According to a new study, black Americans who live near these businesses have a higher body-mass index than those living farther away.

Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found this was particularly true for those with a lower income. Body-mass index (BMI) is a measurement of body fat that takes into account a person’s height and weight.

The findings are significant because black people are at greater risk for the negative health effects associated with obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease, the study authors pointed out.

“According to prior research, African-Americans, particularly women, have higher rates of obesity than other ethnic groups, and the gap is growing,” study leader Lorraine Reitzel, an assistant professor in the department of health disparities research at M.D. Anderson, said in a university news release.

“The results of this study add to the literature indicating that a person’s neighborhood environment and the foods that they’re exposed to can contribute to a higher BMI,” she said.

“We need to find the relationships and triggers that relate to this population’s BMI, as they’re at the greatest risk for becoming obese and developing associated health problems. Such information can help inform policies and interventions to prevent health disparities,” Reitzel explained.

The study involved more than 1,400 black adults divided into two groups: those making less than $40,000 per year and those making $40,000 or more per year. The researchers considered whether or not the participants had children, and took into account gender, age, physical activity and education, along with other factors that could influence their BMI.

The investigators also analyzed how close the participants lived to fast-food restaurants and the number of those restaurants within a half-mile, one mile, two miles and five miles of where they lived.

“We found no previous research literature that considered household income when investigating whether there were associations between fast food availability and BMI,” noted Reitzel.

The study revealed that, on average, there were 2.5 fast-food restaurants within a half-mile of the participants’ homes. In addition, there were an average of 4.5 of these restaurants within one mile, 11.4 within two miles and 71.3 fast food restaurants within five miles of their homes.

Living closer to a fast-food restaurant was associated with a higher BMI — regardless of the participants’ income, the study showed. On the other hand, every additional mile between the participants’ homes and the closest fast-food restaurant was associated with a 2.4 percent lower BMI.

The study also found that the more of these restaurants within a particular area, the higher the participants’ BMI. The researchers pointed out there was no significant association for the five-mile area.

“We found a significant relationship between the number of fast-food restaurants and BMI for within a half-mile, one mile and two miles of the home, but only among lower-income study participants,” noted Reitzel.

“There’s something about living close to a fast-food restaurant that’s associated with a higher BMI,” she pointed out. However, an association does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

“Fast food is specifically designed to be affordable, appealing and convenient,” Reitzel explained. “People are pressed for time, and they behave in such a way that will cost them the least amount of time to get things done, and this may extend to their food choices.”

The study authors noted lower-income residents may not have access to transportation, so having fast-food restaurants close to home might be easier.

“This may also be why there were significant associations for density and BMI within two miles of the home, which is an easily walkable distance, but not five miles of the home,” said Reitzel.

In other cases, residents of neighborhoods with fewer roads may be tempted to eat from the restaurants they pass every day. “Those visual cues may prompt people to choose fast food even when it was not the original intent,” added Reitzel.

The study was published online May 16 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Original article – Medline Plus – May 16, 2013

If you visit a doctor’s office or hospital and you usually see stacks of manila folders with labels on them and loads of paper inside. When a doctor wants to research more about a patient, it can take a while to sort through the file and decipher handwritten notes.  Electronic health records are fast becoming the new normal for record keeping in the health field.  But what does e-health mean and who has access to your information once it is uploaded?

Electronic health or e-health for short is the incorporation of computer software and the Internet into health services.  Many components of health such as recordkeeping, information exchange and even prescriptions are now in electronic form for better organization and storage.

The pros of e-health

There are several benefits to e-health programs.  One benefit is that providers will have a better way to coordinate care for patients.  Having electronic health files will reduce a lot of the missed opportunities for doctors to discuss a patient’s treatment.

It will also help alert doctors about potential medication errors. HealthIT.gov reports that 78 percent of the doctors who use electronic health records say it enhances overall patient care.

Another benefit of e-health is that eventually patients and doctors will have less paperwork to manage.  In the near future, doctor’s offices will have an easier, faster process for signing in patients.  Damon Davis, Director of Information Technology for Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said having electronic forms make doctor visits simpler.

“We all have had that frustration of getting to a place where you were just a week ago and they ask the same questions: is your insurance the same? Has your address changed? There’s a significant opportunity to automate that process so you don’t have to stand there at a provider’s office and fill out a clipboard repeatedly. We are making that transition so that your process in the office can be much cleaner.”

