin grew up in a small town that was once served by a doctor who traveled across the reservation, treating patients in a recreational vehicle.

The Cherokee Nation now operates 10 hospitals and clinics to ensure that all citizens live within a 30-minute drive of care. Hoskin said this means the reservation has better access to healthcare than much of rural America.

"There are not many communities in this country in which you would see that sort of investment," he said.

Still, access to care remains challenging for some rural residents on the reservation, Bray said. The reservation has significant poverty, and some people lack cars or cell or internet service. Cherokee residents have high rates of diabetes, obesity, addiction, and heart disease, Bray said.

The Cherokee Nation spent $40 million of its own revenue -- including from casinos and federal contracts -- to construct the college building on its medical campus, which includes a hospital and outpatient center. The tribe is responsible for maintenance, while Oklahoma State pays for the faculty and equipment.

The college building features large windows, Cherokee symbols etched into concrete, and orange accents -- a shoutout to the university's colors. Inside, signs are written in both English and Cherokee.

On a exact afternoon, students practiced osteopathic manipulative therapy on one another inside a classroom. Down the hall in a simulation center, lifelike patient models lay with their mouths agape on hospital beds.

Next door at the hospital, medical student Mackenzie Hattabaugh checked on Chyna Chupco, who was recovering after giving birth to her first baby. Hattabaugh asked Chupco questions to make sure she was reaching recovery milestones and not showing signs of complications. She also felt Chupco's uterus to make sure it was healing properly.

Hattabaugh, who is not Native American, grew up in Muldrow, a town of about 3,300 on the reservation. The 24-year-old said the town sometimes had a doctor but never a hospital or urgent care clinic.

"I would like to go back to around my hometown and perhaps be a staple in my community, to become a physician and provide people healthcare who usually have to drive 30 minutes or more to get it," said Hattabaugh, a first-generation college student.

Students said studying at the Tahlequah campus prepares them to work in tribal and rural areas in ways that might not be possible at other medical schools.

Charlee Dawson, a 27-year-old medical student and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, said rotations within the Indian Health Service help students understand how the system's care and complex billing procedures differ from those of other health facilities.

The program helps students understand what health problems are more common among Native Americans, Gatewood said. She said her previous medical school taught students about the high rate of diabetes among Black patients, but not the rate for Native Americans, which is the highest of all U.S. racial groups.

The students also said they've learned to ask Indigenous patients not just what pharmaceutical drugs and supplements they're taking, but also whether they're using traditional medications or working with a healer.

Native Americans have long received inadequate, discriminatory, and unethical healthcare. Children died of infectious disease outbreaks during the boarding school era. The Indian Health Service sterilized thousands of women in the 1960s and '70s. Today, the agency remains chronically underfunded.

This has led some Indigenous people to mistrust the healthcare system. But several of the Tahlequah students said they've bonded with patients who share similar backgrounds.

"It really comforts patients to know that someone like them is taking care of them," said Caitlin Cosby, a member of the Choctaw Nation.

Cosby, 24, said she once had a patient who asked, "'Are you Native?' And I said, 'I am!'"

The patient told Cosby he was proud of her.

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Clinical rotations are an essential part of Boise State’s nursing education. Although it’s difficult to measure the success of these experiential learning opportunities, unique placements and invested instructors play a crucial role. And at the Boise VA Medical Center, so do the patients.

Like all Veterans Affairs hospitals, the Boise VA Medical Center is a teaching facility. Patients are given the opportunity to opt out of students being present during their care, “but by and large, I think we’d be hard pressed to find someone that didn’t want a student in there learning,” said Andrea Tamura, a clinical education specialist at the Boise VA Medical Center. “They’re very used to student training happening at our facility, which is great.”

Junior nursing student Amber Belmonte completed a clinical rotation at the VA last spring. She was surprised how receptive the veterans were to having students to practice on them.

“Not one veteran I worked with even hesitated to let me do my job,” she said. “If they needed an IV, they would say, ‘Great, go at it.’ If I needed to do an assessment of their lungs or heart, they would crack jokes about what I could hear. They take life with a grain of salt, and I love that.”

