From electronic health records (EHRs) to the use of digital databases and publishing platforms, health information technology (IT) made a significant impact on medical education—at both the graduate and undergraduate levels—in 2017. Here are the most read and relevant AMA Wire® stories on that topic this year.
Innovative EHR platform brings 11,000 true-life cases to med ed. Using EHR systems as teaching tools has long been viewed as vital to medical education, but the notion has been fraught with legal and logistical issues. A new, adapted EHR—thought to be the first of its kind—is enabling educators to present real cases to facilitate deeper understanding of population health, quality improvement, patient safety and social determinants of health.
Med students perform health data deep dives. For certain payers, the average charge for a vaginal delivery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, located in Manhattan, is nearly five times higher than a birth under the same circumstances at Olean General Hospital, about 350 miles away in western New York. Those eye-popping numbers are the first data sample Marc Triola, MD, presents to medical students when they begin their work in the Health Care by the Numbers curriculum at New York University School of Medicine.
Virtual EHR helps residents learn complexity of elder care. A learning tool that was developed to help medical residents gain facility EHR systems has taken on a broader application at the Indiana University School of Medicine, which first launched the tool in cooperation with the AMA and the Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute, an informatics and health care organization that supports IU’s medical school.
Resident blogging program enhances learner engagement. The textbook has long been the sharpest, most utilized instrument in the medical education toolbox. With more resources available, however, students are looking outside the traditional toolbox for answers. At Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, this shift represents a unique opportunity to engage her residents. Through the Brown EM Blog, residents in the program are shifting from consumers of digital content to creators.
