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Author: Brian S McGowan, PhD

ABSTRACT: Is it worth investing in online continuous education for healthcare staff?

Abstract
Educational activities for hospital staff don’t easily match with the congestive rhythm of healthcare personnel working life. Online learning could make it easier for healthcare personnel to attend courses, but there is still uncertainty about the feasibility of using distance learning to effectively meet education goals in healthcare institutions. Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri (FSM) started an online educational program, as pilot project, in October 2010. The present study hence is aimed at evaluating the impact of this initiative (in terms of extent and intensity of healthcare staff attendance; objective and subjective effectiveness) in order to take informed decisions for the future. In 15 months, 5 elearning courses have been provided to 2261 potential users of 14 FSM hospitals, in parallel with traditional education. 1099 users from all the hospital have intensively attended the courses (58% of nurses, 50% of therapists, 44%, of technicians, 25% of physicians) for a total of 27459 CME credits. Effectiveness in terms of knowledge gain is satisfactory and subjective evaluation is good (more than 95% of satisfied users). Elearning is not appropriate for all the educational needs and is not a panacea, but the reported results point out that it may be an effective and economically convenient mean to support massive educational interventions reaching results hardly attainable with traditional education. Users should be better educated about how to exploit online education at best.

via Is it worth investing in online c… [Stud Health Technol Inform. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI.

ABSTRACT: Podcasting in medical education: can we turn this toy into an effective learning tool?

Abstract

Advances in information technology have changed how we deliver medical education, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Technologies that were designed for purposes other than education, such as podcasting, are now frequently used in medical education. In this article, the authors discuss the pros and cons of adapting existing technologies for medical education, caution against limiting evaluation of technologies to the level of rater satisfaction, and suggest a research agenda for formally evaluating the role of existing and future technologies in medical education.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=historysearch&querykey=22

MANUSCRIPT: Fragmentation in US Medical Education, Research, and Practice: The Need for System Wide Defrag

Indeed, fragmentation is pervasive in all facets of American medicine and health care, including systems of medical education and research, health care delivery, and practice transformation. Fragmentation results from a lack of national and regional health care planning, an absence of a unified vision for social accountability and moral imperative, and a deficiency of financial incentive for a cohesive system of care with a balanced health care workforce.

http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2013/January/Jerry54.pdf

MANUSCRIPT: Protocol for development of the guideline for reporting evidence based practice educational interventions and teaching (GREET) statement

There are an increasing number of studies reporting the efficacy of educational strategies to facilitate the development of knowledge and skills underpinning evidence based practice (EBP). To date there is no standardised guideline for describing the teaching, evaluation, context or content of EBP educational strategies. The heterogeneity in the reporting of EBP educational interventions makes comparisons between studies difficult. The aim of this program of research is to develop the Guideline for Reporting EBP Educational interventions and Teaching (GREET) statement and an accompanying explanation and elaboration (E&E)
paper.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6920-13-9.pdf

MANUSCRIPT: How Do Social Networks and Faculty Development Courses Affect Clinical Supervisors’ Adoption of a Medical Education Innovation? An Exploratory Study

A clinical supervisor’s social network may be as important as faculty development course participation in determining whether the supervisor adopts an educational innovation. Faculty development initiatives should use faculty members’ social networks to improve the adoption of educational innovations and help build and maintain communities of practice.

via How Do Social Networks and Faculty Development Courses Affec… : Academic Medicine.

RESOURCE: 6 Expert Tips for Flipping the Classroom — Campus Technology

Three leaders in flipped classroom instruction share their best practices for creating a classroom experience guaranteed to inspire lifelong learning.

“If you were to step into one of my classrooms, you’d think I was teaching a kindergarten class, not a physics class,” laughs Harvard University (MA) professor Eric Mazur. “Not because the students are children, but because of the chaos and how oblivious the students are to my presence.”

Such pandemonium is a good thing, insists Mazur, an early adopter of the flipped classroom model that has become all the rage at colleges and universities across the country. “That’s how we all learn: by actively engaging in the material rather than sitting in a classroom and writing down the words said by the professor.”

via 6 Expert Tips for Flipping the Classroom — Campus Technology.

MANUSCRIPT: Tumor Boards (Team Huddles) Aren’t Enough to Reach the Goal

Incremental changes in the tumor board infrastructure may increase the value of these team meetings and extend their potential benefits to low-volume physicians. The application of technology to create the “virtual” or telemedicine tumor board should be explored. Synchronous audio and video presentations that link physicians in remote areas with disease-specific expert clinicians, as well as asynchronous (“store and forward”) discussions, which focus on patient-specific management issues, are a potential infrastructure
enhancement (6).

http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/jnci/press_releases/blayneydjs523.pdf

ABSTRACT: Gender differences in mediated communication: Women connect more than do men

Abstract
Past research in gender differences in the overall Internet use has been contradictory. Some asserted men used it more than women, while others asserted there were no gender difference. Both camps concluded that men and women differed in their motivation and utilization of time spent online. The purpose of the present research was to take a contemporary look at these gender differences. Using an online survey, we asked participants about their experiences with multiple forms of mediated communication: social networking sites, e-mail, video calls, instant messaging, texting, and phone calls. Our results indicated that women, compared to men, are generally more frequent mediated communication users. Compared to men, women prefer and more frequently use text messaging, social media, and online video calls. These results suggest that the nature of mediated social interaction is changing.

via ScienceDirect.com – Computers in Human Behavior – Gender differences in mediated communication: Women connect more than do men.