Replacement for the 10 page paper? A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medical clerkship

Objective Pilot a group assignment using blogs and wikis to develop evidence-based medicine skills in third year medical students on an internal medicine clerkship. Instead of the clerkship’s previous individual ten-page paper assignment, the students were divided into four groups of sixteen. During the clerkship, students are on geographically dispersed rotations. The earlier ten-page paper had required the students to complete a patient history and physical write-up. With the pilot project, each group was assigned a librarian and a physician faculty mentor. Each student recorded on the blog a clinical scenario and question they encountered. They were encouraged to communicate with the librarian to construct a well formed clinical question. Each student group then came to consensus on which question to pursue and collaborated on a wiki including a list of citations to the best available evidence, a critique of the studies, and implications for the patient

Acute Pancreatitis with Normal Amylase and Lipase

Introduction Acute pancreatitis is diagnosed by clinical history and physicalexamination with concurrent elevations in serum amylase andlipase levels; occasionally radiographic findings are of furtherassistance. We report a case of radiographically proven acutepancreatitis with normal serum amylase and lipase levels

4 wikis + 4 blogs + 70 third year Medical School Students = Improved students’ confidence in practicing EBM. A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medicine clerkship.

PowerPoint presented at national Medical Library Association conference in Washington DC on May 25, 2010, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Section Program: Beyond Cool: Reflecting on Web 2.0 Adventures and Misadventures