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

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

Medical School Anatomy and Pathology Workshops for High School Students Enhance Learning and Provide Inspiration for Careers in Medicine

“Anatomy and Pathology Workshop” is a cadaver-based outreach program that models medical education to large groups of high school students. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of this program on students’ knowledge of anatomy and interest in biomedical science. A total of 144 high school students participated in the workshop in 2015. Preworkshop and postworkshop assessments were administered to assess students’ learning. A postworkshop survey was conducted to solicit students’ reflections and feedback. It was found that student performance in the postworkshop examination (mean 78%) had significantly improved when compared to the performance in the preexamination (mean 54%), indicating that this program enhances learning. Students were also inspired to consider opportunities in medicine and allied health professions—97% indicated that they had a better understanding of medical education; 95% agreed that they had better understanding of the human body; 84% thought anatomy was interesting and exciting; and 62% of the students indicated that they looked forward to studying medicine or another health profession. Students rated the instructors highly—95% agreed that the instructors were professional and served as role models. Medical/graduate student instructors were also highly regarded by the high school students—96% thought it was valuable to have student instructors and 94% thought that student instructors were caring and enthusiastic about teaching. In summary, this study demonstrates that outreach programs provided by medical schools help young adults during their formative years by modeling professionalism, providing role models, enhancing learning, and encouraging many to consider opportunities in the health professions