Search

Background: Medicine is one of the few academic disciplines that cannot be taught in the distance education mode. Hands-on practice for clinical skills and competency is critical in medical education. Although this pandemic has offered new learning modes such as teleconsultation, videoconferencing, virtual simulations, and digital podcasts, how much actual knowledge transfer and skill gain will be achieved, is unanswered. Aims and Objectives: The present study has been planned to understand the impact of COVID on medical education and to identify the factors which promoted or hindered learning during COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 261 willing MBBS students from various colleges of Tamil Nadu after obtaining Institutional Ethical committee clearance using a pre-validated structured online questionnaire through Google form link in online social platforms through “Voluntary opt in” method of sampling. Results: About 22.6% of the study participants were affected by COVID-19. About 46% of the participants family members suffered from COVID and all of them accepted that it significantly affected their academics. About 71.6% experienced anxiety/depression. About 93.5% were addicted to social media during class hours. About 88.1% welcomed “flipped/blended learning”. More than 90.8% reported that they missed skill-based learning/Primary health care training. About 80.8% positively felt that they got more duration for preparing exams. About 89.3% found that practical exams were challenging. Conclusion: Not only have we witnessed the importance of having a robust health-care system, but the pandemic has created a critical need to transform various aspects of medical education especially to a model of blended learning of online and offline methods to enable a better academic environment so as to reflect the changing medical landscape.

Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) autonomic neuropathy and reflux esophagitis are common in chronic diabetics. To gauge the adequacy of peristalsis, high-resolution esophageal manometry is considered as a reliable test. Aim and Objective: To compare the GI symptoms and high-resolution manometry parameters between type II diabetes patients and normal volunteers. Materials and Methods: This comparative study was conducted on 35 known type II diabetes mellitus patients (hemoglobin A1c [HbA1c] levels ≥6.5%) and 35 normal volunteers between the age group of 35 and 70 years. Sociodemographic details, drug history, disease duration, and GI symptoms were elicited among the study participants. HbA1c and High-resolution manometry were measured for all the participants. Results: The frequency of epigastric pain (31.48%), heartburn (34.28%), pharyngeal irritation (31.43%), and loose stools (37.14%) were significantly higher in the diabetics. Significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed in mean basal expiratory pressure (MBEP) and mean basal inspiratory pressure (MBIP) values between diabetics and controls. There was a positive significant correlation between esophagogastric junction contractile integral and MBIP (r = 0.557), MBEP (r = 0.583), Median Integrated Relaxation pressure (r = 0.410). Conclusion: Hyperglycaemia seems to be an independent risk factor for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Obesity significantly increments the occurrence of GERD in diabetics. Strict adherence to preventive measures such as weight reduction, diet management, glycaemic control will have a great impact on the occurrence of GERD in diabetics.