Will your privacy be maintained?

Security is of the utmost importance when transitioning to electronic health records.  The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) provides very strict guidelines about how personal health information can be shared. Part of the responsibility is on the provider and the other is on the consumer.

Peter Ashkenaz, Media Contact for the Communications for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology offers this to ease consumer fears.

“There’s a common misperception that there’s going to be some sort of government data bank of everyone’s health care records and that’s just not the case. You as the patient are downloading the information. So it’s your information now. You as the patient decide who needs to have it. The security of it is as secure as you make it.”

E-health will usher in a new wave of health care. It’s about an exchange of health information that will empower the consumer to receive the best quality of healthcare available. For more information about Health IT and e-health programs, visit http://www.healthit.gov.

E-health and the Blue Button

The Department of Veteran Affairs led the way into e-health by using electronic health records as a means to give Veterans more access to their health data.  Many doctors and hospitals are incorporating electronic forms of communication to improve efficiency and reduce medical errors.  Medicare, Indian Health Services, and NASA have also adopted their own form of e-health programs as well.

Electronic health programs are not just for doctors and hospitals to use.  They are also available to help patients see and share their own health records.  The Blue Button program was designed for patients to have access to and download their medical records or claims. Blue Button is available now to veterans, uniformed service members and Medicare beneficiaries but more private sector insurance companies are also beginning to offer their members a way to download their medical information.

Davis said in an interview that the Blue Button program caught on rapidly and has influenced individuals to become more active in their health.

“Blue Button has gone on to be adopted by many different electronic health record vendors, labs, et cetera,” he says. “It liberates health data so individuals can become better partners of their own health care with better access to their own health care info.”

Candace Y.A. Montague is a health advocate and freelance writer in Washington, D.C.  She is the DC HIV/AIDS Examiner for Examiner.com.  Candace is also a contributor to The Body.com, The Black AIDS Weekly, and East of the River Magazine, a publication of Capital Community News.  Writing is her activism.

Original article – The Grio – May 2, 2013

Large, First-of-its-Kind Study Finds Genomic Regions Associated with Higher Risk

Men who were the most fit at age 50 back in the 1970s were the least likely to develop lung or colon cancer 20 to 25 years later, the study, which will be presented next month at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, found. And among the men who did get lung, colon or prostate cancer, the fitter they were in their early 50s, the less likely they were to die of it.

This is good news for people who want to lower their risk of not only heart disease but cancer, says Dr. Susan Lakoski of the University of Vermont, who led the study. She’s a cardiologist who studies fitness and its effect on disease.

“Two things you can’t change are your genes and your age,’ she said. “But you can get more fit.”

Lakoski studied data on more than 17,000 men who attended the Cooper Institute in Dallas. Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who coined the word “aerobics”, founded the research institute in 1970. The men all took fitness tests on their first visits to the institute, and the institute later acquired their medical records.

Their fitness was measured by metabolic equivalent of task, or MET.

“One MET is sitting on the couch,” Lakoski said.

On a treadmill test that involves making someone walk briskly on an incline, the average middle-aged person, she said, can get up to about 9 METs, while athletes can achieve up to 15 METs and elite triathletes can get to about 20 METs.

In this study, the least fit men were able to stay on the treadmill at full tilt for less than 13.5 minutes if they were 40 to 49 years old, less than 11 minutes if they were 50 to 59, and less than 7.5 minutes if they were 60 or older.

Over the next 20 to 25 years, 2,332 of the men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, 276 got colon cancer and 277 were diagnosed with lung cancer. And 347 of the men died of cancer while 159 died of heart disease.

Lakoski’s team divided the men into five groups based on their fitness at that first visit, when they were around 50 years old. Those who were the most fit were 68 percent less likely to develop lung cancer and 38 percent less likely to develop colon cancer 20 years later. And if the men did develop cancer, those who were the most fit were significantly less likely to die of any of the three cancers.

Every increase in fitness as measured by MET lowered the risk of dying from cancer by 14 percent and from heart disease by 23 percent, Lakoski found. And obesity had little or nothing to do with it, she found.

“This important study establishes cardiorespiratory fitness as an independent and strong predictor of cancer risk and prognosis in men,” ASCO president Dr. Sandra Swain said in a statement.

