Perspectives in biology and medicine
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Perspect. Biol. Med. · Jan 2009
Creating reflective spaces: interactions between philosophers and biomedical scientists.
New science policy initiatives are encouraging multidisciplinary collaborations between social scientists, humanists, biomedical scientists, and engineers. Although these policy initiatives are not always clear about how such interactions should take place, the idea is that social scientists and humanists can bring a broader perspective to the table, as well as highlight a variety of matters that are often not addressed by natural scientists and engineers. This article focuses on collaborations between philosophers and biomedical scientists in order to discuss how interdisciplinary collaborations may address ethical, social, and environmental concerns in ways that lead to improvements in people's health and quality of life. The article concludes with a consideration of some of the challenges that such collaborations face.
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E-learning has been widely utilized in medical education and suggested by some proponents to represent a fundamental advance in educational methodology. We challenge this conclusion by examining e-learning in the context of broader learning theories, specifically as they relate to instructional design and methods. Core tenets of educational design are applied to e-learning in a unified model for instructional design, and examples of e-learning technologies are examined in the context of medical education, with reflections on research questions generated by these new modalities. Throughout, we argue that e-learning is a tool that, when designed appropriately, can be used to meet worthy educational goals.
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Perspect. Biol. Med. · Jan 2008
ReviewExpectations and obligations: professionalism and medicine's social contract with society.
As health care has become of great importance to both individual citizens and to society, it has become more important to understand medicine's relationship to the society it serves in order to have a basis for meaningful dialogue. During the past decade, individuals in the medical, legal, social sciences, and health policy fields have suggested that professionalism serves as the basis of medicine's relationship with society, and many have termed this relationship a social contract. However, the concept of medicine's social contract remains vague, and the implications of its existence have not been fully explored. This paper endorses the use of the term social contract, examines the origin of the concept and its relationship to professionalism, traces its evolution and application to medicine, describes the expectations of the various parties to the contract, and explores some of the implications of its use.
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Medical simulation is a new method to facilitate skill training and assessment. Simulation has achieved a high degree of sophistication in aviation and other fields. However, the complexity of health care, the numerous stakeholders, and the lack of central control of medical education have been barriers to the development and broad implementation of medical simulation. ⋯ The major forces for implementing simulation will most likely come from the medical device industry and from institutions with mandates to improve the quality of health care and enhance patient safety. Certification boards are expected to increase their utilization of simulation technology to objectively assess proficiency of skills relevant to physicians and the health care system. Medical simulation has made the transition from an experimental technology to the clinical world, and the next five to 10 years may be viewed as the golden age of medical simulation.
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During the past 15 years there has been widespread adoption of simulation in health care education as a method to train and assess learners. Multiple factors have contributed to this movement, including reduced patient availability, limited faculty teaching time, technological advances in diagnosis and treatment that require a new skills set, greater attention to patient safety with the need to reduce medical errors, and a focus on outcomes-based education. ⋯ While simulation offers many advantages over traditional methods of teaching, there are several challenges that must be addressed to ensure its effective use. This article presents the range of available simulation technologies, explores the challenges that health care educators face when using this method, provides an example of a successful program that has integrated simulation into the culture of learning at its institution, and discusses an approach to maximizing the effectiveness of simulation as a means to learning and practicing skills in a safe, interactive environment.