Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

O círculo virtuoso do desenvolvimento intelectual

Agência FAPESP – “O progresso de uma nação não é medido apenas pelo desenvolvimento econômico, mas também pelo desenvolvimento intelectual da sociedade. Quanto mais uma sociedade sabe sobre o mundo e os seres humanos, melhores serão os seus planos para o futuro.”

As palavras são de Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, diretor científico da FAPESP, destacadas em entrevista concedida ao Globo Universidade, programa da Rede Globo que aborda o ensino, a pesquisa e os projetos científicos no meio acadêmico. No programa, Brito Cruz falou sobre os entraves do desenvolvimento científico no Brasil e o papel das universidades e empresas na corrida pela inovação.

“A função das empresas na sociedade é prosperar, gerar riqueza e empregos e, por meio destes, transferir renda. Dessa forma, contribuem para o desenvolvimento de um país", disse. Em relação à ciência e à tecnologia, na opinião de Brito Cruz, as empresas precisam ter atividades internas de pesquisa para poder descobrir novas formas de melhorar produtos, processos e serviços.
"O principal papel da universidade, por outro lado, é educar os jovens estudantes, que farão funcionar de forma inovadora as empresas, o governo e a sociedade. E para proporcionar uma educação de boa qualidade, as universidades precisam ter intensas atividades de pesquisa científica”, disse.
Sobre o quanto as pesquisas nas universidades e empresas contribuem para o desenvolvimento do país, ele destacou ser este um assunto continuamente debatido no Brasil e em muitos outros países, como Estados Unidos, Inglaterra e França. "No caso do Brasil, o país aplica poucos recursos em Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento, apenas 1,16% do PIB em 2010. Mas cada região é muito diferente da outra, por isso é tão difícil falar da ‘situação brasileira’.
Segundo Brito Cruz, excetuando São Paulo, em todos os outros Estados do Brasil as empresas fazem muito menos pesquisa do que deveriam e desejariam, por isso não conseguem ganhar competitividade. "Esse dado aparece em um número que o Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação frequentemente divulga e que indica os gastos com pesquisa no Brasil. Apenas 35% são feitos por empresas. Já em países mais desenvolvidos, como Estados Unidos, Canadá, Alemanha e Inglaterra, por exemplo, as empresas são responsáveis por mais de 50% dos investimentos em pesquisa feitos no país", disse.
No Estado de São Paulo, a situação é diferente. "O dispêndio total em Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento é 1,6% do PIB regional e 60% do gasto em pesquisas é feito por empresas”, acrescentou. 
Segundo Brito Cruz, as empresas paulistas têm tradição de investir em pesquisa. Em relação às universidades, também há importantes diferenças entre os investimentos realizados por São Paulo em comparação aos feitos pelos outros estados brasileiros. “Se medirmos resultados de pesquisa como, por exemplo, artigos publicados em revistas científicas mundiais, São Paulo é responsável pela metade da produção brasileira. Porém, o estado paulista possui apenas 20% dos cientistas brasileiros. Mesmo tendo menos cientistas, o estado faz metade da ciência do país", disse. 
O diretor científico também ressaltou o papel decisivo da FAPESP no desenvolvimento científico do Estado de São Paulo e do Brasil. Segundo ele, 47% do apoio por agências de financiamento à pesquisa acadêmica é feito pela FAPESP. Ex-bolsistas da Fundação atuam em pesquisa em todos os Estados brasileiros e programas de apoio à pesquisa criados pela Fundação têm servido de modelo para iniciativas federais.
"A FAPESP tem tido também um papel decisivo na internacionalização da ciência feita no Brasil, criando inúmeras oportunidades para projetos de pesquisa conjuntos entre pesquisadores de São Paulo e de outros países”, disse.
Leia a entrevista completa em: http://redeglobo.globo.com/globouniversidade/noticia/2013/04/carlos-henrique-de-brito-cruz-discute-o-desenvolvimento-cientifico-no-brasil.html
 

Pesquisa Qualitativa

Paraphrasing in Qualitative Interviews

Susan Eliot 

Some people assume that qualitative interviewing is an easy job that almost anyone can do. But that’s not quite true.
Conducting and interpreting qualitative interviews would be easy if our interviewees always provided well-thought-through ideas, and explained those ideas using clear, simple language. But with many people, we have to help them help us understand them.
In other words, the burden of producing accurate information, though shared by both conversation partners, lies heavier on the interviewer. That’s where paraphrasing can be helpful.
Paraphrasing, or restating what we thought we heard the interviewee say while watching for their reaction, gives us a sense of how close our understanding of their words comes to what they really wanted to convey. It’s a form of active listening, and is one of the best techniques we can use to clarify and maximize the accuracy of the information we collect.

Not “In Your Own Words”

I used to think that paraphrasing meant merely repeating back what I heard in my own words. It’s how most sources define paraphrasing and it’s what we’ve all learned from teachers trying to keep us from plagiarizing the source of our inspiration—“just put it in your own words.”
I’ve since come to understand that paraphrasing is actually more complex than that. Simply restating something in our own words doesn’t necessarily mean we enhance our understanding of what the interviewee is trying to convey.
Here’s why.  If we just repeat back what we hear in our own words, then all we do is shift the meaning from the interviewee’s meaning to our own. In essence, we are asking the interviewee if “our words” make sense to “them.”  Instead, we should be asking if “their words” make sense to “us.”  The difference is subtle but important, and has to do with matching our meaning space to that of our interviewees.

