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April 2007 – How does an aspiring doctor learn the right bedside manner? Is there another way for medical students to learn how to properly examine a patient without crowding into a cramped room? The answers lie in HP wireless and audio-visual technology, which will allow a new facility being built by the University Health Network (UHN) to provide a teaching setting as close to the real world as possible.
UHN is made up of Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret hospitals. As one of Canada's largest academic health sciences centres, UHN plays a significant role in educating the healthcare providers of tomorrow. Trainees from across the entire spectrum of healthcare professionals – including nursing, medicine, pharmacy and medical engineering – come here to learn. Approximately $100,000 of donated HP equipment will be installed this summer when construction of a new medical training centre is completed. The donation includes a server; 20 PCs; seven tablet PCs; 20 monitors; two all-in-one printers; two LaserJet printers; two digital cameras; 10 50-inch high-definition plasma TVs; and cash to buy digital projectors.
“Thanks to this very generous gift, UHN and HP Canada are together changing the landscape of medical education in Canada,” says Dr. Richard Reznick, Vice President of Education at UHN. “HP’s support has enabled The Paul B. Helliwell Centre for Medical Education at Toronto Western Hospital to be outfitted with the most advanced, state-of-the-art equipment and technology.”
Dr. Reznick continues, “Over the last decade, there has been a transformation in the way students learn, the way they interact with their teachers and the way they interact with each other. Whether it is through searching our virtual library for the latest article, engaging in online discussions with medical students worldwide, or watching live surgery as it is beamed to the classroom from an operating room, access to digital data overwhelms all other forms of learning.”
Dr. Jackie James, endocrinologist and director of the Wightman-Berris Academy
Dr. Jackie James, an endocrinologist and director of the Wightman-Berris Academy, which oversees UHN’s medical student training, envisions the new centre as worlds away from the old model of hundreds of students trying to stay awake through seven hours of lectures in a cavernous hall. “Technology allows us to teach in intimate groups in a hospital setting, focused on case-based learning in smaller, interactive seminars,” she explains.
The HP equipment will be set up to record and transmit clinical examinations of patients, operations or meetings. A camera in an examining room, for example, will transmit to a data projector that shows the images on a plasma TV or laptop, allowing students watching to ask questions about the tools or techniques.
By recording the sessions and storing them on the server, doctors can show the videos to a group of students and lead a discussion about a particular type of case before interviewing a real patient. Students can also critique their own performance.
“Much of our education requires feedback, so it’s useful for students to have both self-assessment and tutor assessment of their performance during a physical examination,” says Dr. James. “That’s a very big asset to our program, because it helps students hone their ability to appropriately respond to patients and make treatment-related decisions.”
“Without this technology, five or six students at most could watch a doctor-patient interaction through an observation room,” says Greg Vainberg, Manager, Audio Visual Services for UHN and IT Administrator for the centre. “Now we’ll be able to reach the equivalent of 100 people in a room that only seats three. Students will also be able to use the equipment to work on assignments, do research and access online curriculum material.”
Reaching more students with one patient interaction is important, since the Helliwell Centre trains approximately 46 per cent of the University of Toronto’s medical students. It is home to about 90 medical students in each of the four years of undergraduate training. “We register more than 700 students each year, including students from other universities and disciplines such as physiotherapy and speech language pathology,” says Dr. James.
“Students coming in to Wightman-Berris are already technology savvy, and they have an expectation they’ll be using technology on the job,” says Dr. James. “We’re able to provide that experience in a state-of-the-art medical education facility thanks to HP’s generous donation.”
“Through HP Canada’s support, our students can enjoy the richness of educational methods that are making learning more comprehensive, more efficient and more engaging,” says Dr. Reznick.
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