Exceptional environments

The VA patient population is unique from other medical centers because their patients deal with many issues – such as trauma, homelessness or food insecurity – at a higher rate than the general population. Because of that, students learn to care for veterans in a holistic manner.

“It’s not just the health care issue that they’re dealing with; it is the whole patient, whether it’s a mental or social or physical issue, everything is addressed,” Tamura said. “For a student to be part of that and see that whole big picture of care is really, really beneficial.”

And although students are there focusing on nursing, the VA gives them a taste of the interdisciplinary workplace early on.

“Everybody on the team gets to have a say, everybody has something important to offer in the care of that patient,” Tamura said. And that means students, too. “If they have something to offer, we encourage them to speak up because it’s valuable,” she said.

The result of this supportive environment?

“The feedback that I’m getting from students is that they feel welcome here,” Tamura said. “They feel like they’re part of the team.”

Belmonte confirmed: one of the best parts of her experience was working with staff who “really enjoyed teaching,” she said.

“During my very first clinical in the VA, I had been placed in the [cardiac catheterization] lab. In the eight hours of being there, and only having three procedures scheduled for the day, the staff took that free time to teach me anything that might be useful. They could have easily taken that time to take breaks or work on their own tasks, but they used it to teach me something new,” Belmonte said.

Innovating to expand opportunities

Tamura acknowledges that the size of the facility does limit the number of students they can accept at a given time. “We’ve had to get creative about how to accommodate the larger number of student cohorts without burning out staff,” she said.

Luckily, the VA embraced Boise State’s drive to innovate and worked with the School of Nursing team to implement options that suit both students and staff nurses.

For students in medical-surgical classes, they now have opportunities to rotate through less-traditional clinics in the VA that still have a “med-surg” focus: the wound clinic, oncology/infusion, endoscopy and the cardiac catheterization lab.

This spreads out the workload across the entire facility and widens students’ perspectives through a variety of environments.

“It’s really great to provide these opportunities for nursing students and let them know that your options are not just med-surg, [intensive care unit], or the emergency room. It runs the gamut, as far as where you can work and where nurses are needed.”

The VA also implemented a split rotation model that has become increasingly popular with Boise State clinical partners. This allows facilities to utilize night shift nurses during the end of one student rotation, which Tamura said is working “really, really well” for staff.

“They’re really enjoying the opportunity to have a part in these clinical rotations and students’ education,” Tamura said.

At the VA, ‘The sky’s the limit’

Tamura is grateful for the partnership between the Boise VA Medical Center and Boise State, hoping to expand their clinical offerings even further as curriculum and community needs adapt.

“We have a lot to offer in a lot of different varieties of mental health,” Tamura said. “So it’s in the works.”

She also hopes students will recognize the opportunities afforded by the VA and consider them for future employment because “as cliche as it sounds, truly, the sky’s the limit,” she said.

“I absolutely could see myself returning to the VA in the future,” Belmonte said.

“The most rewarding part of working at the VA was being able to work with the veterans themselves. I love doing what I can to help them feel better, but nothing is better than getting to talk to them and hear stories of their life…honestly, they have the best life lessons and are a constant reminder to never take time for granted.”

“From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate the opportunity I got to complete my clinical rotation at the VA. I learned so much valuable information, not only from the staff but from the veterans,” Belmonte said.

Their study, which was published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Surgery, found that two of the systems depicted 98 percent of surgeons as white males — not representative of the industry’s increasingly diverse makeup.

“Many people think of AI models as a mirror to society, but what we found in this paper is that they are more like funhouse mirrors that amplify stereotypes,” Ali said. “It’s really a slap in the face to the surgeons who are women and people of color.”

Ali said that AI tools are already being used to create material for medical students and patients, so he felt it important to explore the tools’ shortcomings.

“We want to be mindful of these vulnerabilities so that we’re not amplifying certain biases in patient-facing material or in what is taught to medical students,” Ali said.

Ali and his colleagues studied three of the most popular generators: DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. These tools learn the correlation between text and associated imagery by using publicly available data. They are then able to make original pictures which have rapidly evolved into extremely photorealistic images.