Meaning Space

Meaning space is that place in which both interviewer and the interviewee have a very similar interpretation of the concept the interviewee is trying to convey.  According to Dr. Richard Halley, “Your choice of words in a paraphrase should be guided by your guess as to how much ‘meaning space’ your word shares with the speaker’s word.”
As interviewer, our job is to guess the word or phrase that has a meaning space similar to the interviewee’s words. The more the interviewee struggles to express themself, the more important it is to identify words that reside in that shared meaning space.
Paraphrasing is certainly not about trying to find a “better” or cleverer way of saying something. In fact, the best words may be less articulate or precise than words used outside of the meaning space shared with the interviewee. They may instead be words spoken by the interviewee earlier in the interview, words that most people would recognize the meaning of, a metaphor that captures the shared meaning, or words that the interviewee is clearly groping for—those tip of the tongue words that may be hard to bring to mind under the pressure of an interview.

Paraphrasing Strategies

Learning to become a good paraphraser takes practice. It also helps to have a few strategies you can draw on until you develop some of your own. Here are seven paraphrasing tactics I’ve developed and have had success with in my own qualitative work:

1. Connect the dots. Sometimes people leave out a key link in their answer to your question. On the surface, it may not make sense unless you can connect the dots like I did with this gentleman:

Me: “What makes you feel appreciated on your job?” Participant: “My wife works at a place where you can’t take a day off before a holiday. I think that’s just awful; she has so many more rules than I do.” Me: “So you feel appreciated on your job because the vacation policies there are more reasonable than they are where your wife works.” Participant: “Yeah, that’s right.”

2. Name the feeling. Try to get at the underlying meaning, feelings, or intent beyond the words. Sometimes, that means helping the interviewee name their feeling.

Me: Now let’s talk about some specific ways you have felt excluded or treated differently in the workplace and how that made you feel. Participant: I’m the only female engineer in my group and I am the lead, but I feel like I’m the mom or wife.  I am the one providing them the direction on how to do the work. But I notice another group I work closely with, they have a male supervisor. They jump at his requests. Me: It seems like you’re saying you feel that your group takes you less seriously because you are a woman? Participant: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

3. Get to the point. In their determination to ensure you understand them, some interviewees provide a lot more detail than they need to in order to make their point. It’s one of the easiest situations to paraphrase, since you will have plenty of time to put together just the right restatement. The trick is not to offend the interviewee by appearing to minimalize his/her effort (that’s why I preface my paraphrase below with, ‘So it can take some doing’).

Me: How would you like managers to communicate information you need to do your job? Participant: When it comes to communicating a lot of the organizational needs, those needs, unless they’re short-term, that is something that needs to happen within a 24-48 hour window, those needs should be communicated through email on Monday or Tuesday and given to our supervisors on Tuesday so that they can be communicated to us no later than Wednesday. The person that’s in charge of the organizational updates, that person needs to have that out by Tuesday evening at the latest so that throughout the day folks are able to check on Wednesday so that there’s the opportunity to see it and read it. We know it’s there. They need to make the effort. Then it’s on me if I miss something because I didn’t read it. They’re going to get me to read it if they’re more efficient by sending it out early. I’ve got it on my phone and I can see it when I’m out and about.  Anything they send toward the later part of the week, I’m less likely to check it, read it. I might just say I’ll get to it next week. Me: So it can take some doing, but, in general, email is a good way to communicate as long as you receive the information by Wednesday. Participant: Yeah

4. Use their words. I have found that, when interviewing someone whose first language is not English, it helps to pay close attention to their word choices. Because their English vocabulary may be limited, I try to use some of those same words in my paraphrase. In the example below, the Vietnamese woman I interviewed used the words “total goal” to refer to what I guessed was a full or comprehensive physical exam.

Me:  What could have made your visit better today? Participant:  They want me to come again because my heart blood pressure is high and my heartbeat is fast.  So they want me to come again to reach the result of settling things down. Since today my blood pressure was so high they could not achieve the total goal. Me:  So it would have been better if you could have had the total exam? Participant:  Yes, total exam. That was my total goal.

5. Use a metaphor. Within the same language or culture, metaphors are a universal language ideal for paraphrasing. In the example below, an interviewee tried to explain how an organizational inconsistency enabled her to enroll in a publicly funded health insurance plan. The metaphor worked because I wasn’t trying to understand the specific details, nor was she clear on them herself. Her focus instead was on the unexplainable process.

Participant: They denied us even though we applied before the deadline.  But because it wasn’t on the paper copy, their records didn’t match up. They told us we would initially be denied. But we got on the waiting list. I guess the way to get on the waiting list was to get denied! Me:  Sounds like the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. Participant: Something like that.

6. Come close. Once in a while you’ll paraphrase something and it will not be quite right but it’s so close that it prompts the interviewee to say it exactly. That’s what happened in a focus group I conducted with seniors about aging in place. In this example, one gentleman gave me his precise answer after I came close.

