UC Irvine School of Medicine Giving Incoming Medical Students iPads with their White Coats With Medical Apps Loaded To Go

The students are getting the deluxe model with the wireless connection. Part of the reasoning here too is to save paper and be green as printing handouts and other reports will be gone, a thing of the past. Not too long ago the big new building opened at UCI for medical training and they are ready to go. I did a walk through of Miller’s Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, which is a teaching facility for UCI and I did get to see their modern auditorium away from the operating room to allow for academic learning without the old style theater and that hospital had everything state of the art to include a 320 bit CT scanner too. With the televideo connection I am sure that videos from other UCI facilities will be possible too so using telemedicine, pediatrics is covered too. Also in the news Stanford Medical students also received their IPads too.

There are plans to synch the IPad the stethoscopes and even ultrasound machines.

UCI Opens New $40 Million Dollar Medical Education Center - Televideo Auditorium Teleconferencing to Watch Real Time Medical Procedures

This is the beginning of the UCI IMed Curriculum and it sounds pretty comprehensive and all planning was in place. In other news about UCI the spinal cord stem cell trials were give the green flag this week from the FDA to proceed as well.

Geron Gets FDA Approval To Resume Stem-Cell Study - Spinal Cord Injuries - Go UC Irvine!

UC Irvine has been awarded a $20 million federal health grant to more quickly deliver scientific discoveries from the laboratory to the doctor's office with a grant from the NIH and is now recognized nationally to move scientific discoveries to the direct benefit of patients. BD

Traditionally, first-year medical students are awarded white coats to signify their entry into the medical community. But at an Aug. 6 ceremony, each member of the UC Irvine School of Medicine’s incoming class of 2014 will find a surprise tucked into the coat’s pocket: an iPad tablet computer loaded with everything necessary for the first year of course work.

As part of its new iMedEd Initiative, the medical school has developed a comprehensive, iPad-based curriculum, reinventing how medicine is taught in the 21st century and becoming the first in the nation to employ a completely digital, interactive learning environment for entering students.

The wireless, 16-gigabyte, 3G iPad features hundreds of medical applications; note-taking and recording capabilities; and many other tools to complement various learning styles. Students will be able to view short, topical lectures via podcast prior to meeting for small-group discussion. Not only do archived lectures make better use of faculty members’ time, they also facilitate interactive and self-directed learning.

One example of the technology’s myriad interactive learning possibilities: An on-call neurosurgeon — regardless of location — could craft a 30-minute lecture via a webcam for students to watch online. They could review it as often as necessary and consult supplemental materials, including step-by-step videos, to clarify the lesson. When students meet with the neurosurgeon in an office, classroom or hospital setting, they can focus on specific cases to further augment the learning experience.