“Anyone can access [these generators] with a subscription and they all have immense potential to propagate biases because they’re so accessible,” Ali said.

The researchers collected US demographic data for each of eight surgical specialties: general surgery, surgery for skin cancer, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, urology, thoracic surgery, and vascular surgery. They then calculated the distribution of gender and racial identity across each one.

These specialties were targeted because “they represent a broad range of surgical disciplines and procedures, and their diversity profiles are indicative of larger trends in the field,” according to the study.

The researchers then organized the data into two categories: surgical attending physicians and trainees, who are younger and far more diverse.

The demographic data showed that across the eight specialties, 14.7 percent of attending surgeons and 35.8 percent of trainees were female, and that 22.8 percent of attending surgeons and 37.4 percent of trainees were non-white.

The researchers instructed the generators using the prompts like “a photo of the face of a [blank],” replacing “blank” with one of the eight surgical specialties. For each prompt, each system generated 100 images.

The researchers found that of the three generators, DALL-E 2, which is a product of OpenAI, came closest to reflecting the actual demographics of US surgeons, with 15.9 percent depicted as female and 22.6 percent as non-white. Midjourney and Stable Diffusion massively missed the mark — depicting over 98 percent of surgeons as white males.

Ali and his colleagues believe that DALL-E 2 was most accurate because it integrated user feedback to refine its output.

Dr. Jeremy Richards, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study, said that varied outputs could also be a result of the models using different data.

“We know that OpenAI uses information from the internet, but other companies may not use the same data,” Richards said. “If the data being used is full of older white men, then the output is going to reflect that.”

Although DALL-E 2 accurately represented the number of female surgeons, it missed the mark on trainees, depicting 15.9 percent as female compared to the actual share of 35.8 percent. Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, however, generated zero images of female surgeons across all specialties except otolaryngology, in which it portrayed 14 percent of surgeons as female.

Ali and Richards said it is important for these shortcomings to be addressed.

“If you look at the next generation of professionals, there are unprecedented numbers of females and people who aren’t white,” Ali said. “The problem of a false perception of reality is just going to get worse and worse if there is no intervention.”

OpenAI released an updated text-to-image generator in October called DALL-E 3. This model’s ability to follow a prompt is improved compared to other models that are available, according to a study conducted by OpenAI.

“What’s difficult is these companies aren’t fully transparent with where the data comes from and who is evaluating the models and what their demographic is,” said Sina Fazelpour, a professor of philosophy and computer science at Northeastern University, who was not involved in the research. “Having transparency on these things is important as they are becoming the fabric of our society.”

Ali said there are reports of AI text-to-image generators using data generated by AI in addition to publicly available data to produce their outputs. If tools are using data generated by models that neglect minority demographics, then future generations of the models could amplify biases.

This highlights the need for tools to integrate user feedback so that they don’t amplify societal biases.

“My hope is that these models learn from each others’ best practices moving forward,” Ali said. “Just as great of a leap forward they have made in their visual fidelity, they should make equal effort to represent the world around us rather than perpetuate biases.”

Maggie Scales can be reached at maggie.scales@globe.com. Follow her @scales_maggie.

Cocoa Campus is located at 1519 Clearlake Road

BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – Eastern Florida State College will host an Open House for its Medical Assistant Specialist certificate program on November 30 from 4-7 p.m. on its Cocoa Campus, located at 1519 Clearlake Road in building 17, Rooms 216 and 227.

This in-person event will provide the chance to network with faculty, advisors, and current students to learn more about a career in this exciting healthcare field.

Attendees can also get assistance with applying for the Spring 2024 term.

For more information or to RSVP, visit efsc.edu/MedAssistant or call 321-433-7575. Contact: Suzanne Rains, APR, CPRC, Executive Director, Communications

CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ConcertAI's TeraRecon, the advanced visualization and clinical AI SaaS company, today announced the addition of Lucida Medical to its Eureka Clinical AI Platform ecosystem. It will be deployed within the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and European healthcare systems.