Me: Where do you see yourself living as you grow old? Participant:  I live in a single-family residence now. Me:  Do you mean your home? Participant:  Yes.  Right now I mow my own lawn.  When I get older and can not do that I will have to hire that done.  Other than that, if I could not get out to buy groceries, there’s Meals on Wheels. The house is paid for.  If I had to move I would probably have to pay rent or something. Me:  It sounds like you like your current situation and see it working for you long term. Participant:  Yes. So I would like to age in place at home if I can. 

7. Say what they won’t. Sometimes paraphrasing is merely stating what the interviewee will not. They talk around it but never quite say it. This can happen if an interviewee feels somewhat uncomfortable about their disclosure or anticipates potential judgment. In my experience, they want to disclose it or they would not have brought it up. It’s just easier if you say it for them in kind, non-judgmental terms.

Participant:  A lot of people don’t like to talk about stuff. Like me, I hold a whole lot of stuff in.  I mean, with me it’s a trust issue.  I don’t open up to a lot of people. I just move on and do whatever. But it gets you in the end, which is why I am trying to work on not holding that stuff in.  Because, say I got it built up and everything and somebody accidentally hits you.  Hey, man.  What’s up?  You just flash on somebody.   Me:  I see.  Okay. So you’re trying to open up more to keep from inappropriately using your pent up anger against somebody.  Participant: Yeah, you got it.

It Takes Practice
As I’ve said, paraphrasing takes practice. It’s not an exact science and actually depends on a bit of intuition. Practicing in conversations with people you trust will make you more of a natural at it. I’ve also found that if you just make the effort, most interviewees will correct you when necessary and do what they can to get through to you. Let them be your best teachers!

Docência em Saúde Coletiva

Pesquisas não devem comprometer atividade docente

INFORME ENSP - O convite feito pelos alunos de pós-graduação para discutir a formação docente na saúde coletiva, durante o fórum realizado na quarta-feira (17/4), na ENSP, incitou uma série de debates a respeito do processo de ensino-aprendizagem no país. Entre os aspectos de maior inquietação, reproduzido não só nas falas das pesquisadoras Adriana Aguiar (Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde) e Katia Reis (ENSP), mas também de alunos e participantes, está a realidade de que a supremacia das atividades de pesquisa criaram um distanciamento entre os professores/pesquisadores e a atividade docente. A hegemonia da educação centrada no professor, evidente no ensino stricto sensu no Brasil, e a necessidade de rompimento com o modelo de ensino transmissional também foram destacados pelas palestrantes.



Promovidos pelo Fórum Nacional de Pós-Graduandos em Saúde Coletiva, os Seminários Integrados em Saúde Coletiva compõem uma série de atividades que irão debater a formação do campo no país. Os três encontros têm os seguintes temas: a Formação dos Docentes na Saúde Coletiva, a Interface entre a Graduação e a Pós-Graduação na Formação em Saúde Coletiva e a Formação de Base em Saúde Coletiva na Pós-Graduação.

“A formação docente em saúde coletiva exige uma mudança de paradigma atualmente predominante na cultura das instituições formadoras”, disse Katia Reis, pesquisadora do Centro de Estudos da Saúde do Trabalhador e Ecologia Humana da ENSP, logo no início de sua apresentação.

Na opinião da pesquisadora, a formação docente em saúde coletiva, na qualidade de campo de saberes e práticas, não pode ser compreendida em separado do projeto de reforma social, pois proporciona, em última análise, um modelo pedagógico para a atuação no campo da saúde. A literatura identifica algumas dificuldades relacionadas à formação dos professores, como a tendência em encarar com desinteresse os aspectos pedagógicos da docência no âmbito da pós-graduação em saúde, bem como a resistência dos próprios professores às modificações.
 

“Os professores continuam a ensinar como sabem; evitam as novas metodologias de ensino-aprendizagem e desviam-se das concepções pedagógicas mais avançadas ou de vanguarda, especialmente quando envolvem relações democráticas entre professores e alunos”, admitiu a pesquisadora, que também citou a falta de preparo pedagógico dos professores universitários ou da pós-graduação. Ela justificou que a supremacia das atividades de pesquisa tem levado os professores a se afastar das atividades docentes. “Pesquisar e ensinar não são atividades incompatíveis, mas competem no tempo disponível do docente/pesquisador.”

A formação docente deve experimentar novos espaços pedagógicos

Em relação às propostas para a mudança de paradigma nesse campo da formação, Katia Reis sugeriu o desenvolvimento de processos de formação sistemáticos no currículo, criativos e inovadores, cujos eixos fundamentais serão o diálogo e as bases de uma nova epistemologia, além da criação de espaços institucionais e de momentos pedagógicos para a constituição de novos sujeitos sociais.

“A formação docente deve experimentar novos espaços pedagógicos, com o desenvolvimento teórico e conceitual do corpo docente e discente de modo permanente. Não creio que os professores sejam resistentes às mudanças por não quererem aprender o novo. Temos que oferecer espaços de debate como este aqui. Queremos conteúdo, mas em formato pedagógico democrático, que leve à criação de sujeitos críticos, autônomos.”