“While more research is needed to determine if similar trends are valid in relation to other cancers and among women, these results indicate that people can reduce their risk of cancer with relatively small lifestyle changes.”

Lakoski doesn’t know if it’s possible to be out of shape at 50 but then get into shape later and lower cancer risk. “Can you turn things around?” she asked. But people who were fit at 50 were likely lifelong exercisers. “People who enjoy being fit tend to stay fit,” she said.

Many studies have shown that exercise lowers the risk of cancer, but this one is one of the first to show it can also reduce the risk of dying from cancer. ASCO says more than 50 studies involving 40,000 people have found that people who exercise regularly have a 40 percent to 50 percent lower risk of colon cancer, for instance. And women who exercise at moderate-to-vigorous levels for more than three hours a week have a 30 percent to 40 percent lower risk of breast cancer.

It’s not likely that the fittest men were somehow just stronger and better able to survive disease, Lakoski and ASCO both say. Hormones such as prostaglandin and insulin likely play a role, as well as the immune system and a process called oxidation, which damages cells and DNA.

Lakoski argues people need to be told something a little more specific than simply to exercise. They need a precise fitness goal, and doctors need to help them measure it. Current guidelines are very imprecise, she noted.

“Tell someone to do 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, is that right for you? Is that right for me?” Lakoski asked.

But there are precise measures. Lakoski uses one in her lab, where she is the director of Cardiovascular Prevention for Cancer Patients at the Vermont Cancer Center. She works patients to the point of exhaustion, and measures how long it takes to get there. “If I can put you on a treadmill and say ‘You went this many minutes and you burned this many METs and that is associated with X reduction in cancer risk and cardiovascular risk’,  that’s very meaningful,” she said.

“Then I can say you need to do this much exercise training to get this fit. People can get their heads around it. It is a personalized prescription.”

Original article – NBC News – May 17, 2013

When the UF chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) executive board sat down to plan goals for this year, a mentorship program was a top priority. My classmate, George Ansoanuur, and I developed an application for the mentors (UF medical students) and mentees (current UF undergrads), and upon release, we received significant feedback. During this process we have worked closely with our undergrad sister organization Minority Association of Pre-health Students (MAPS). To-date we have over 35 mentor/mentee matches, and in the past year several mentees have been able to join their mentor in lecture, meet for lunch, attend health fairs, etc. In addition we had a few large mentor/mentee socials to allow everyone to get to know each other better.

The goal of the mentorship program is to aid undergraduates in their pursuit of a career in medicine or dentistry, and give them the confidence they need to see themselves as future professionals. I have truly enjoyed sharing my medical school experience with my mentee, Katherine Almengo, this year and I look forward to being an integral part of her life in the next few years on her journey to medical school.  We have attended several lectures together, and she even cooked dinner for me where we discussed my path to medicine among many other things! She is truly an inspiration and someone I know will make an awesome doctor one day. We are similar in many ways — from our passion to helping others in the community, to traveling and volunteering abroad.

Also this year I was more active in UF’s community clinics around Gainesville, and I helped on several health fairs with local churches and other student organizations as the community service chair of UF-SNMA. This year turned out to be a great one for the UF-SNMA chapter as we won a national award for “Most successful at Community Health Fair Outreach.” Next year’s UF-SNMA executive board has been selected, and they plan to continue the mentor program in addition to adding other community-outreach initiatives, so that UF medical students have many avenues in which they can give back.

Original article – University of Florida College of Medicine – May 17, 2013

YLSP is open to current high school seniors and college undergraduates who have demonstrated an active commitment to fighting AIDS (for example: providing peer-based prevention and education; advocacy or activism; public awareness; and/or practical, emotional or treatment support to people living with HIV/AIDS).

All applicants must describe their leadership experience and its significance to the future of the epidemic in an essay of up to 1,000 words. Applicants will be asked to provide a recommending letter. Applications will be judged by a panel of community leaders.

A minimum of five YLSP scholarships, ranging in amounts from $1,000 to $2,500, are awarded. Winners are recognized on World AIDS Day.

Who we are

The National AIDS Memorial Grove is a living tribute to all whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS. The Memorial provides a healing sanctuary for grieving, gathering and renewal, and is committed to keeping the human tragedy of AIDS in the forefront of the national consciousness.

We encourage applicants to learn about the Memorial, and if possible, to visit and explore its unique cultural and historic significance.

