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The incorporation of actors as standardized patients (SPs) to help students achieve learning goals across a range of topics has become widespread in medical education. SPs are integrated into formative and summative objective structured clinical examinations by medical educators and by licensing boards for assessment of competence. While SPs are useful for assessment of dynamic skills, they also have significant utility as an engaging instructional method. Few tools in teaching allow for the breadth of instruction, practice, and assessment offered by workshops involving SPs. A simulated encounter with an SP may be a trainee's only opportunity to experience working through a particular clinical scenario in an environment that carries no risk of significant harm. Thus, there is immense potential for educational innovation with SPs. The following Twelve Tips piece provides suggestions for harnessing this potential based on available literature and educational experiences of the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of relationship-centered care was first introduced approximately 20 years ago, but this important concept has not yet been widely disseminated in clinical practice. Relationship-centered care in the health profession focuses on all relevant relationships in health care, not only between health care professionals and patients but also among colleagues, staff members, students, community, and self. This review summarizes the key literature to date on relationship-centered care as it pertains to the physician-patient relationship. Becoming more aware of the physician (self) and patient is a form of metacognition, thinking about what is happening in the moment as physicians and patients come together. Considering the complexity of the physician-patient relationship, we can implement simple metacognitive techniques toward the daily habitual practice of relationship-centered care.

Context: Research has demonstrated the potential adverse impact of pharmaceutical company marketing techniques on doctor knowledge and prescribing practices. Lack of experience may make resident doctors particularly vulnerable to pharmaceutical industry influence. Curricula addressing resident-pharmaceutical industry relations have been reported, but there is no consensus regarding the best approach to take., Objective: This study aimed to review published curricula that address resident-pharmaceutical industry relations and to assess them for content, validity and outcomes measures., Methods: Curricula were identified via searches of electronic databases and bibliographies of collected articles. Inclusion criteria required articles to describe an educational curriculum, applied in graduate medical education, on relations between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry., Results: The search identified 9 curricula. Most addressed detailing of residents by pharmaceutical representatives. Two articles described curriculum development. Eight articles included an evaluation component; only 1 included a control group for comparison. Modest improvements were noted in resident confidence, knowledge of guidelines, belief in the potential influence of marketing on behaviour, and self-reported acceptance of gifts. Only 2 evaluations used a validated outcome instrument, and no studies included longterm follow-up., Conclusions: A limited number of curricula have addressed resident-pharmaceutical industry interactions. Inconsistency in content, application and evaluation methodology prevents any meaningful synthesis of data. Resident attitudes and behaviours may be affected, but the outcome measures used lacked sufficient validity to assess improvements in knowledge and analytic skills. A clearer delineation of the curriculum development process and the use of standardised outcome measures would facilitate the reproduction of positive results at other institutions.