Adriana Aguiar, do Icict, iniciou sua apresentação comentando a separação existente na relação entre academia e serviço, afirmando que o segundo campo promoveu mudanças que afetaram o modelo assistencial, a educação permanente e as relações de poder, enquanto a universidade concentrou seus esforços na produtividade na pesquisa. “Nos serviços, a gente vê uma série de mudanças que impactaram a prática, como a reordenação da atenção básica com a ESF, por exemplo. Na academia, a universidade enxerga, há décadas, a produtividade na pesquisa como o grande indicador de excelência de qualidade. E isso descompassa o que temos”.

Sobre a relação professor-aluno, a pesquisadora comentou a necessidade de renegociar a relação de autoridade presente, com base não apenas na titulação. “As pessoas têm apego às formas como fazem as coisas na educação. Temos que refletir sobre a pós stricto sensu, pois esperamos que os alunos façam coisas que a gente não dá exemplo. Do ponto de vista da gestão dos programas, precisamos enfatizar mais a aprendizagem que o ensino. A hegemonia da educação centrada no professor é evidente no Brasil”, disse.

Saúde na África

How African doctors can cure medical 'brain drain'

By Kofi Boahene, special to CNN

The doctor who rebuilds faces

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Kofi Boahene is a surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital who regularly volunteers across Africa
• A fifth of all African-born physicians work overseas, according to one study
• Boahene says many African doctors in the diaspora are giving back to the continent
• "African doctors may be living overseas, but their hearts are in Africa," he says

Editor's note: Born in Ghana, Kofi Boahene is associate professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, facial plastics and reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.

(CNN) -- On a recent medical volunteer trip I was introduced to an elderly woman on the surgical wards. She had a growing tumor that had deformed her face and was threatening her life. For three months she was told a set of special equipment was needed to perform her surgery. As she waited for this equipment, her tumor grew larger and compromised her vision in one eye.

I reviewed her records with her local surgeons and formulated a plan to remove her tumor. Using instruments that were available, we successfully removed her tumor after a two-hour operation. Looking back, her case was complex but not unusual. I have volunteered as a surgeon in several African countries and unfortunately, the story of this African woman is common. Her story highlights the gap in medical and surgical expertise available in Africa.

Dr. Kofi Boahene

Many highly skilled doctors and health professionals of African birth practice cutting-edge medicine and surgery in leading medical institutions outside Africa. They are valuable to the hospitals and countries they work in but their hearts are also at home in their native countries.

They are part of Africa's so-called "brain drain." A 2008 publication showed that, as of the year 2000, one fifth of all African-born physicians and one tenth of all African-born nurses were working overseas.

Watch video: The surgeon giving back to Africa

Global health policy experts and several world agencies have suggested a variety of measures to reverse this trend, but I have often wondered whether one piece to this puzzle is being overlooked. Perhaps African health professionals in the diaspora are actually helping on the home front, but in less overt and quantifiable ways.

African doctors and other health professionals working abroad may be living overseas but their hearts are in Africa. As the saying goes, home is where the heart is, but what if the heart is in more than one place?

African doctors living abroad have families back in Africa and are motivated to contribute to the improvement of healthcare delivery on the continent. While some are ready to return back to their native countries, others are not prepared to make a complete move, but their skills can still make an impact in developing healthcare expertise and delivery systems on the continent.

Beyond medical missions

African health professionals in the diaspora are giving back by participating in medical missions. They often recruit their colleagues to volunteer as well. Medical missions can be seen as first step in helping in the healthcare field.

Read this: Flying doctor takes to the skies after sister's death

These missions require investment of personal time, finances and other resources. Fitting mission trips into one's practice is always a challenge but the rewards of making a significant difference in lives makes it worthwhile. In a single mission, over 1,000 patients can be screened and treated and hundreds may receive vital surgery that may otherwise be unavailable.

Surgeon helps build talent around globe

Making faces move after injury

 

Medical missions can have a longer-lasting significance if they are structured to emphasize teaching and training in order to build local capacity. An effective strategy is to identify a cadre of doctors and mid-level professionals who are interested in developing their expertise in a focused area. Pairing the local professionals with an expert over several mission trips can result in a long-term mentoring relationship that is extremely effective in passing on expertise. A multiplier effect is realized when the mentee becomes a mentor to other junior professionals.

Medical missions are not one-way streets. They require commitment from both the local staff and the visiting medical team. They should be seen as equally weighted mutually beneficial partnerships.

Generosity in teaching

African health professionals in the diaspora are transferring expertise back to the continent through educational seminars and training workshops.

African Partners Medical is a group of African doctors and nurses in North America and Europe who sponsor annual educational workshops around Africa. These seminars attract faculty who are leaders in their fields. Through didactic teaching, workshops and hands-on experiences, local physicians, nurses and other supporting staff are offered the opportunity to acquire new skills in a small group setting.

In 2009 a group of Johns Hopkins neurosurgeons visited the teaching hospitals in Benin, Nigeria and the Korle Bu hospital in Accra, Ghana. The emphasis was on hands-on training. At the end of the week-long training the U.S. neurosurgeons saw the potential in a young Ghanaian neurosurgeon who was just three years out of his residency training.

This neurosurgeon was interested in gaining specialized expertise in pediatric neurosurgery but no such training opportunity exists in Ghana. Because of the exposure gained during this teaching mission, this young surgeon was able to come to Johns Hopkins for a year of formal fellowship.