Requirements:

• A completed Application
• A brief personal statement explaining how the YLSP can assist you in achieving your academic goals
• A written essay, in which you: a) reflect on the ways in which your life has been impacted by HIV/AIDS, and b) explore and describe the ways in which you have provided public service or leadership designed to make a difference in the lives of people with HIV/AIDS, or people at risk
• A written letter of recommendation from a teacher, program coordinator, or other adult supervisor/ally/community leader familiar with your service

Click to Download 2013 YLSP Application Packet

Application Deadlines:

September 16, 2013: Application and Personal Statement Due

September 30, 2013: Essay Due

Original article - The National AIDS Memorial Grove – no date specified

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 15, 2013 – The Peace Corps today will begin accepting applications from healthcare professionals interested in serving as medical or nursing educators in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda as part of the Global Health Service Partnership program.

Volunteers will serve one-year assignments starting July 2014 teaching clinical skills to medical and nursing students while working to build capacity within the countries’ healthcare systems. Applications will be accepted through Nov. 1, 2013, and invitations will be extended on a rolling basis. New this year, candidates can apply for Early Decision if they submit their application by Oct. 1, 2013, offering them more advance notice of the decision on their application.

This innovative public-private partnership – established in March 2012 – is a joint effort among the Peace Corps, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and Seed Global Health (formerly Global Health Service Corps) to place nurses and physicians as adjunct faculty in medical or nursing schools overseas. The program addresses shortages of health professionals in less developed countries by strengthening the quality and sustainability of medical and nursing education and clinical practices. This July, the first class of Global Health Service Partnership volunteers will begin their service.

The Global Health Service Partnership is a Peace Corps Response program, which offers high-impact, short-term assignments for qualified professionals. Benefits for volunteers include monthly living stipends, transportation to and from their country of service, comprehensive medical care, a readjustment allowance, and paid vacation days. Seed Global Health also raises funds from the private sector, independently of the Peace Corps, to finance loan repayment stipends for eligible volunteers.

To learn more about the Global Health Service Partnership, visithttp://www.peacecorps.gov/response/globalhealth/. To start the application process, visit www.peacecorps.gov/response/apply.

About the Peace Corps: Since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps by executive order on March 1, 1961, more than 210,000 Americans have served in 139 host countries. Today, 8,073 volunteers are working with local communities in 76 host countries in agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health and youth in development. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment and the agency’s mission is to promote world peace and friendship and a better understanding between Americans and people of other countries. Visit www.peacecorps.gov for more information.

About PEPFAR: The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the U.S. Government initiative to help save the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDS around the world. PEPFAR is the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease internationally and PEPFAR investments also provide a platform for efforts to address other public health needs. PEPFAR is driven by a shared responsibility among donor and partner nations and others to make smart investments to save lives. For more information, visit www.pepfar.gov.

About Seed Global Health: Seed Global Health is a non-profit whose mission is to strengthen health systems globally by partnering US physicians and nurses with local educators. Seed Global Health believes educational partnerships can rapidly increase the pool of providers and educators in countries where they are most needed. Committed to recruiting the best-qualified candidates, including those who may have financial constraints to service, Seed Global Health raises and disburses loan repayment and other appropriate stipends of support to individuals chosen for assignments abroad. Visit www.seedglobalhealth.org for more information.

Original article – Peace Corps – May 15, 2013

Dr. Mark Holthouse took a different tack — limiting his El Dorado, Calif., clinic to 400 patients a year, and adding services such as acupuncture and fitness coaching. He said he and his team now spend more time with patients, who pay a monthly fee of $220 for a package of basic services, on top of what their insurance plans reimburse the practice.

Like Bellavia and Holthouse, many doctors are changing how they work in response to turmoil in the health care system. Both newly minted and veteran physicians face economic uncertainty amid sharpening demands from the government and insurers to improve quality while curbing costs – trends that accelerated under the 2010 health care overhaul.

The buzz, and anxiety, in the medical profession is palpable – trade magazines tout new coping strategies, doctor groups discuss the transformation of practices. Physicians are experimenting with business models and new practice techniques, hoping to find work that is both financially and personally rewarding.

Dr. Thomas Bellavia

“It’s not just the financial piece,” said Dr. Susan Turney, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association, the nation’s largest membership group of medical practice managers.

“It’s also the clinical — it’s bridging a gap so you can make the best decisions all around.”