Pi™ (Prostate Intelligence™), Lucida Medical's AI-machine learning software, is designed to help radiologists detect prostate cancer lesions from MRI, enabling faster and more accurate prostate cancer detection.  MRI is now the preferred technique to assess a range of cancers, including prostate and metastatic disease. However, radiologists currently require a labor-intensive, specialist training for interpreting prostate MRI, creating a growing skills challenge.

Prostate cancer diagnosis using MRI represents a major step forward compared to earlier methods but remains prone to human error. The ground-breaking PROMIS study (Lancet 2017; 389: 815–22) indicated that radiologists can miss 12% of significant cancers on MRI, and lead to 55% of individuals without significant cancer receiving a painful and costly biopsy. The study presented at ECR 2021 suggests that Lucida Medical's AI technology could help cut missed cancers to 7% and unnecessary biopsies to 24%, as well as making the process faster.

"Prostate Cancer is a devastating disease impacting millions of men worldwide.  As a company, ConcertAI is committed to advancing cancer research solutions and working with the worlds Biomedical and MedTech innovators," said Jeff Elton, PhD. CEO of ConcertAI.   "The addition of Lucida Medical's Pi solution as part of the TeraRecon Eureka Clinical AI ecosystem is an important advance for radiology teams working with urology and oncology healthcare practices.  Lucinda's Pi™ solution supports earlier and accurate detection, critical to achieving the best possible outcomes and treatment options for the highest quality of life for patients."  

"We are delighted to empower the wide community of TeraRecon users with our MR based prostate solution," said Dr. Antony Rix, CEO and Co-founder, Lucida Medical. "This global partnership brings healthcare providers closer to achieving faster and more accurate detection of the most common cancer in men."

Eureka Clinical AI by TeraRecon is a robust platform powering 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd party algorithms on one consolidated platform that integrates seamlessly into the PACS, provides a console to see all results and conversations across the patient's health care teams, and allows clinicians to directly interact with the AI to ensure accurate and holistic algorithm training.

Learn more about the Eureka Clinical AI platform capabilities and algorithms that span across neurology, radiology, cardiology, oncology, and more:
https://www.terarecon.com/artificial-intelligence 

About TeraRecon: Serving ~1,900 clinical sites globally, TeraRecon, a ConcertAI company, is a Best in KLAS solution provider for AI-empowered radiology, oncology, cardiology, neurology, and vascular surgery. Awarded the 2020, 2021, and 2022 KLAS Category Leader for Advanced Visualization, TeraRecon solutions are independent of any one manufacturer's imaging equipment or PACS system, allowing a single, unified, and simplified clinical workflow that can Improve efficiencies and deliver actionable physician-guided insights. For more information, visit us at www.terarecon.com

About ConcertAI: ConcertAI is the leader in Real-World Evidence (RWE) and AI technology solutions for life sciences and health care. Our mission is to accelerate insights and outcomes for patients through leading real-world data, AI technologies, and scientific expertise in partnership with the leading biomedical innovators, health care providers, and medical societies. For more information, visit us at www.concertai.com

About Lucida Medical: Lucida Medical develops AI-based technology to assist clinicians to find cancer more accurately, diagnose and treat it more effectively, and save time. A start-up business from the University of Cambridge, Lucida Medical was founded in 2019 by Dr. Antony Rix, an expert in medical devices, machine learning and AI, and Prof. Evis Sala, who at the time was Professor of Oncological Imaging at the University of Cambridge & Addenbrooke's Hospital, and who is now Chair of Radiology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Director of the Advanced Radiology Centre at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, IRCCS in Rome. Prostate Intelligence™ (Pi™) is intended for use to assist the diagnosis of prostate cancer, and is the company's first product to complete regulatory approvals. For further information, visit the Lucida Medical website at www.lucidamedical.com

Media Contact:Megan Duero, megan@galestrategies.com

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Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) received the esteemed Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Careers in Medicine (CiM) 2023 Excellence in Medical Student Career Advising Award. This recognition underscores CMSRU's unwavering dedication to guiding medical students in their journey to explore career options, make vital specialty choices, and secure coveted residency positions nationwide. CMSRU's Dean Annette C. Reboli, MD, and Associate Dean for Student Affairs Erin W. Pukenas, MD, graciously accepted the award on behalf of the institution during the exact AAMC annual meeting.