Read this: How TV show could save women, babies, in Ghana

Telemedicine and medical second opinion

The rapid growth of information technology in Africa presents an opportunity for remote consultations and medical second opinions.

Telemedicine has the potential of effectively linking African health professional in the West with their counterparts in Africa. The greatest challenge to this potential has always been the high cost of telemedicine infrastructure and other related technical and organizational challenges. These challenges are rapidly fading.

Each week I spend approximately two to three hours on online consultations using technology that is readily available. Through remote-access capabilities I review imaging studies, test results and communicate directly with both patients and physicians around the globe, including several African countries. Pathologists and radiologists are reading slides and images remotely. Organizations of African doctors in the USA and Europe are establishing formalized channels that will allow patients and colleagues in Africa to tap into the expertise of their members. This already happens in informal ways.

Read this: Fighting cancer with cell phones -- innovation in Africa

Research collaboration

Some of the leading clinician scientists in the fields of breast cancer, sickle cell anemia, viral hepatitis and liver cancer -- diseases with high prevalence in Africa -- are African health professionals working in research hospitals and institutions in the West.

These scientists partner with international agencies in directing resources and collaborative research projects back to Africa.

Mobilizing

Recent years have seen a steady return of African doctors back home. Most returning doctors set up individual practices and establish their own mini-hospitals. These scattered practices are less likely to result in institutions that last beyond one generation or result in the degree of transformation necessary to narrow the gap in healthcare expertise.

Having trained at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, I am keenly aware of how a small group practice can evolve beyond one generation into a world-renowned medical center. The Mayo Clinic developed gradually from the medical practice of a father and his two sons. From the beginning, innovation was their standard and as the demand for their services increased, they asked other doctors and researchers to join them in what became the world's first private integrated group practice.

Pooling the resources of knowledge and skills among several doctors is what resulted in the present day world-renowned clinic. As African health professionals mobilize to return home or contribute from across the pond, greater strides are bound to occur if they can emulate the example of the Mayo brothers.

Resources, skill sets and expertise should be pooled to establish viable private medical institutions that can survive their founders and expand beyond one generation.

Uso de celulares no ambiente de aprendizado

Cell Phones in the Classroom: What’s Your Policy?

Sydney Fulbright, PhD *

Are we old fuddy-duddies when we ask (demand) students to put away their cell phones in the classroom or clinical areas? Students tell me this is just the way it is now, but I disagree. I teach courses in health sciences. Students practice in the hospitals, interacting with and caring for real patients. My colleagues and I have found students with their phones in their pockets, in their socks, and in their waist bands in order to have access to their precious smart phones but still hide them from instructors. We have found students sitting on stools texting while the hospital preceptors did the work. Some students are one phone call or text away from dismissal from the program before they stop using cell phones in classroom or clinical setting. What is the answer to this problem? Are faculty members being too demanding by placing cell phone restrictions in syllabi or clinical handbooks?

 

Research has indicated that student performance is significantly correlated with cell phone use. A study by Duncan, Hoekstra, and Wilcox (2012) demonstrated that students who reported regular cell phone use in class showed an average negative grade difference of 0.36 ± 0.08 on a four-point scale. Students also underestimated the number of times they accessed their phones while in class. While students reported an average access rate of three times per class period, observation data showed the rate was closer to seven times per period. An interesting finding is that other students are distracted when students text in class (Tindell and Bohlander, 2012). So while a student may claim he’s only hurting himself when texting, studies show that others are affected also. 

So what is the answer to this new form of passing notes in class? Faculty must assess their own feelings about their students using cell phones in the classroom. This will include the type of class one is leading. In the hospital setting, using a cell phone when caring for patients is disrespectful and can be dangerous to the patient’s and the student’s health. Many times it is against hospital policy to have a cell phone in a patient care area. In a lecture setting, the cell phone vibrating or a student texting can be very distracting to those around the student, including the faculty. In the exam area, students can use their cell phones to cheat on tests. Other faculty may incorporate the use of the cell phone in the course planning. The ability to quickly access the web for discussion information can be beneficial for the students. It also can encourage participation when paired with software like Poll Everywhere. 

Once the instructor has a clear understanding of the potential positive or negative impact of allowing cell phone use, he or she must clearly state policies in the syllabus. If the faculty member allows phone use, he or she then must clearly state how the cell phone can be used. If no cell phone use is allowed, this too must be clearly stated and students need to know the repercussions for violating the policy. For example, if my students use their cell phones during class, they must leave class for the rest of the day. If the violation occurs in the clinical area, they receive a formal warning. After the second warning, they are dismissed from the program. 

Most universities do not have a campus-wide policy concerning cell phones in the classroom. Instead, it is left up to the individual faculty to make those policies and state them in the syllabus – which also means it’s up to students to keep track of which professors allow cell phone use and which ones don’t under any circumstances. Whatever your policy, you need to communicate your expectations clearly so there’s no doubt in the students’ minds. As a faculty friend wrote in his syllabus, “If I see you looking at your crotch and smiling, you are dismissed.”

References:
Duncan, D., Hoekstra, A., & Wilcox, B. (2012). Digital devices, distraction, and student Performance: does in-class cell phone use reduce learning? Astronomy Education Review, 11, 010108-1, 10.3847/AER2012011.

