{"doi":"10.1017/cts.2023.694","title":"A continuing clinical education course to maintain clinical competencies and foster new clinical knowledge during the graduate school years of MD-PhD training","abstract":"Introduction: Most students in MD-PhD programs take a leave of absence from medical school to complete PhD training, which promotes a natural loss of clinical skills and knowledge and could negatively impact a student's long-term clinical knowledge. To address this concern, clinical refresher courses in the final year of PhD training have traditionally been used; however, effectiveness of such courses versus a longitudinal clinical course spanning all PhD training years is unclear. Methods: The University of Alabama at Birmingham MD-PhD Program implemented a comprehensive continuing clinical education (CCE) course spanning PhD training years that features three course components: (1) clinical skills; (2) clinical knowledge; and (3) specialty exposure activities. To evaluate course effectiveness, data from an anonymous student survey completed at the end of each semester were analyzed. Results: Five hundred and ninety-seven surveys were completed by MD-PhD students from fall 2014 to 2022. Survey responses indicated that the majority of students found the course helpful to: maintain clinical skills and knowledge (544/597, 91% and 559/597, 94%; respectively), gain exposure to clinical specialties (568/597, 95%), and prepare them for responsibilities during clinical clerkships. During semesters following lockdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic, there were significant drops in students' perceived preparedness. Conclusions: Positive student survey feedback and improved preparedness to return to clinic after development of the course suggests the CCE course is a useful approach to maintain clinical knowledge during research training.","journal":"Journal of Clinical and Translational Science","year":2023,"id":368832,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9523,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1127617,"name":"Shima D. Anwar","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":564640,"name":"Alice N. Weaver","orcid":"0000-0002-9398-1471","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":748632,"name":"Stephanie Brosius","orcid":"0000-0002-0584-0880","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":349051,"name":"Catherine H. Poholek","orcid":"0000-0002-9381-9618","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1127198,"name":"Heather W. Allen","orcid":"0000-0001-8086-4543","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":972021,"name":"Randy L. Seay","orcid":"0009-0008-3278-6147","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":770454,"name":"Robin G. Lorenz","orcid":"0000-0002-2514-9819","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1120793,"name":"Gregory A. Payne","orcid":"0000-0002-8525-8603","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":301165,"name":"William M. Geisler","orcid":"0000-0002-0603-2404","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1127197,"name":"Graham D. Cochrane","orcid":"0000-0003-1548-9382","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":13,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:15:24.517012Z","pmid":"38380392","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}