Resilient Ambassadors of Change

DARPA looking to gamers to develop medical training apps

Christa Chaffinch — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:52:37 +0000

The R&D unit of the Department of Defense has reached out to game developers to ask them to develop mobile apps that will help teach and train medical first responders. As opposed to computer-based simulations, these apps would be real games, using video-gaming interfaces, techniques and interaction. Hoping to build on the engagement aspect of games, the apps would include visual demonstration, user interaction and practice, and embedded teaching modules to educate medical first responders on both biology and physiology, along with the methodolgy and rationale for best care practices.

MIT and Harvard release edX

Christa Chaffinch — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:08:46 +0000

We posted a couple weeks ago about the development of the Coursera online learning collaborative, and it certainly seems like this web-based education thing is really getting huge. Earlier this month, MIT and Harvard announced the creation of edX, an online education system created and run by the two universities. The classes offered on edX will be free to anyone around the world, and structured to be self-directed and paced. edX is offering courses with video-based lessons, embedded self-assessment, real-time feedback, Q&A, and collaborative online learning labs. The specific course listing will be announced this summer, with classes beginning in the Fall. You can follow edX on twitter or visit their FAQ to learn more!

Data and disease prevention

Yelena Spector — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:59:45 +0000

Data Mining and Disease Prevention

Privacy in the online realm has been an ongoing debate ever since the internet came about. While there is a lot of negativity around this topic, this information is actually helpful in Public Health.

50 interesting docs on Twitter

Christa Chaffinch — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:19:08 +0000

Here is an excellent roundup of 50 physicians and medical professors you should be following on Twitter. The list was compiled based off of level of activity, relevance, education/entertainment factor and number of followers. I already follow a couple of these (Kevin Chang, Paul Mather and Neil Mehta, for example) but it looks like there are a lot more here updating on current events, science and medicine news, research and specialty information.

The new MCAT

Yelena Spector — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:47:48 +0000

Pre-Med’s New Priorities: Heart and Soul and Social Science.

Being a good physician involves many different components. Medical knowledge is not the only crucial component to being a good doctor. Patients want a doctor who is knowledgeable but also someone who can listen to them and understand them. The concept of empathy cannot be stressed enough when educating students on how to become good physicians.

Examples of modern collaboration

Christa Chaffinch — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:56:51 +0000

At the Global Health and Innovation Conference, I attended multiple sessions devoted to effective health-related collaborations. In the process of hearing these speakers relay their experiences and lessons, I learned a great deal about some good work that is taking place all over the world, and I'd like to share.

American Cancer Society recruiting for its next large-scale study

Christa Chaffinch — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:46:14 +0000

The famed Broad Street Run in Philadelphia is being held on May 6th, 2012. The American Cancer Society has announced that it will use the Run to recruit people for the third round of their Cancer Prevention Study (CPS-3). Philadelphia will be the first community the ACS will reach out to en masse in this way, and they hope to recruit 1300 volunteers between the ages of 30 and 65 for the longitudinal study. Close to 30,000 people will be running in the race, with many thousands more attending or working as volunteers, so they will likely reach their goal.

Creative story-telling to increase health literacy

Christa Chaffinch — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:23:05 +0000

One hurdle to improving health literacy is creating mass media communications that reach a large number of people, teach them something, and entertain them at the same time. At the Global Health and Innovation Conference this weekend, I saw a number of talks about improving the story-telling skills needed to educate the public about things like disease, treatment, mental health, healthy behaviors and habits, and health policy.

Creative health innovations

Christa Chaffinch — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:01:22 +0000

I attended the Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale University this weekend, and I have to say, it was one of the best conferences I've attended. All of the speakers I saw were energetic and interesting, and the topics covered were expansive. Some of the coolest health-related innovations I heard about are summarized below.

Fostering creativity

Christa Chaffinch — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:36:30 +0000

Greater Good contributor Jeremy Adam Smith has a fascinating 2-part interview with my secret (as in: he doesn't know) BFF Jonah Lehrer. Part 1 of the interview focuses on defining creativity, how to foster creativity past childhood, and how neuroscience has helped us investigate and learn more about such intangibles as innovation and insight.