Julie Youm

Flipping the advanced cardiac life support classroom with team-based learning: comparison of cognitive testing performance for medical students at the University of California, Irvine, United States

Purpose: It aimed to find if written test results improved for advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) taught in flipped classroom/team-based Learning (FC/TBL) vs. lecture-based (LB) control in University of California-Irvine School of Medicine, USA. Methods: Medical students took 2010 ACLS with FC/TBL (2015), compared to 3 classes in LB (2012-14) format. There were 27.5 hours of instruction for FC/TBL model (TBL 10.5, podcasts 9, small-group simulation 8 hours), and 20 (12 lecture, simulation 8 hours) in LB. TBL covered 13 cardiac cases; LB had none. Seven simulation cases and didactic content were the same by lecture (2012-14) or podcast (2015) as was testing: 50 multiple-choice questions (MCQ), 20 rhythm matchings, and 7 fill-in clinical cases. Results: 354 students took the course (259 [73.1%] in LB in 2012-14, and 95 [26.9%] in FC/TBL in 2015). Two of 3 tests (MCQ and fill-in) improved for FC/TBL. Overall, median scores increased from 93.5% (IQR 90.6, 95.4) to 95.1% (92.8, 96.7, P=0.0001). For the fill-in test: 94.1% for LB (89.6, 97.2) to 96.6% for FC/TBL (92.4, 99.20 P=0.0001). For MC: 88% for LB (84, 92) to 90% for FC/TBL (86, 94, P=0.0002). For the rhythm test: median 100% for both formats. More students failed 1 of 3 tests with LB vs. FC/TBL (24.7% vs. 14.7%), and 2 or 3 components (8.1% vs. 3.2%, P=0.006). Conversely, 82.1% passed all 3 with FC/TBL vs. 67.2% with LB (difference 14.9%, 95% CI 4.8-24.0%). Conclusion: A FC/TBL format for ACLS marginally improved written test results.

Medical student use of the iPad in the clerkship curriculum

There is little precedence for the implementation of a medical school iPad programme in a clinical setting. This study analysed students’ use of iPad apps and perceptions of the iPad as a clinical tool in a clinical third‐year medical school curriculum.

The Med AppJam: A Model for an Interprofessional Student-Centered mHealth App Competition

The Med AppJam is a 2-week long competition where students from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine are partnered with students from the University of California, Irvine School of Information and Computer Sciences in interprofessional teams to develop mobile health applications for use by clinicians and patients. The success of the Med AppJam comes from the unique opportunity for students to mutually contribute their content expertise to improve the clinical landscape while expanding their technology literacy and savvy. Since 2012, about 285 computer science students and over 90 medical students have collaborated to design and develop 53 iOS mHealth apps during the event. The Med AppJam model has been replicated in an Autism AppJam, a competition focused on the needs of a specific population, and with high school students in a mini Pre-Med AppJam using a paper prototyping approach. It is proposed that other medical schools consider implementation of a local Med AppJam as a viable model for engaging students in technology for healthcare.

Remote, synchronous, hands-on ultrasound education

BACKGROUND Ultrasound has become a major diagnostic tool in many parts of the world, with broad clinical applications. Ultrasound provides a noninvasive, painless mode of diagnostics that produces instant results. Disseminating ultrasound skills to remote and rural communities has become a challenge for many medical schools, particularly those where distances are great and the density of population is low. MATERIALS AND METHODS The University of California, Irvine School of Medicine and the University of New England School of Rural Medicine in Australia piloted the use of dual video feeds in two scenarios: (1) to display the instructors ultrasound feed and the instructors transducer placement to provide guidance for remote students; and (2) to display side-by-side views of the instructors and the remote students ultrasound feeds to allow the instructor to guide the remote student in his or her transducer placement. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Using high-speed broadband connections, the two schools demonstrated the feasibility of remote, synchronous, practical, and hands-on ultrasound training and instruction over international distances. This opens up a broad range of possibilities for future remote ultrasound education.

Medical Students’ Efforts to Integrate and/or Reclaim Authentic Identity: Insights from a Mask-Making Exercise

Medical students’ mask-making can provide valuable insights into personal and professional identity formation and wellness. A subset of first- and second-year medical students attending a medical school wellness retreat participated in a mask-making workshop. Faculty-student teams examined student masks and explanatory narratives using visual and textual analysis techniques. A quantitative survey assessed student perceptions of the experience. We identified an overarching theme: “Reconciliation/reclamation of authentic identity.” The combination of nonverbal mask-making and narrative offers rich insights into medical students’ experience and thinking. This activity promoted reflection and self-care, while providing insight regarding personal and professional development.

Medical Student Interpretation of Visual Art: Who's Got Empathy?

Introduction: Physician empathy is a highly desired characteristic in clinical practice with benefits for both patients and doctors. Increasingly, medical educators have acknowledged the importance of empathy and sought effective ways of inculcating and strengthening this quality in medical students. However, empathy remains difficult to measure because of differing definitions and theoretical dimensions. Our goal was to develop a de novo visual Art scale, devised to evaluate empathetic response in medical students as well as a de novo Biosocial scale to measure medical student socioeconomic and experiential stress during childhood and adolescence; and to compare these exploratory measures to the reliable and well-validated Jefferson Scale of Empathy JSE).

Formative feedback from the first-person perspective using Google Glass in a family medicine objective structured clinical examination station in the United States

Purpose This case study explored the use of Google Glass in a clinical examination scenario to capture the first-person perspective of a standardized patient as a way to provide formative feedback on students’ communication and empathy skills ‘through the patient’s eyes.’ Methods During a 3-year period between 2014 and 2017, third-year students enrolled in a family medicine clerkship participated in a Google Glass station during a summative clinical examination. At this station, standardized patients wore Google Glass to record an encounter focused on communication and empathy skills ‘through the patient’s eyes.’ Students completed an online survey using a 4-point Likert scale about their perspectives on Google Glass as a feedback tool (N= 255). Results We found that the students’ experiences with Google Glass ‘through the patient’s eyes’ were largely positive and that students felt the feedback provided by the Google Glass recording to be helpful. Although a third of the students felt that Google Glass was a distraction, the majority believed that the first-person perspective recordings provided an opportunity for feedback that did not exist before. Conclusion Continuing exploration of first-person perspective recordings using Google Glass to improve education on communication and empathy skills is warranted.