Technology in medical education

I was given the privilege of presenting the keynote talk at a faculty development session for the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine earlier this week. The theme of the entire day was using technology in education. The opening speaker, Bart Besinger, MD, gave a phenomenal talk on "How to give a lecture with or without technology." It was one of the most engaging talks I have ever heard, and included practical information and tips for making one's didactics top notch! Later in the day, the topic I spoke about was the use of social media to communicate and teach in medicine. It was a wonderful opportunity to network with colleagues from outside of my own departments, and I found the faculty completely engaged and willing to try something new.

We discussed some of the literature on the use of social media in medicine and medical education, and how educators can leverage social media as a tool to disseminate medical information. The highlight came at the end, when we taught the faculty how to use Twitter. The goal was to have five new faculty join Twitter. Many more joined, and the discussion was nothing short of fabulous. It was clear that the faculty were wholly accepting of taking the plunge to use Twitter in medical education (the hashtag used was #IUEMFacDev).

Today, the learning that took place just two days ago was put into action. The faculty used a hashtag (#IUEMTalks) for their own lecture series. Kudos to Dan Rusyniak, MD, for putting on this great workshop. I appreciate so much the invitation to share and learn from emergency medicine faculty colleagues, as well as the willingness of so many to put into practice this new learning tool.

Here is a link to the workshop handouts.

In an upcoming venue, our institution is privileged to host (to have hosted, for some readers) the first inaugural Mobile Computing in Medical Education conference on May 31, 2013, in Indianapolis. In this conference, we will showcase several different ways in which medical students, residents, fellows and faculty utilize mobile tablets in medical education. We look forward to sharing the learning opportunities in this one-of-a-kind conference.

So how are you using emerging technology to further medical education?

Alexander M. Djuricich, MD, FACP, is Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education and a Program Director in Medicine-Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. This post originally appeared at Mired in MedEd, where he blogs about medical education.