To examine the status of pharmaceutical industry support for junior residency education in Japan, we performed a questionnaire survey of 445 residency program directors （response rate, 76%）.
1） Fifty-one percent of respondents thought that industry support was necessary for education, and 28% did not believe that industry support negatively affects residents’ prescribing behaviors.
2） Twelve percent said their institutions had a curriculum for physician-industry relationships. Ten percent prohibit residents from meeting with pharmaceutical representatives, and 30% ban gifts from industry.
3） Fifty-one percent reported that they had pharmaceutical industry-sponsored in-hospital educational events for residents, and 73% reported that they had industry-sponsored in-hospital educational events which residents were allowed to attend.
4） Program directors’ belief that industry support was necessary for education predicted that programs would receive such support.

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Objective: The objective of this study was to clarify the learning processes of expert public health physicians.
Research questions: The research questions were as follows. 1） What kind of learning experiences do public health physicians have? What do they learn from these experiences? 2） What kind of thoughts do they have? How do they form these thoughts?
Methods: Ten expert public health physicians, who had worked as public servants for more than 10 years, had worked in an administrative position, and had been recommended by colleague public health physicians, were interviewed with a semistructured interview form. The data were analyzed on the basis of the Grounded Theory Approach.
Results: Regarding these physicians’ learning experiences, during medical school and residency they learned the importance of public health from senior public health physicians, as hospital physicians they learned about primary care from patients with psychiatric illnesses and intractable illnesses, and as public servants they learned lessons in 11 categories though events in 13 categories.
  Regarding thoughts about public health, 4 categories were found; self-related thoughts, patient-related thoughts, social-related thoughts, and organization-related thoughts. The social-related thoughts were of central importance.
Conclusions: The learning experiences of expert public health physicians were clarified. Theoretical implications are considered on the basis of theories of achieving expertise and learning experiences.

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Introduction and Methods: An immediate effect of the physician shortage is the return to clinical work by physicians who had earlier left. Therefore, the needs of returning physicians were examined by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The subjects were clinicians working in Gunma Prefecture.
Results: About 50% of female physicians and 25% of male physicians had left clinical practice. The reasons given for leaving were “studying abroad” for most male physicians and “pregnancy and child-rearing” for most female physicians. More than 70% of physicians who had left clinical work felt uneasy about returning. The degree of anxiety after returning did not differ significantly between male and female physicians. Problems encountered by returning physicians involved “changes in medicines,” “changes and progress in technology and medical theories,” and deterioration of their “skills and techniques.” Moreover, returning physicians felt a need for increased “practical skills training.”
Discussion: Our study has clarified the needs of physicians returning to clinical work. The development and adoption of a simple system that will help physicians return to clinical practice is required.

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  We describe popular learning methods in current medical education along with their bases in educational theory. Lectures have the advantage that teachers can provide students with a large amount of organized information. Problem-based learning is an active learning method using small-group discussions to motivate learning. Early clinical exposure is based on the theory of experiential learning. Simulation education has become more important from the point of view of patient safety. Participatory undergraduate clinical training and postgraduate clinical training should be understood as being based on the theories of cognitive apprenticeship and peripheral participation. Considering life-long learning, the reflective practitioner is a useful concept.

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  In scenarios developed by a multidisciplinary faculty for interprofessional education, practical problems that emerged included: “medical incident” and “shortage of medical resources” from the perspective of patient and families,” and “information sharing,” “evaluation and feedback,” and “insufficient feeling of accomplishment” from the perspective of health-care professionals. Discussions identified “interprofessional collaboration,” “mutual understanding for professionalism,” and “embodiment of professional culture” as key words for problem solving. Finally, scenarios were developed in the hospital, home-care, nursing, or community care settings that referred to 2 themes, “end of life” and “dementia.” Pilot case studies performed with health care professionals demonstrated the utility of the scenarios and the effectiveness of interprofessional education.

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  Since 2010 we have held morbidity and mortality conferences established on the basis of the needs of residents in the postgraduate training program of Nagano Red Cross Hospital. In addition to teaching about patient safety, we consider the palliating “second victim” effect. Senior residents act as moderators and will gain valuable experience as conference facilitators. Here, we report on the conference because we believe its background is unique. For further improvement, the educational effects of the conference should be analyzed.

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  We describe a prototype seminar, inspired by the problem-based learning tutorial system, on pediatric emergency practice for young physicians working in 7 pediatric emergency centers in Yokohama. The seminar was received favorably by the participants, especially as an opportunity for individual learning. We expect that the seminar will contribute to the standardization of emergency practice in these pediatric centers and the establishment of an interhospital network.

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