Medical Education

A smart-phone app that lets physicians message each other securely has been developed at Western University. Dr. Brian Rotenberg, associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry is one of the driving forces behind PageMe.

Rotenberg joined forces with partners, Francis Yanga and Andre Ross, to form a company called Citruvio Communications Inc., in order to find technological solutions to address these privacy issues.

BeeEMR – throwing light on the problem

Problem:

Using the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in educational settings holds great promise but traditional approaches using sandbox EMRs present many challenges. A virtual EMR approach, with integrated activity metrics and learning analytics, can solve many of these.

Background:

Abstract:

This brief commentary by Dr. Edward Shortliffe, a pioneer in the field of (bio)medical informatics, emphasizes the importance of incorporating informatics training into the undergraduate curriculum and briefly outlines some of the informatics skills and competencies needed. Includes a definition of 'biomedical informatics.' To access the full text, a subscription to JAMA is required (through your institution or otherwise).

ABSTRACT Biomedical informatics (BMI) competencies are recognized as core requirements for the healthcare professional, but the amount of BMI educational interventions in the curricula of medical schools is limited. UNAM Faculty of Medicine in Mexico is a large public medical school, with more than 7000 undergraduate students. The undergraduate program recently underwent a major curricular revision, which includes BMI education. Two one-semester BMI courses (BMI-1 and BMI-2) were designed, with a blended learning educational model.

Abstract:

Background

An environmental scan to identify what exists, the trends, and the potential gaps across Canada in medical curricula, core competencies, policies and other activities related to e-health in undergraduate medical education in Canadian faculties of medicine was undertaken and published in 2012.

Structured Abstract

Building on a foundation established in 2011 by Canada Health Infoway and Canada’s faculties of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy this article outlines efforts and initiatives to support faculty in preparing future clinicians to understand and practice in a digital environment. Links to resources are provided.

Key Points:

This report discusses the key findings from an environmental scan for the Future of Medical Education of Canada Postgraduate (FMEC PG) Project on the uses of "Information Technology in Postgraduate Medical Education."

The evidence suggests that comprehensive learning on these technologies needs to be developed further to meet the needs of trainees and the healthcare system as a whole.

STRUCTURED ABSTRACT

Introduction: This case study reports the development and delivery of an mHealth elective piloted for first-year undergraduate medical students at Monash University (Australia) and the lessons learned by designers.

ABSTRACT I

ABSTRACT:

Objectives: Information-based decision making is important to modern medical practice. This report identifies learning objectives, teaching innovations, and student outcomes for teaching medical informatics (MI) in medical schools that participated in the Undergraduate Medical Education for the 21st Century (UME-21) curriculum project.

Abstract

Medication reconciliation (MedRec) or electronic medication reconciliation (eMedRec) is a formal process where physicians, nurses and pharmacists work with patients and their families to ensure that an accurate and comprehensive medication history is gathered and that information is communicated across care settings during patient healthcare transitions (admission, transfers, discharge).

This article looks at how the University of Arkansas is training medical students in medical informatics.

Abstract

Good series of videos from Manchester Medical School on how they are using tablets for curriculum and patient log forms. Of particular interest, see "How I Use my iPad - Using Numbers to record data".

How can we define e-health in the academic environment?

This 2001 article by Gunther Eysenbach, editor of JMIR (Journal of Medical Internet Research), discusses and defines the term "e-health" as:

E-health is a broad concept used in the general sense to refer to the implementation of information and communication technology(ies) in healthcare. This includes the electronic health record (EHR), as well as technologies such as telehealth and mobile apps for health (mHealth). This definition encompasses the use of the Internet in delivering or improving healthcare, as well as the implementation of technologies such as databases, machine learning, clinical decision support, et cetera.