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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented challenges to medical education systems and medical students worldwide, making it necessary to adapt teaching to a remote methodology during the academic year 2020–2021. The aim of this study was to characterize the association between medical professionalism and dropout intention during the pandemic in Peruvian medical schools. Methods: A cross-sectional online-survey-based study was performed in four Peruvian medical schools (two public) during the academic year 2020–2021. Medical students, attending classes from home, answered three scales measuring clinical empathy, teamwork, and lifelong learning abilities (three elements of medical professionalism) and four scales measuring loneliness, anxiety, depression, and subjective wellbeing. In addition, 15 demographic, epidemiological, and academic variables (including dropout intention) were collected. Variables were assessed using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The study sample was composed of 1107 students (390 male). Eight variables were included in an explanatory model (Nagelkerke-R2 = 0.35). Anxiety, depression, intention to work in the private sector, and teamwork abilities showed positive associations with dropout intention while learning abilities, subjective wellbeing, studying in a public medical school, and acquiring a better perception of medicine during the pandemic showed a negative association with dropout intention. No association was observed for empathy. Conclusions: Each element measured showed a different role, providing new clues on the influence that medical professionalism had on dropout intention during the pandemic. This information can be useful for medical educators to have a better understanding of the influence that professionalism plays in dropout intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction This issue of the feature column reports on developments in Peru on the use of information and communication technologies to improve public health. The authors describe how cell phones and hand-held devices are being deployed to monitor diseases. Recent concerns about the spread of swine flu highlight the importance of robust public health systems in developing countries. 1 Jeannete Murphy Reference [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Low-cost handheld computers (PDA) potentially represent an efficient tool for collecting sensitive data in surveys. The goal of this study is to evaluate the quality of sexual behavior data collected with handheld computers in comparison with paper-based questionnaires. Methods: A PDA-based program for data collection was developed using Open-Source tools. In two cross-sectional studies, we compared data concerning sexual behavior collected with paper forms to data collected with PDA-based forms in Ancon (Lima). Results: The first study enrolled 200 participants (18-29 years). General agreement between data collected with paper format and handheld computers was 86%. Categorical variables agreement was between 70.5% and 98.5% (Kappa: 0.43-0.86) while numeric variables agreement was between 57.1% and 79.8% (Spearman: 0.76-0.95). Agreement and correlation were higher in those who had completed at least high school than those with less education. The second study enrolled 198 participants. Rates of responses to sensitive questions were similar between both kinds of questionnaires. However, the number of inconsistencies (p = 0.0001) and missing values (p = 0.001) were significantly higher in paper questionnaires. Conclusion: This study showed the value of the use of handheld computers for collecting sensitive data, since a high level of agreement between paper and PDA responses was reached. In addition, a lower number of inconsistencies and missing values were found with the PDA-based system. This study has demonstrated that it is feasible to develop a low-cost application for handheld computers, and that PDAs are feasible alternatives for collecting field data in a developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Peru, there are no formal university graduate programs in biomedical and health informatics, and there is a lack of other health informatics programs. AMAUTA, a joint program between the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima and the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle has been training Peruvian health professionals since 1999 regarding biomedical and health informatics. In 2007, UPCH is offering the first Graduate Diploma Program in Biomedical Informatics in the country.