title: Comparison of students' encountered diseases and available diseases at clerkship sites by exploratory multivariate analysis: Are encountered diseases predictable?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Students in clerkship are expected to gain clinical expertise by interacting with real patients in clinical situations. Monitoring and predicting the students' encounter diseases (EDs) is important for providing an optimal experience. EDs should be compared with the available diseases (ADs) at the clerkship site and with the required diseases described in some guidelines for the clinical curriculum.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore the differences in ADs as learning resources among different types of clerkship sites and to investigate discrepancies between EDs and ADs.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective observational study used secondary data from government statistics to compare ADs of various types of observable clerkship sites by biplot analyses, which allowed multivariate comparisons. EDs collected from logbooks during clerkships at a university hospital were also compared with ADs across sites.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The distributions of ADs differed according to institutional type, and EDs at Kyushu University Hospital were similar to the ADs for the category of hospitals in which it was placed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EDs at a clerkship site may be predictable to some extent by analysing the site's distribution of ADs, but further study is needed. Biplot is useful for visualising these types of statistical similarity.
authors.affiliation: a Center for Medical Education, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine , Japan .
authors.forename: Kikuko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taketomi
authors.affiliation: b Department of Medical Education , Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University , Japan .
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kikukawa
authors.affiliation: c Department of Biostatistics , Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine , Japan .
authors.forename: Yoichi M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: d Amakusa Central Hospital , Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamaoka
authors.affiliation: a Center for Medical Education, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine , Japan .
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Otaki
authors.affiliation: b Department of Medical Education , Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University , Japan .
authors.forename: Motofumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000592:standards*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013337:Students, Medical