Tindell, D. & Bohlander, R. (2011). The use and abuse of cell phones and text messaging in the classroom: A survey of college students. College Teaching. 60. Pgs. 1-9.

* Sydney Fulbright, PhD, MSN, RN, CNOR, is an associate professor in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. 

Readers, what’s your cell phone policy? Please share in the comment box.

Saúde global

Measuring universities' commitments to global health

Original Text

The Lancet, Volume 381, Issue 9874, Page 1248, 13 April 2013
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60823-5

 

The University Global Health Impact Report Card was released on April 4, marking a new effort to identify the standings of leading North American research universities in bridging the gap between research and roll out of treatments for neglected diseases. The report, sponsored by the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, assesses the performance of 54 institutions on two key aspects—commitment to innovation in research that bears on the developing world and the use of open, socially responsible technology licensing that helps to ensure affordable access.

The institutions evaluated were chosen because they are unparalleled in their funding, research output, and capacity for effecting change. However, The Report Card found gross inequities in the resources being devoted to neglected disease research—for example, less than 3% of total funding went to projects investigating neglected diseases and only ten universities had dedicated neglected disease research centres. Some did better than others. The Report Card rated the University of British Columbia as the top performer (A—), while the University of Southern California and University of Iowa ranked last (both scoring a D—). Further, the report highlights a disturbing lack of equity in socially responsible licensing and accessibility in the developing world. Only about a third of the universities included have technology transfer and licensing standards that consider social responsibility and only a small percentage of licences provide for global affordability. This is a stark finding compounded by the fact that universities rarely pursue patents in developing countries during disclosure grace periods, which has failed to spur drug manufacturers to capitalise on an open field for affordable generics—an otherwise neglected market for neglected diseases.

The Report Card points out the tremendous inadequacies of current institutional commitments, but also provides a clear set of “stretch” goals to increase access to research that could help save millions of lives. With so many resources in the hands of a small group, it's time for these institutions to extend their reach to where it's needed most.

 

Tecnologia em Educação e Saúde

Game para tratar diabéticos vence competição da Microsoft

Monica Campi, de INFO Online

 

Divulgação

Leandro Diehl e Rodrigo de Souza (ao centro) recebem o prêmio de Michel Levy (à esquerda), presidente da Microsoft Brasil

São Paulo - Desenvolvido para ajudar médicos a tratar pacientes com diabetes, o game InsuOnline foi o vencedor da etapa brasileira da Imagine Cup 2013, a Copa do Mundo da Computação da Microsoft. 

O jogo, que também foi o vencedor da categoria “Cidadania Mundial”, surgiu de uma tese de doutorado do médico endocrinologista Leandro Diehl, 35 anos, na Faculdade Pequeno Príncipe. 

A proposta do game é permitir que médicos realizem consultas virtuais com pacientes diabéticos e deem o diagnóstico acertado. O jogo é composto por 16 fases em que o jogador deverá checar o histórico clínico de seus pacientes e prescrever a melhor forma de usar insulina no tratamento. 

“Aqui os médicos podem errar sem se preocupar. A intenção é intensificar o treinamento, que hoje em dia é falho nas universidades. Além disso, quem não gosta de games, não é? É a linguagem que os estudantes estão falando hoje. Então por qual razão não ensinar neste formato?”, afirma Diehl, que contou com a ajuda de Rodrigo de Souza, 31 anos, da Oniria Games, para desenvolver o jogo. O projeto levou quase três anos para ser concluído. 

Diehl, que também é professor universitário, pretende agora levar o projeto para faculdades e até mesmo para fornecer treinamento às Unidades Básicas de Saúde (UBS). “A ideia a partir de agora é melhorar esta plataforma para depois também poder ampliá-la a outros tipos de doenças”, disse. 

Competição - O jogo InsuOnline concorreu com outros dois projetos ao prêmio da Imagine Cup. Na categoria “Games”, os estudantes da equipe “Moscow, Perdeu”, formada por alunos da UNESP, criaram o jogo Twinkle. 

O jogo, desenvolvido para plataforma Windows e Xbox 360, usa física celeste para ajudar a personagem da história, uma estrelinha perdida, a encontrar seus familiares. O jogador é levado ao espaço, onde controla seus movimentos desviando de cometas e utilizando da gravidade para se locomover.

Na categoria “Inovação”, a equipe Life Up, formada por alunos da Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), Universidade Federal do Pernambuco (UFPE) e alunos da Escola Técnica Estadual Professor Agamenon Magalhães (Etepam), em Recife, apresentou o Can Game, projeto multidisciplinar desenvolvido para ajudar no tratamento de crianças autistas.

O game utiliza o dispositivo Kinect para criar a interação da criança com o computador, estimulando o aprendizado e a capacidade cognitiva, possibilitando uma melhora na interação social com outras pessoas. 

Agora, Diehl e Souza, os vencedores da etapa brasileira, irão participar da final mundial da Imagine Cup 2013, que será realizada entre os dias 8 e 11 de julho em São Petesburgo, na Rússia. 

