Maroof Ahmed

Gamification in medical education

No abstract available. (Published: 29 September 2015) Citation: Med Educ Online 2015, 20: 29536 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v20.29536

YouTube in medical education: a student's perspective.

(Published: 16 September 2015) Citation: Med Educ Online 2015, 20: 29507 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v20.29507

Effective Behavioral Changes through a Digital mHealth App: Exploring the Impact of Hedonic Well-Being, Psychological Empowerment and Inspiration

Background New mobile health (mHealth) software apps are emerging and are providing the foundation to radically transform the practice and reach of medical research and care. For this study we collaborated with Quit Genius, a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) based mHealth app that helps users quit smoking, to explore the effective design of a digital mHealth app; one that delivers important benefits to its users and helps them change their behaviors for a healthier lifestyle. Objective The specific aims of this study were to (1) explore the key role of CBT program progress, (2) examine the gamification design app elements that deliver significant benefits (ie, empowerment, well-being, inspiration) to users, (3) explore the effectiveness of these app elements to help users quit smoking or reduce the number of cigarettes smoked, and (4) identify and describe any potential drivers and hindrances arising from the app design elements. Methods We developed an online survey and sent an email invitation to 4144 individuals, who had previously or were at the time using the Quit Genius mHealth app, to encourage participation in the study. We matched the online survey data with objective app usage data of the study participants. Results A dataset of 190 completed responses was used. At the time of the survey, respondents had completed an average of 60% of the CBT program in the Quit Genius mHealth app. Of the respondents, 36.3% (69/190) noted to have quit smoking successfully after using the Quit Genius app. As for those who remained smokers after using the app (N=121), the number of cigarettes smoked per day was significantly reduced by 59.6%. The ability of the app to enhance users’ hedonic well-being and psychologically empower them in their daily lives was identified as being key in helping users quit smoking. Specifically, the results show that users whose well-being was enhanced through the app were 1.72 times more likely to quit smoking successfully. Moreover, a one-unit increase on a 7-point Likert scale in the app’s ability to empower smokers in their daily lives led to a reduction of cigarettes smoked per day of 53%. The app’s inspiration to users, however, was negatively associated with quitting success and the reduction in cigarette smoked per day. Conclusions The findings offer important insights for the effective design of digital mHealth apps. Specifically, we find that perceived psychological empowerment and enhanced hedonic well-being from the mobile solution may be a more impactful way to support the effectiveness of mobile cognitive behavioral therapy for smoking cessation than eliciting strong inspiration.

S80 Game on? The gamification of mHealth apps in the context of smoking cessation

Introduction and objectives Increasing emphasis has been placed on behavioural therapy in smoking cessation efforts. mHealth aims to join today’s arsenal of smoking cessation techniques. Many apps are utilising ‘gamification’ (the use of game design elements in non-game contexts) as a tool to drive positive behaviour change. However, a significant knowledge gap currently remains regarding how gamification can affect health behaviour. Our study seeked to elucidate the motivational mechanisms exploited by gamification in promoting positive health behaviours in the context of smoking cessation, with a view to generating recommendations on how to create effective gamified mHealth interventions. Methods We conducted a qualitative longitudinal study using a sample of 16 smokers divided into two cohorts. The first cohort used a non-gamified mHealth intervention, whilst the second used a gamified mHealth intervention. The added game components allowed us to isolate the effects of gamification. Each participant underwent 4 one-on-one, semi-structured interviews over a period of 5 weeks. Interviews were transcribed verbatim after which thematic analysis was undertaken. Results We observed that perceived behavioural control and intrinsic motivation acted as positive drivers to game engagement and consequently positive health behaviour. Importantly, external social influences exerted a negative effect. We identified three critical factors, whose presence was necessary for game engagement; purpose (explicit purpose known by the user), user alignment (congruency of game and user objectives), functional utility (a well-designed game). We summarise these findings in a framework (Figure 1), which we propose to guide the development of gamified mHealth interventions.Abstract S80 Figure 1 A framework proposing effective use of gamification to promote positive health behaviour Conclusions Our framework outlines the characteristics critical to consider when developing any gamified mHealth intervention to promote a particular health behaviour. Gamification holds the potential for low-cost, highly effective mHealth solutions that may replace or supplement the behavioural support component found in current smoking cessation programmes. Our proposed framework has been built on evidence specific to smoking cessation, but is versatile and can be extended to health interventions in other disease categories. Future research is now required to evaluate the effectiveness of the above framework directly against current behavioural support therapy interventions in smoking cessation.

