BMC Public Health 2007, 7:219 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/7/219 considerable room for improvement in knowledge, atti- tudes, and confidence about TB among health professions students surveyed in 28 programs in 20 schools in the U.S.A. Information about learning styles and preferences of current students supports the belief that active-learning strategies may improve student performance. This belief will be assessed with future surveys of students in NTCC schools who have been exposed to NTCC-developed edu- cational products that use active-learning methodologies. Competing interests The author(s) declare that they have no competing inter- ests. Authors' contributions All authors were responsible for the conception and design of the study, and for development and refinement of the survey instrument. MJ analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors participated in review and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors confirm that the content has not been published elsewhere and does not overlap or duplicate their published work. Appendix NTCC Participating Schools Administration: University of California, San Diego Curriculum Centers for each Region are in bold italics Western Region: University of Southern California, Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA Western University, Pomona, CA University of Washington, Seattle WA State Department of Health, Seattle University of Colorado, Denver Northeast Region: Columbia University, New York, NY Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY Northeastern University, Boston, MA NY College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury Southeast Region: University of Arkansas, Little Rock Georgia State University, Atlanta Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD University of Maryland, Baltimore North Central Region: Wayne State University, Detroit, MI University of Illinois at Chicago University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Midwestern University, Downers Grove, IL Rush University, Chicago, IL University of Nebraska, Omaha South Central Region: University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston University of Texas, San Antonio Tulane University, New Orleans, LA Acknowledgements Funding for this study is from the National Institutes of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute through contract NIH-NO1-HR-36157, 2003–08. The authors thank Becky Stanonik for data management and anal- ysis, Laura Myhovich and Jamie Hankins for operational and logistical sup- port, and Daryl Cummings for making survey materials available to NTCC members via the website. The authors also thank the NTCC members for reviewing and critiquing survey questions, and for inviting their students to participate in the survey. References 1. McCray E, Weinbaum CM, Braden CR, Onorato IM: The epidemi- ology of tuberculosis in the United States. Clin Chest Med 1997, 18:99-113. 2. Louther J, Rivera P, Feldman J, Villa N, DeHovitz J, Sepkowitz KA: Risk of tuberculin conversion according to occupation among health care workers at a New York City hospital. Am J Resp Crit Care Med 1997, 156:201-205. 3. Cook S, Maw KL, Munsiff SS, Fujiwara PI, Frieden TR: Prevalence of tuberculin skin test positivity and conversions among health- care workers in New York City during 1994 to 2001. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2003, 24:807-813. 4. Niveau G: Prevention of infectious disease transmission in correctional settings: a review. Public Health 2006, 120:33-41. 5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Division of Tuberculosis Elimination: Trends in tuberculosis – United States, 2005. Morb Mortal Week Rep 2006, 55(11):305-308. Page 7 of 8 (page number not for citation purposes)