Recent Articles


Telemedicine is a key element of modern healthcare, providing remote medical consultations and bridging the gap between patients and healthcare providers. Despite legislative advancements and pilot programs, the integration of telemedicine education in Romania remains limited. Addressing these educational gaps is essential for preparing current and future medical professionals to effectively use telemedicine technologies.

Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPTTM) is a large language model (LLM)-based chatbot developed by OpenAITM. ChatGPT has many potential applications to healthcare, including enhanced diagnostic accuracy and efficiency, improved treatment planning, and better patient outcomes. Healthcare professionals’ perceptions of ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence tools are not well known, and understanding these attitudes is important to inform the best approaches to explore their use in medicine.

Opportunities to learn ultrasound-guided/-assisted (USGA) neuraxial techniques in pediatric patients are limited, given the inherent high stakes and small margin of error in this population. Simulation is especially valuable in pediatrics, because it enhances competency and efficiency, without added risk, when learning new skills, specifically those seen with ultrasound-guided regional anesthetic techniques. However, access to simulation opportunities using phantom models in medical education is limited due to excessive costs. We describe a process to produce ultrasound phantoms, using synthetic ballistic gelatin, that can be used for simulation and are affordable, reproducible, and shelf stable indefinitely. The ultrasound images produced by these phantoms are comparable to those obtained from a real pediatric patient, including sacral anatomy necessary for caudal epidural blocks, as validated by practicing pediatric anesthesiologists. Phantom models offer a more cost-effective alternative to commercially prepared phantoms, expanding access to realistic simulation for neuraxial ultrasound in pediatric medical education without the prohibitively high expense.


Studies confirm a relationship between learning style and medical career choice in the learning style patterns observed in distinct types of residency programs. Such patterns can also be applied to general surgery, from medical school to the latest stages of training. Aligning teaching strategies with the predominant learning styles in surgical residency programs has the potential to make training more effective.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, it was difficult for residency training programs to conduct on-site, hands-on training. Distance learning, as an alternative to in-person training, could serve as a viable option during this challenging period, but few studies have assessed its role. This study aims to investigate the impact of distance learning during the lockdown on residents’ self-assessed competency development and to explore the moderating effect of poor mental health on the associations.

Approximately 4000 preventable surgical errors occur per year in the US operating rooms (ORs), many due to suboptimal teamwork and safety behaviors. Such errors can result in temporary or permanent harm to patients, including physical injury, emotional distress, or even death, and can also adversely affect care providers, often referred to as the "second victim."

Palestinian higher education institutions face limitations in providing interactive practical training for medical education. Extended reality (XR), which encompasses virtual reality and augmented reality, is increasingly recognized for addressing these challenges by offering immersive learning experiences.
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