Objective: The objective of this review is to analyze the hidden curriculum with respect to its potential as a curriculum promotor or inhibitor of medical curricula, and to review the strategies that can help make it one of the curriculum promotors. Data Sources: We searched PubMed, Cochrane Reviews, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) library, with Google Scholar for grey literature, using specified keywords with a time limit from January 2000 to December 2023. We included original articles, review articles and meta-analyses, book chapters, and books focusing on the hidden curriculum effects on curriculum. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Three different reviewers independently searched the relevant literature. The Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) quality criteria were used to assess the quality, the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) checklists for risk of bias assessment, and the GRADE-CERQual framework for confidence of evidence in each article. Findings were synthesized by using thematic synthesis to identify promotive and inhibitory effects along with recommended strategies. Results: A total of 23 articles were selected for full review. These articles infer that the hidden curriculum can affect the medical curriculum in both negative and positive ways. A few of the curriculum-promoting effects of hidden curriculum are soft skills (interpersonal, communication, and professional behaviors often labelled as soft skills in the literature) and practical knowledge acquisition, cultural proficiency, moral growth, and professionalism. The negative or inhibitory effects include a detrimental learning environment, learning unprofessional and unethical practices, gender inequities, stress, and burnout. Strategies that should be adopted to overcome the inhibitory effects of the hidden curriculum include raising awareness among the stakeholders regarding the hidden curriculum, aligning the hidden curriculum with the intended curriculum, institutional and administrative policies, role modelling, and mentorship. Conclusion: Hidden Curriculum plays a very crucial role in medical education. By addressing its due importance, it can highly enhance the competence of future health professionals.

Medical education is constantly evolving worldwide and facing various challenges. To cope with these, continuous and fruitful evaluation of an educational program is the need of the day. This study aims to know the purpose of evaluation, various theories related to program evaluation, and different models of curriculum and program evaluation. This will help educationists evaluate their programs fruitfully and effectively according to their needs and objectives. Different search engines including Medline’s PubMed interface, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Review databases using keywords, curriculum evaluation, evaluation models, and evaluation strategies in education, were searched without any date restrictions, and 20 full-text articles were selected for review and data extraction. While reviewing the literature it was found that most of the modern educational program and curriculum evaluation models are based on the reductionist, system, and complexity theories of evaluation. The experimental/quasi-experimental model is based majorly on the linear approach and reductionism, but its drawback is that it is impractical for the whole curriculum and sometimes ethically unfavorable. Kirkpatrick’s model, Philips’ model, the CIPP model, and the logic model are based on the system and complexity theory and are more practical in medical education. Each of these models has its advantages and limitations. In this review, the authors discussed the important distinctive features of these evaluation theories and models and their applicability and usefulness in evaluating different programs and curricula.

Background: Several precipitating factors of hepatic encephalopathy have been recognized and studied. Hepatic encephalopathy which is a frequent and grave complication of liver failure, is associated with multiple biochemical changes like high serum ammonia, mercaptan and phenol levels, low albumin levels and derangements in electrolytes. It is characterized by a range of neuronal and psychological aberrations mainly due to the inability of liver to metabolize different neurotoxic chemicals produced in the body. Hypokalemia is one of the most important findings in hepatic encephalopathy and postulated as a precipitating factor of the condition. The authors aimed to know the frequency of hypokalemia and its relation to the severity of hepatic encephalopathy. Methods: After taking approval from the hospital ethical review committee, a total of 5000 patients with hepatic encephalopathy were recruited by consecutive sampling. They were interviewed, examined and investigated for serum potassium levels and other precipitating factors of hepatic encephalopathy. Results: Total of 5000 patients including 3070 (61.4%) males and 1930 (38.6%) females, aging 13 years and above were studied. The frequency of hypokalemia was 78% (3900 patients). Relating the serum potassium level with the severity of hepatic encephalopathy, 1200 (60%) out of 2000 patients with serum potassium below 2.5 mEq/l were in grade 4 (40%) and 800 out of 2000 were in grade 3 encephalopathy. On the other hand, only 700 patients (6.4%) out 1100 with serum potassium above 3.4 mEq/l were in grade 4 encephalopathy. Conclusion: Hypokalemia is a frequent finding in patients with hepatic encephalopathy and found to be directly related to its severity.

The main aim of this study is to know the loopholes in the feedback system, strategies to remove these loopholes, and to measure the effects of an efficient feedback system in an institution. This research has three stages. In the first stage, we tried to find out the flaws in the feedback system of the institution based on published benchmarks. Then we tried to remove these flaws with the collaboration of different stakeholders. In the last stage of the study, we tried to measure the effectiveness of these corrective procedures by certain key performance indicators (KPIs). After improvement strategies, there was a significant improvement in the KPIs like, the knowledge and attitude toward the feedback improved from 3.1 to 4.23 in students, and from 3.46 to 4.34 in faculty members, on a five-point scale, and the teaching standards improved as measured by students' performance in different courses in terms of learning objectives achievement, for example in internal medicine from 70.8% to 75.3%. Similar improvement was recorded in other KPIs as well. An efficient feedback system is the backbone of education and by adopting effective feedback, individuals and institutions can excel in the field of medical education.

Purpose: Coronary artery disease (CAD), clinically manifested as coronary syndrome (CS), is the leading cause of death and a significant contributor to morbidity worldwide. Elevated serum homocysteine levels have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, including CAD. Despite extensive research, the relationship between serum homocysteine and coronary syndromes with related short-term mortality is still under-studied. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the correlation between serum homocysteine levels and various types of CS, as well as in-hospital mortality in these patients. Patients and Methods: This multicenter study included 381 CS patients from Afghanistan, Egypt, and Pakistan tertiary care hospitals. The relation of serum homocysteine levels with different types of CS as well as with in-hospital mortality was measured and analyzed using inferential statistics (ANOVA, Kruskal–Wallis test, Tukey’s post-hoc, Pearson correlation, etc.) and regression analysis (Binary regression). Results: Among 381 patients from both genders, 160 were from Pakistan, 130 from Egypt, and 91 from Afghanistan. There was no significant difference in baseline characteristics, like age, gender, homocysteine level, CS type, and mortality, among the three countries (p > 0.05). The one-way ANOVA, the Kruskal Wallis Test, and Tukey’s post hoc test showed a significant difference among different CS groups based on serum homocysteine levels, and Pearson correlation showed a strong correlation between serum homocysteine and CS (r = 0.4). Binary regression analysis showed a 10.5% increase in in-hospital mortality for each 1 μmol/L increase in homocysteine levels. Conclusion: Serum homocysteine could serve as a valuable biomarker and mortality predictor in CS patients.