The changing landscape is reflected in the growing number of doctors who are employed by others, rather than working for themselves. Consulting firm Accenture reported in 2012 that the proportion of independently practicing physicians, working in groups or solo, will fall to 36 percent this year. One-third of those will choose a subscription-based model like Holthouse’s.

The majority, though, are seeking steadier salaries and hours: about 91,300 doctors and dentists were employed by community hospitals in 2010, according to the American Hospital Association, 30,000 more than in 1998.

But clinicians remaining independent must invest and innovate.

Bellavia’s goal of offering integrated care has cost him an estimated $300,000 since 2011 for staff training and equipment.  The medical home model’s focus on preventive care includes newer technologies, like a weighing scale that reports a patient’s weight directly from home to the clinic, and reminders to patients of routine diabetes or cancer screenings. The Heights Medical Center, as the practice is called, has also expanded from two to five doctors and nurses, and hired a patient coordinator who organizes doctor visits, referrals and prescriptions.

With a medical home accreditation from the nonprofit National Committee for Quality Assurance, the Heights receives higher reimbursement payments per patient from insurance companies like Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Aetna.

“It was all experimental,” Bellavia said. “I had to transform my staff and the way I practice. But it has paid me back considerably.”

While Bellavia figured out how to increase his insurance reimbursements, doctors like Holthouse are trying to insulate themselves from the insurance system and government budget cuts.

In 2005, Holthouse started what is sometimes called a functional medical practice – a setup that incorporates acupuncture, herbal medicines and a nutrition and exercise program. He soon found that the only way to remain profitable was to increase the number of patients treated at the practice, now called the n1Health Center for Functional Medicine — something he thought would compromise the quality of care.

“We couldn’t deliver the kind of care we wanted to with regular insurance,” he said.

With the subscription, or concierge, model that he introduced in January,  Holthouse will treat about eight to 10 patients a day who pay about $2,600, in addition to the reimbursements paid by their insurance plans. By contrast, each provider at Heights Medical Center treats up to four patients per hour. Holthouse also has an herbal pharmacy with supplements and nontraditional remedies, and an acupuncturist on staff as part of his effort to offer alternative treatments along with traditional medicine.

Patients at Holthouse’s practice are still responsible for an insurance copayment for medical services that aren’t covered under the monthly fee, which accounts for basic diagnostic tests, physicals and screening. Despite the monthly costs, Holthouse said his patients supported the changes after the practice held 15 “town hall” meetings to explain the new model.

“By the time we did the conversion, one hundred percent understood why we were doing it,” he said. “They feel like they’re getting time and quality care.”

He also said that patients were spending less on medications and hospital fees, making the subscription a worthwhile investment.

Holthouse, like Bellavia, does not accept patients with Medicaid, the state-federal program for low-income people, because of the low reimbursement rates. He puts little confidence in the federal government when it comes to paying physicians fairly or streamlining the high cost of health care– one impetus for choosing the subscription-based model.

But James Doulgeris, a health care strategist at research and marketing firm HCP, said physicians who adopt innovative practices will benefit from the federal health law, because it gives financial incentives to doctors and hospitals that hold down costs while improving quality.

“It’s a 180-degree change, but physicians will have a great incentive to provide optimal care and focus on wellness,” he said.

Holthouse, however, is not convinced. “Unless you remain independent, you will have no say in what kind of medicine you practice,” he said.

Original article – Kasier Health News – May 15, 2013

A strong advocate for including digital literacy in medical education, self-described “geek medical futurist”Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD, believes that online communication tools, such as social media, can improve the way medicine is practiced and health care is delivered. His interest in technology and health care led him to create a university course focusing on bringing the web into medical practice and to launch Webicina, which offers curated social media resources in 140 topics and 20 languages for patients and medical professionals for free.

In September, Meskó will lead a Master Class on how to teach social media in the context of health sciences as part of the Stanford Medicine X conference. Interested to know more about the class, I contacted him to discuss his approach for incorporating digital literacy into medical school curriculum. Below he discusses, among other things, top trends in social media and health care and why medical professionals should take an evidence-based approach to social media.

Why do you believe that medical students and professionals should engage in social media?

Being a medical professional means we constantly have to communicate with patients, our peers and even with information. Since social media is now an integrated part of communication, medical professionals must deal with this as well. [It's] the responsibility of doctors to deal with e-patients properly and use the Internet in a meaningful and efficient way.

