The Department of Surgery at Laval University has been a key player in the development of Canada-China cooperation since the 1980s. The projects initiated and developed by Jean Couture and Guojin Liu to address cancer issues, and specifically breast cancer, were heralded as outstanding successes. In the meantime, the Department of Surgery at Laval…

The anatomical theatre played a pivotal role in the evolution of medical education, allowing students to directly observe and participate in the process of dissection. Due to the increase of training programs in clinical anatomy, the Institute of Human Anatomy at the University of Padova has renovated its dissecting room. The main guidelines in…

Rats can be used as a model organism to teach physiological concepts in a laboratory setting. This article describes a two-part laboratory that introduces students to hypothesis testing, experimental design, the appropriate use of controls and surgical techniques. Students perform both a castration and sham-control surgery on male rats and test…

A learner-centred approach puts students amidst the learning process and helps them become involved in that process. It provides an opportunity for students to choose and direct the course of the lesson. This approach is especially appropriate when dealing with ethical concerns that might be sensitive issues. When it comes to the sources for the…

Effective mentoring has an invaluable role in the development of surgeons at various levels and is frequently perceived vital in achieving career success. Its role therefore is only second to credentialing. However, the formal role of mentoring and learner support in surgical training remains non-existent. This is reflected in a paucity of…

The teaching of anatomy has consistently been the subject of societal controversy, especially in the context of employing cadaveric materials in professional medical and allied health professional training. The reduction in dissection-based teaching in medical and allied health professional training programs has been in part due to the financial…

The prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity has tripled in the past three decades. This increase has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in obesity-related health complications among American youth. Thus, many obese youth are now experiencing illnesses that will threaten their life expectancy in the absence of significant weight loss.…

Project H.M. was just the sort of thing one might expect the Internet to latch onto: it was a live streaming video of a frozen human brain being slowly sliced apart. Users who clicked the link on Twitter or Facebook between the 2nd and 4th of December 2009 were immediately confronted with a close-up shot of the brain's interior, which was…

Current undergraduate medical curricula provides relatively little time for cadaver dissection. The Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Padova has organized a pilot project with the University Hospital for the donation of body parts that are surgically removed for therapeutic purposes and destined under Italian law for…

This paper discusses the experiences of parents of deaf children with additional complex needs (ACN) in accessing cochlear implant (CI) services and achieving ongoing support. Of a total study group of fifty-one children with ACN, twelve had been fitted with a CI. The parental accounts provide a rich and varied picture of service access. For some…

The pica phenomenon, where non-edible substances are repeatedly consumed, has been linked with developmental and behavioural disorders, particularly autism. The clinical presentation of foreign body ingestion in patients with autism is discussed, and recommendations for caregivers are provided based on the available literature. An 18-year-old man…

Moving knowledge into practice and the implementation of innovations in health care remain significant challenges. Few researchers adequately address the influence of organizations on the implementation of innovations in health care. The aims of this article are to (1) present 2 conceptual frameworks for understanding the organizational factors…

The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a society where obsession over a constructed "obesity" epidemic runs alongside obsession over thinness; a society where advertisers manipulate digital images of bodies to present two-dimensional versions of ideal male and female physiques, and plastic surgeons…

A nonverbal learning disability is believed to be caused by damage, disorder or destruction of neuronal white matter in the brain's right hemisphere and may be seen in persons experiencing a wide range of neurological diseases such as hydrocephalus and other types of brain injury (Harnadek & Rourke 1994). This article probes the relationship…

This version of "Serving Deaf Students Who Have Cochlear Implants. PEPNet Tipsheet," written in Spanish, describes how cochlear implants (CIs) work. CIs are complex electronic devices surgically implanted under the skin behind the ear. These devices utilize electrodes placed in the inner ear (the cochlea) to stimulate the auditory nerve of…