Section: Recipient’s Remarks
Kiyoshi Shikino, MD
Department of General Medicine, Chiba University Hospital
I am honored to have received the Kurokawa Prize at the ACP Chapter Annual Meeting, 2018. The “Best Abstract Award” was named as the “Kurokawa Prize” beginning in 2018, I am especially honored to be the first person to be awarded this prize.
Research particulars
What triggered this research was that I felt that there were few physicians who could perform the fundus examination confidently. Even when I observed others, few doctors were using the ophthalmoscope with confidence in actual medical practice, except for my mentor, Professor Masatomi Ikusaka. Makoto Kikugawa (Department of Medical Education, Kyushu University), one of the co-researchers, reported that approximately 90% of junior residents, senior residents, and fellows in internal medicine performed the fundus examination less than once in a few months. He also reported that the reason for the problem was mostly that they were not proficient at the fundus examination.
When I taught residents the fundus examination, I discovered why observing the fundus was difficult for them. Funduscopy is inherently difficult to teach because there is no way to verify that the learners have obtained a proper view of the fundus. The teacher cannot give students feedback on whether what they are seeing or the teacher is seeing.Furthermore, it is extremely difficult for the teachers to point out why learners cannot observe the fundus. It was such a dilemma.
Turning point
The turning point of our research was a visit to the Department of Internal Medicine, Stanford University Medical School in March 2017 where I met Dr. Errol Ozdalga and learned the educational method using the iExaminer system for fundus examination. I talked with him about implementing this educational method in Japan as well as to conduct research on its educational effect. He approved of it pleasantly.
Introduction to Clinical Clerkship at Chiba University School of Medicine
First, because of actual instruction in using this iExaminer system, student satisfaction was high, and I heard students saying that they wanted to use it actively even in future clinical training. Next, in order to confirm whether the skill really improved, I asked for the cooperation of the fundus examination simulator at the Chiba Clinical Skills Center. To evaluate the educational effects, we assessed fundus examination skills in a pre-test and a post-test. Discussions between co-researcherswere intense, raising questions such as what to make the subject matter, how many cases we must prepare, and so on. Since we were particularly interested in evaluating skills in “observing fundus,” I was keen to prevent the evaluation of skills in “interpreting fundus.” In addition,to minimize the influence of teachers’ educational skills, we developed an instructional design, led the faculty development, and randomly assigned the teachers.
Future expectations
In this study, the diagnostic accuracy of a fundus examination improved by using the iExaminer system and the time taken to identify funduscopic findingswas shortened. The iExaminer system can be implemented immediately because it can be used for free if you have the adapter and an iPhone. By spreading this teaching method, I hope that more internists can examine the fund us with confidence.