A comprehensive approach to career advising

CMSRU's Career Advising System (CAS) stands out for its comprehensive and holistic approach, ensuring no aspect of a student's career development journey is left unaddressed. Led by the Office of Student Affairs, the CAS program is an intricate tapestry of resources, programs, and dedicated personnel. It is designed to provide unwavering support to students throughout a student’s medical education, incorporating all four phases of the CiM model – self-understanding, career exploration, decision-making, and decision implementation.

At the heart of the program is the solid foundation of the AAMC's Careers in Medicine (CiM) program. CiM is introduced to students during admissions and seamlessly integrated into the students’ medical education journey, continuing through their residency transition. This holistic approach effectively incorporates all four phases of the CiM model, seamlessly integrating them within a formal, hybrid curricular and co-curricular structure.

"We believe in shaping not only the medical knowledge, but the career dreams of our students. This award underscores CMSRU’s commitment to empowering future physicians to make informed choices and realize their aspirations,” said Annette C. Reboli, MD, dean of CMSRU. “I’m incredibly proud of our Office of Student Affairs for their dedication to our students’ success and grateful that we’ve earned national recognition for our work.”

“A special thank you to Dr. Pukenas, Dr. Stephanie Smith, director of student affairs, and Frank Aguilar, executive director of the advisory colleges, as well as the advisory college directors and career coaches," added Dean Reboli.

A robust support network

Supporting the CMSRU CAS system are more than 40 faculty physician advisors, career coaches, and subspecialty mentors. They work collaboratively in a team-based model with student support services specialists, licensed counselors, diversity mentors, learning support specialists, and wellness specialists. This comprehensive network is carefully structured to provide holistic advising and support to each student, catering to their individual needs and circumstances.

"CMSRU's CAS program recognizes that every student's medical school journey is shaped by not just their academic endeavors but also by personal, psychosocial, developmental, and cultural aspects of their lives,” explained Associate Dean Pukenas. “We aim to offer a supportive and inclusive atmosphere for all our students, ensuring that no one is left behind."

Embracing the "whole-student" approach

The CAS program at CMSRU operates on the guiding philosophy of understanding each student's unique journey. It considers social-emotional dimensions, physical and mental wellness, and personal and cultural circumstances. The CAS program adopts a holistic and individualized approach to advising, offering each student an individualized, tailored team of support. This team includes advisors, coaches, mentors, support services specialists, licensed counselors, diversity mentors, and wellness specialists.

Students and alumni recognize how special CMSRU’s program is.  In a letter of support for the nomination on behalf of the student body, Class of 2023 President Kirtan Upadhyaya, MD, noted the profound influence of CMSRU’s Career Advising System on students' career trajectories and their personal development as future physicians. 

"The effectiveness of this program is not just theoretical; it's evidenced by significant student satisfaction results achieved annually,” he said. “CMSRU's CAS has helped bridge the gap between our interests and ambitions and the path to realizing them."

CMSRU's CAS program is especially proud of its inclusive atmosphere for students with disabilities. The program has been recognized with The Learning Community Institute Award for Program Innovation in disabilities advocacy and education. The unique needs of these students are thoughtfully and collaboratively considered throughout the career advising process.

A record of success and high student satisfaction

The CMSRU CAS program is not just a theoretical framework; it is a proven success story. It consistently delivers high student satisfaction and engagement, and CMSRU’s success in the National Residency Matching Program has exceeded national benchmarks since the graduation of its charter class more than a decade ago.

"Our commitment to early engagement sets the stage for students to make decisions that align with their passions and aspirations. It's about helping them build a solid foundation for their future in medicine," said Dean Reboli.

"The significant strides in student satisfaction and the continuous system improvements underscore the success of our school’s efforts to prioritize medical student career development at CMSRU," added Dr. Upadhyaya.

A Model for All Medical Schools

The CMSRU Career Advising System has set a high bar for excellence in medical student career advising. Its systematic approach and commitment to students' well-being make it a model that can be adopted by medical schools across the United States.

Click here to learn more about CMSRU’s Career & Academic Advising.