It is getting more complicated to keep ourselves up-to-date and get medical answers when we have really hard questions, but social media can be useful if used with strategy and design. This is why we have to teach how to properly use these tools.

During a 2011 keynote speech at Doctors 2.0 & You, you advocated for health-care providers to take an evidence-based approach to social media. Can you explain why this strategy is important and how you use it in your own practice?

Including social media solutions in any industry can be a fast and efficient process, but medicine works in a different way. I was trained to embrace evidence-based medicine and I use that approach when teaching social media. There are platforms and solutions that might be fantastic and useful in health care, although sometimes when these are tested in practice, they fail compared to traditional methods.

By using the evidence-based approach, I mean that we should not include something immediately in medicine just because it is about social media… We have to test everything to make sure it’s truly useful.

What are some of the top trends you’re seeing in social media and health care?

Platforms come and go. I’m glad to see that trends are now more about meaningful use. There are fewer medical mobile apps downloaded, and people spending their precious time online seem to use the web in a more efficient way. If I have to mention certain trends, I would say Twitter seems to be the top platform for communication; gamification seems to be the best way to motivate students (theSeptris app is a good example); people tend to realize they need to know their communities if they want to crowdsource medical questions; and curation of social media is key; while wearable technologies such as Google Glass will definitely add new practices to using social media.

But the practice of medicine must still take place in real life, and these digital technologies can only be useful after an established relationship between the patient and the doctor.

In 2008, you introduced the Social Media in Medicine course at the University of Debrecen, Medical and Health Science Center in Hungary. In creating the course, what was your process for selecting which topics and platforms to cover?

I was lucky from two perspectives. First, I tried and evaluated all the social-media platforms myself – from Wikipedia to medical blogging to crowdsourcing a diagnosis on Twitter. Second, the university committee gave me a chance [for this pilot class] to make decisions about the content. Since every student filled in online surveys before and after each semester, I’ve got a lot of data based on which changes I made to the curriculum. Due to the basic nature of social media, I must constantly change some parts of the content to meet today’s expectations.

I wanted to show the medical use of a range of social platforms and also wanted to transmit concepts to the students. This is why I launched the course with a series of 13 lectures [on topics ranging] from using e-mails to the future of web.

How has the Social Media in Medicine curriculum evolved over the past five years?

Last year, I moved the course to Semmelweis University, a medical school with over 240 years of history. Now it runs with full house every semester in English and Hungarian. The curriculum represents today’s social media trends (in 2008, I mentioned Twitter in a lecture, now a whole week is dedicated to microblogging) and I also implemented some new approaches.

As all the students in the course are on Facebook, this semester they worked for bonus points on the Facebook page of the course by answering questions about digital literacy every single day. The winner did not have to take the exam last week.

The course has a website where all the lectures, hand-outs and notes are available and students can take tests.

Moreover, using my large social network I try to get a prototype of every important development in medical technology, such as AliveCor ECG and other devices. Students can use these in practice; I really try to train them for the world of technological advances by the time they graduate from medical school.

How would you advise medical schools to encourage students and educators to proactively use social media?

The only way to fill health care with technology-savvy medical professionals is to train them like that. Therefore I don’t think that encouragement is the best solution - but first digital literacy should be included in the medical curriculum as well as in post-graduate education.

Maintaining an exemplary social-media presence is certainly a good start for medical schools. But to persuade students and educators to proactively use social media, good practical examples have to be demonstrated to them. In my experience, this is the best strategy.

What specific tips can you share for medical educators who want to leverage the power of social media by incorporating interactive content into existing curriculum?

For this, educators should first check the digital landscape of the topics they teach by searching for relevant content, resources and even mobile apps. They should listen to other educators who are already active online.

The most important thing here is a quote I’ve been using for years: “If you want to teach me, you first have to reach me.” Therefore I love going to the platforms that my students are already using. This semester it was Facebook, and I managed to teach them and test their knowledge on that platform. It was a real win-win situation.

All medical educators should design a new approach in transmitting the knowledge to students by analyzing what they do online. We do the same thing in the offline world by coming up with new textbooks and creating engaging presentations - why would we not do that online as well?

 

Original article – Stanford Medicine’s SCOPE – May 9, 2013

 

A shift toward improving patient safety in medical education

Original article  - Philly.com – May 8, 2013