“Eu adoro essa competição. Me dá uma sensação de realização, de fazer algo que deixa um legado. A Imagine Cup tem um significado especial para mim, pois mistura educação, capacitação, inovação e empreendedorismo, que juntos têm o poder de transformar”, disse Michel Levy, presidente da Microsoft Brasil, durante anúncio dos vencedores.

* Este trabalho representa um exemplo de parceria público-privada entre a Oniria que desenvolveu o serious game e a universidade que realiza os estudos de validação e avaliação. A equipe engloba pesquisadores da Oniria, UEL, UEM e FPP. Parabéns a todos!

Referência:

InsuOnline, a Serious Game to Teach Insulin Therapy to Primary Care Physicians: Design of the Game and a Randomized Controlled Trial for Educational Validation

Leandro Arthur Diehl^1,2, MD, MSc; Rodrigo Martins Souza³, MBA; Juliano Barbosa Alves⁴, MBA; Pedro Alejandro Gordan¹, MD, MHPEd, PhD; Roberto Zonato Esteves^2,5, MD, PhD; Maria Lúcia Silva Germano Jorge², MSc, PhD; Izabel Cristina Meister Coelho², MD, PhD

JMIR Res Protoc 2013;2(1):e5        doi:10.2196/resprot.2431

 

FAIMER

The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER)

The idea of establishing a separate foundation developed from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates’ (ECFMG) long-standing commitment to promoting excellence in international medical education. This commitment began with ECFMG’s first faculty exchange program in 1983. In the years that followed, ECFMG increased resources for exchange programs, introduced consultation services, and considered a number of research initiatives related to international medical schools and their graduates. However, ECFMG’s Board of Trustees believed that more could be accomplished by a separate organization with dedicated resources focused on the international health professions community. Discussions began in early 2000, and, in July of that year, the ECFMG Board of Trustees approved a resolution to establish an ECFMG foundation.

The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) was incorporated as a nonprofit foundation of ECFMG in September 2000, and FAIMER’s Board of Directors held its first organizational meeting in December 2000. An executive search initiated at the end of 2001 resulted in recruitment of the Foundation’s first President and Chief Executive Officer, John J. Norcini, Ph.D., who joined FAIMER in May 2002. Throughout the period from 2001 through 2003, the membership of the Foundation’s Board expanded with the election of Directors-at-Large. By the end of 2003, all positions had been filled, and, in April 2004, the Board held its first meeting with full membership.

Beginning in 2001, FAIMER’s Directors initiated strategic planning to define the Foundation’s focus and priorities. These planning sessions culminated, in 2004, in the adoption of a formal strategic plan that identifies the Foundation’s areas of thematic and geographic focus, as well as short- and long-term goals for each area of activity. A number of key staff appointments and reorganization of FAIMER’s Board, both accomplished in 2004, ensure the expertise and oversight required to support the activities outlined in the plan.

According to FAIMER’s strategic plan, the Foundation will concentrate its efforts in three thematic areas: creating educational opportunities for health professions educators, discovering patterns and disseminating knowledge, and developing data resources. In approaching these activities, the Foundation will maximize its impact by concentrating its efforts and resources in specific, geographical areas: developing regions in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The strategic plan also calls for FAIMER to identify and collaborate with appropriate partners to leverage resources and maximize impact.

Results have been achieved in each of FAIMER’s three areas of activity. In keeping with its goal of developing resources on medical education worldwide, FAIMER introduced the International Medical Education Directory (IMED) in 2002 and enhanced access to IMED in 2003 with the introduction of the IMED Subscription Service. In 2004, development of two new directories was approved: the Directory of Organizations that Recognize/Accredit Medical Schools and the Postgraduate Medical Education (PME) Project. With respect to its commitment to create resources for health professions educators, the transition of ECFMG’s educational programs for the international health professions community, which began in 2001, has been completed, and the Foundation established a new fellowship program, the FAIMER Institute, in 2001. FAIMER has aligned these programs to create a pathway for educational leadership for international health professions educators. In the realm of research, FAIMER staff have identified important questions regarding international medical graduates and medical education and have engaged with the data resources and organizational partners that will enable meaningful research on these issues.

This 5 minute video tells more about who we are, what we do, and what FAIMER Fellows have accomplished.

FAIMER from FAIMER Institute on Vimeo.

Aprendizagem ativa

Active Learning: Changed Attitudes and Improved Performance

Maryellen Weimer, PhD

In reviewing the research on active learning in statistics, the authors of the article cited below, who are statistics faculty themselves, found some research in which certain active learning experiences did not produce measurable gains on exam performance. They “suspect the key components of successful active learning approaches are using activities to explain concepts and requiring students to demonstrate that they understand these concepts by having them answer very specific rather than general questions.” (p. 3)

To that end, they designed an introductory behavioral/social science statistics course using what they describe as a “workbook curriculum.” Students read a short chapter (five single-spaced pages) introducing a topic. After reading, students answered questions, completed a problem, and summarized the results of their computation. Then they submitted this homework assignment online before class and got feedback on their work, also before class. These homework assignments counted for 17 percent of their course grade.

