Today, one of the most important challenges for physicians is the adequate treatment of infections due to multidrug resistant organism (MDR). Pseudomonas aeruginosa is considered an opportunistic organism causing different types of healthcare associated infections (HAIs). We aimed to investigate the MDR and pandrug resistance (PDR) rate in P. aeruginosa in our region and detect efflux-pump mexAB genes and the proposed binding interactions of five different categories of antimicrobial agents with the mexB pump. A total of 180 non-duplicated P. aeruginosa strains were isolated from patients with HAIs in the Suez Canal University Hospital. Phenotypically, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was done for all MDR and PDR strains before and after addition of efflux pump inhibitor carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP). Molecular detection of mexA and mexB genes was done by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Most of the isolated strains (126 strains) were MDR (70%); only 10 samples (5.5%) were PDR. MexA and mexB genes were detected in 88.2% (120 strains) and 70.5% (96 strains) of stains, respectively. All PDR strains (10 stains) carried both mexA and mexB genes. Efflux mexAB genes were detected in all MDR and PDR strains (136 strains). Molecular modeling studies were performed to investigate the modes of intermolecular binding interactions between the antimicrobial agents and mexB key amino acids that resulted in MDR and PDR. The current study reported high prevalence of MDR and PDR P. aeruginosa in patients with HAIs in the Suez Canal University Hospitals.

Student-centered learning strategy increases the likelihood of graduation of competent, self-dependent, and problem-solving physicians. The University of Bisha, College of Medicine (UBCOM) adopted self-directed learning (SDL) represented by problem-based learning (PBL), and directed self-learning (DSL) represented by team-based learning (TBL). To compare the students’ performance in SDL and DSL among UBCOM students. A total of 502 multiple choice questions (MCQs) from the mid-course and final exams were collected by the relevant subject experts from nine courses during the period from September 2020 till June 2023 that adopted PBL and TBL; 247 MCQs related to PBL and 255 related to TBL. Psychometric analysis was used to determine difficult, easy, and optimum questions (≤25%, ≥90%, and 26–89%, respectively). Point biserial as 0.40 which indicate poor, marginal, good, and excellent point biserial, respectively. Finally, the number of functional distractors was attempted by >5% of the candidates. No significant differences were noted for the students’ performance in MCQs related to PBL (representing self-directed, small group learning tool), and TBL (representing directed-self, large group learning tool) regarding difficulty index (DI), point biserial, and distractors functionality. It has been observed that there is no difference in students’ performance whether PBL or TBL is used for learning Basic Medical Science courses. Small group learning such as PBL needs more resources in comparison to large group learning as in TBL, therefore any institute can decide on the adopted learning strategy depending on its resources and the number of students.

Background: Telemedicine is the remote delivery of medical services. There has yet to be sufficient data in our community on perspectives on telemedicine. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the perception and attitude of physicians and medical students in Bisha region toward telemedicine. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians in ten hospitals and primary health care centers in Bisha and medical students at the College of Medicine, University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia. A structured, self-administered online questionnaire with optional participation was distributed. Results: 239 responses were received with diverse distribution among different ages, genders, nationalities, occupations, and frequencies of daily technology use. The participants showed 60.3% acceptance of telemedicine, especially its helpfulness in transferring information among sectors. Various sociodemographic-dependent debates were retrieved regarding the viability of telemedicine approach, its integration ability, time and money saving, and flexibility. The frequency of personal computer use correlated positively with the participants’ perceptions and attitudes (p=0.001 and 0.003). A positive attitude was retrieved from 79.1% of participants, with readiness to obtain telemedicine training for better professional growth, especially in non-Saudi personnel. The lack of suitable equipment, patient satisfaction and compliance, weakness of the doctor-patient relationship, familiarity with technology, and extra load for physicians were the most prominent barriers mentioned by the participants. Conclusions: Meetings, training, and orientation programs still need to be scheduled for the general population, healthcare personnel, and information technologists to override the weaknesses in community awareness and telemedicine deficiencies and to get the benefit of this technology.

Purpose: Students’ approaches to learning are central to the process of learning. There is strong debate about the efficiency of traditional learning program (TLP) and the integrated learning program (ILP) in medical schools. TLP is easy for the students being passive learners and for the tutors playing the role of sage on the stage. ILP is mainly student centered in which the students are active learners with mentoring of their tutors. It is important to know the perspectives of medical school students about both programs as they used to apply TLP in the 1^st year and starting ILP from the 2^nd year. Methodology: This study adopted quantitative research methodology. We addressed the 2nd and 3rd year medical students. Online survey using the Google forms was applied for data collection. Results: agreement of the integrated program (80.8%) exceeded the traditional (48.5%) especially in improving the communication skills, dealing with new technologies, reinforcement of competencies in the research field, and to less extent for its suitability to be applied in medical schools nowadays, development of desired doctor skills to deal with patients and for provision of good approach for medical practice, and lastly for its suitability to identify and deal with the community needs. There was no statistical significance between both programs regarding support of professionalism values. The disagreement of ILP (19.2%) was much lower than TLP (51.5%). Conclusion: Integrated learning program becomes an innovative tool for learning in medical schools with very good compliance among the medical students.