A Womans University College of Medicine faces curriculum reform in 2020. To determine what reforms are needed in the premedical curriculum, a needs assessment was conducted.

This study utilizes qualitative study method. A focus group interview was conducted with four students who completed premedical courses from November to December 2018. Interviews were conducted in two groups by grade level, and each interview was recorded. After transcribing the recorded contents, four researchers analyzed the data using conventional content analysis.

Students chose A Womans University College of Medicine considering their future careers as female medical professionals and other considerations such as scholarships. The students expected diverse experiences, exchanges with students in different departments, and fusion of medicine with other fields during their premedical years. Overall, these expectations were met during the course, but individual needs for customized education, such as liberal arts, were unmet. In general, students' attitudes toward premedical courses were very motivated and they actively used resources provided by the university.

Qualitative research can provide a better understanding of quantitative data, such as a student survey performed to prepare for curriculum reform. Based on this understanding, the curriculum will be reformed to reflect the educational needs of students, to motivate students and to provide satisfactory education.

There is a growing trend of medical students using electronic devices for studying. This paper analyzes such trend and assesses if the utilization of devices is adequate to effectively help students to study.

Survey of total 155 medical students about the usage of the electronic devices for studying during the first year of medical school was done. The answers were matched with their exam scores in the first year.

Most of students were using a device, as a learning tool and the most important purpose of it was its convenience, especially for taking notes during lectures. However, students who didn't use a device when they learned anatomy or who studied with the printouts showed a tendency of receiving better scores on exams.

Utilizing electronic devices for studying tends to be more convenient, but not effective for studying anatomy.

Although common cold is a major cause of morbidity among university students, studies on the risk factors in relation to physical, social, emotional life styles among university students are limited. We sought to evaluate the effects of life style, depressive symptoms, and social support in common cold among medical school students.

120 medical students were surveyed through a self-reported questionnaire. They were asked to rate the severity of eight respiratory symptoms of the Jackson Criterion during the previous month. The ratings were summed to calculate the total symptom score. Social support was assessed by using Interpersonal Support Evaluation List(ISEL). Depressive symptoms were assessed by using The Center for Epidemiologic studies Depression Scale(CES-D). A score of 16 or higher was used as the cut-off point for high depressive symptoms. Life style factors were also evaluated. that Wilcoxon rank sum test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Chi-square test, and logistic regression test were used.

The symptom score ranged from 0 to 18 and the median was 10 among those who had experienced symptoms. 33(34.4%) had experienced cold during the last month. The social support score ranged from 91 to 156 and the median was 113. The prevalence of high depressive symptoms was 36.7%. Students with lower social support and higher depressive symptoms had higher cold symptom scores, although it was not statistically significant. Students who had evaluated their sleep quality and health status as bad had higher cold symptoms scores. In multiple logistics regression analysis, depression, sleep quality, and self-perceived health status were either significant or border-line significant risk factors of cold.

Our study suggests that life style factors such as sleep quality and self-perceived health status is associated with an increased susceptibility to common cold.

Undergraduate medical students should learn oral presentation skills, which are central to physician-physician communication. The purpose of this study was to compare checklist scores with global ratings for evaluation of oral case presentation and to investigate interrater agreement in the scoring of checklists.

The study group included twenty-one teams of undergraduate medical students who did clerkship for 2 weeks in the department of Laboratory Medicine of Mokdong Hospital, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University from January 2005 to October 2006. Three faculty raters independently evaluated oral case presentations by checklists, composing of 5 items. A consensus scores of global ratings were determined after discusssion. Inter-rater agreement was measured using intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC). As the ICC values approaches 1.0, it means higher inter-rater agreement.

The mean of consensus global ratings was significantly higher than that of checklists by three faculty raters(12.6±1.7 vs 11.1±2.0, P<0.001). Spearman's correlation coefficient between global ratings and checklist scores was r=0.82(P<0.01). The overall scores of checklist were significantly different among three raters (12.3±2.0, 10.8±2.8, 10.0±2.7, P<0.05). ICC values in the scoring of checklists were as follows ; for overall scores, 0.750 ; for individual checklist items, 0.350-0.753.

These results suggest that checklist scores by faculty raters could be one of the most useful tools for evaluation of oral case presentation, if checklist would be modified to make less ambiguous and more objective and faculty raters would have opportunities to be educated and trained for evaluation skills of oral case presentation.