In class, the instructor began by answering questions about the homework and followed that with a brief lecture during which information in the reading was reviewed. Typically this consumed 15 to 20 minutes of the 75-minute period. Then students completed a “workbook” activity. “As students worked through each subsection, they answered increasingly complex conceptual and/or computational questions” (p. 6). They could access answers while they worked. The instructor was also available to answer questions. Students were encouraged but not required to work with a partner. The instructor ended the period with another short lecture summarizing the content presented in the workbook activity. Workbook answers were not graded. Grades were based on the homework assignments, four exams, and a final. Basically, every day in class was structured this way.

To study the effects of students’ exposure to this kind of active learning experience, the faculty researchers looked at student attitudes toward statistics. They measured these with an already developed instrument, Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS), which contains 36 items and six subscales, including these three examples: one measuring student feelings toward statistics (the affect subscale), another measuring student beliefs about their ability to understand statistics (the cognitive competence subscale), and one measuring student beliefs about the usefulness of statistics in their lives (the value subscale). The 59 students who experienced the workbook curriculum completed this survey before and at the end of the course. The researchers also looked at the effects of this course design on exam scores and final course grades.

The attitudes and performance of students in the experimental group were compared with the attitudes and performance of 235 students in 20 other sections of courses similar to this one. All were general education courses that fulfilled quantitative requirements. All enrolled 30 or fewer students and required a prerequisite course in algebra.

The results confirmed the value of extensive active learning experiences in a course. “Our sections reported liking statistics significantly more than the comparison group (i.e., more positive affect scores). Our students also reported significantly higher statistical cognitive competence (i.e., confidence in their ability to understand and perform statistical procedures) than the comparison group. While students in our sections thought statistics was harder than the comparison group they also liked statistics more than the comparison group.” (p. 9)

“We suspect that most statistics instructors would want their students to report they like and understand statistics; however, we also suspect that most instructors are more concerned with their students’ actual ability to perform and understand statistics.” (p. 9) And their results did show that those more positive attitudes were positively associated with performance on the course’s comprehensive final.

The instructors also felt their teaching benefited from the approach. They were able to interact with individual students more often. They found themselves using student names more often, answering questions more frequently, and offering more feedback to individual students. They did find some student questions challenging. “Instructors must be comfortable ‘thinking on their feet.’ For our part, we found the unpredictability of students’ questions to be invigorating. We had become bored with teaching statistics but when we changed to the workbook approach, we were again excited about teaching the course.” (p. 13)

Reference: Carlson, K. A. and Winquist, J. R. (2011). Evaluating an active learning approach to teaching introductory statistics: A classroom workbook approach. Journal of Statistics Education, 19 (1), 1-22.

Reprinted from The Teaching Professor, 26.3(2012): 3.

Ciências Sociais na Saúde

Ciências Sociais na Saúde

Ocorrerá nos próximos dias 13 a 17 de Novembro de 2013, no Rio de Janeiro, o 6º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências Sociais e Humanas em Saúde, nas dependências do Campus Maracanã da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Essa sexta edição terá como tema central "Circulação e Diálogo entre Saberes e Práticas no Campo da Saúde Coletiva", e contará com a participação de convidados de vários países e do Brasil.

Veja abaixo o vídeo-convite do evento.

Em paralelo aos debates, haverá espaço para trabalhos originais dos congressistas. Clique aqui para ver as informações sobre a submissão de trabalhos científicos.

A Saúde no Brasil em 2021

Livro traz reflexão sobre desafios da saúde no Brasil

Os desafios da atual década na área da saúde no Brasil são esmiuçados no livro A Saúde no Brasil em 2021, lançado recentemente pela Associação Paulista para o Desenvolvimento da Medicina (SPDM), em parceria com a Associação da Indústria Farmacêutica de Pesquisa (Interfarma).

A obra reproduz as palestras e debates ocorridos durante o fórum internacional “Saúde em 2021”, realizado pela SPDM em 2011, com o objetivo de avaliar os desafios do sistema de saúde no Brasil.

Líderes e formadores de opinião das áreas de educação e saúde participaram do fórum e figuram entre os autores de artigos do livro, dividido em capítulos como “O Brasil no mundo”, “O sistema de saúde brasileiro”, “Perfis e necessidade de profissionais” e “A Ética”.

                                                      

O presidente da FAPESP, Celso Lafer, assina o texto Percepção faz parte da realidade, em um capítulo composto também por textos dos ex-ministros Rubens Ricupero e Henrique Meirelles, entre outros. Em sua exposição, Lafer aponta que a saúde representou 27,61% dos gastos totais da FAPESP em 2010. “Em números absolutos, a saúde é a maior destinatária hoje dos recursos concedidos pela FAPESP”, disse.

Vários autores mencionaram os desafios impostos pelo envelhecimento da população brasileira. “O Brasil corre o risco de ter todos os problemas de uma economia de saúde de país rico e envelhecido, superpostos e somados aos problemas de um país pobre e atrasado”, escreve Ricupero no texto intitulado O pior dos dois mundos.

“O envelhecimento recente e muito rápido da população brasileira já vem acarretando uma transformação epidemiológica profunda e, provavelmente, vai constituir nas próximas quatro décadas, se não o principal, um dos principais desafios da medicina, da política e da economia de saúde”, disse.

O acesso gratuito ao livro está em: www.spdm.org.br/site/pt/noticias/367-spdm-e-interfarma-lancam-livro-sobre-a-medicina-no-brasil-em-2021.html