The situational judgement test: a student’s worst nightmare

License. The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. Permissions beyond the scope of the License are administered by Dove Medical Press Limited. Information on how to request permission may be found at: http://www.dovepress.com/permissions.php Advances in Medical Education and Practice 2015:6 577–578 Advances in Medical Education and Practice Dovepress

the trend toward digital in medical education - playing devil's advocate

Digitalization of medical resources has completely revolutionized medical education. Nowadays, medical information is readily accessible online. If a doctor needs to learn about Lesch–Nyhan syndrome, he or she can just search online – thousands of digital resources, explaining everything from simple pathophysiology to the latest genetic research into the condition, can be found; even videos of patients with the condition are available and easily located by using a search engine such as Google. Could there possibly be any downsides to this? One argument is that traditional textbook-based medical teaching has been around since as early as the The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, written in 3000 BC.1 In contrast, how long have digital medical resources been available? The maximum timeframe may be 25 years, at best. In fact, ancient teaching methods have stood the test of time and have created some of the best physicians in their eras. If ancient methods have been proved to be so successful in the past, is there a need to change? After all, physicians love “evidence-based” methodologies. There are over 5,000 years of evidence supporting traditional medical teaching versus a few years of evidence supporting the value of digital medical teaching. Moreover, one of the proposed positives of digitalizing medical education is the ease of access of information. For example, it is common for students (and even doctors) to use the Google search engine to find information on ward rounds. Information ranging from normal values for hormones, pathophysiology of conditions, or even differential diagnosis is available. Finding information so quickly online would have been impossible 10 years ago. So, how did students and doctors of old access this information? The answer is simple: in the past, they memorized this information. The information was therefore readily accessible in their memories. We argue that the increased accessibility of information today has led medical professionals to become lazy. We do not have to work hard for information anymore; therefore, there is less value in spending time and effort to commit it to memory. The question of how many times a medical professional has searched a disease online and has been able to readily find out everything about it, only to forget a short while later, needs to be asked. Another downside to digitalizing medical education is the danger that even the practical side of learning medicine is transferred away from the wards of hospitals. Listening to heart murmurs on YouTube,2 watching open surgery through Google Glass,3 and practicing communication skills over Skype4 are some examples of current online learning. However, being a good physician is hugely dependent on real-life experiences, not digital “counterfeit” experiences. An audio clip of a heart murmur will never be able to emulate the experience of carefully positioning a stethoscope and hearing a murmur from a live, beating heart. Unfortunately, it is much easier and cost effective to search for literature on heart murmurs on the Internet than it is to experience it in real life. Digital resources can therefore serve to create dangerous shortcuts in the education of doctors.

Should basic health economics principles be taught during medical school in the UK

No abstract available. (Published: 12 October 2015) Citation: Med Educ Online 2015, 20: 29541 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v20.29541

Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation Induces a Spatial Bias in Whole-body Position Estimates

Peripheral galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) has been shown to temporarily ameliorate left spatial neglect [1]. Specifically, anodal (facilitatory) stimulation over the left mastoid bone coupled with cathodal (inhibitory) over the right mastoid reduces visuospatial‐neglect scores in line cancellation [2] and line bisection tasks [3, 4]. This montage increases activity in the left vestibular nerve and suppresses activity in the right [5], which has been shown to focally activate vestibular networks that occupy visuospatial attention mechanisms, primarily in the non‐dominant hemisphere [5]. Thus, it appears that electrical stimulation of the peripheral vestibular system can shift visuospatial attention to the left side of space [4]. However, whether such a shift of spatial attention in normal subjects can influence perception of spatial position during whole body spatial translations is unknown. We hypothesised that shifting attention to the left would result in participants underestimating spatial position estimates during rightward whole‐body translations and overestimating spatial position estimates during leftward whole‐body translations.

Addressing the need and void of leadership and management development among medical students in the UK

License. The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. Permissions beyond the scope of the License are administered by Dove Medical Press Limited. Information on how to request permission may be found at: http://www.dovepress.com/permissions.php Advances in Medical Education and Practice 2015:6 579–580 Advances in Medical Education and Practice Dovepress