Medical Education Literature Searching

Problem-based Learning and Larger Student Groups (article)

2008-06-30T23:52:00.000-07:00

Problem-based learning groups generally span a size of 5 to 8 students. But what happens when PBL "small" groups start to expand to not-so-small group sizes?

This article details a "clustered PBL" approach where students are divided into 16 groups of 20 - 21 students per group. Each group is subdivided into 7 subgroups that have "clusters" of 2 to 3 students each.

Kingsbury, Martyn P, and Joanne S Lymn. Problem-based learning and larger student groups: mutually exclusive or compatible concepts - a pilot study.
BMC medical education 8(2008):35-.

CONCLUSION:
This clustered PBL methodology can be successfully used with larger groups of students. The key to success lies with challenging and well situated clinically relevant cases together with enthusiastic facilitators. Facilitator enjoyment of the PBL process may be related to adequate training and previous PBL experience, rather than academic background. The smaller number of facilitators required using this clustered PBL approach allows for facilitators with 'a belief in the philosophy of PBL' to volunteer which would again impact on the success of the process.

Google Book Search

2008-06-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

Did you know that since October 2006, Google has partnered with the University of California to digitize collections from the UC LIbraries?

Go to http://books.google.com or from the Google homepage, under the more... link, select the Books option.

You can search a book's content and some may be available to download.

Find out more about Google Book Search. In addition to the UC libraries, Google Books collection provides access to materials from select libraries around the world through the Google Books Library Project.

11 Advantages of Using a Blog for Teaching

2008-06-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting presentation, titled 11 Advantages of Using a Blog for Teaching by Frank Calberg, a strategic inspirator from Zurich, Switzerland.

| View | Upload your own

This blog that I have created has been a way for me to teach to the many people who I will not be able to come face to face with because of distance and time. For example, I had an average of 350 views of this blog just in the month of June. On average, I meet with about 20 people per month in person or via email to help them with their literature searches. So the fact that I can teach that many more people through this blog is a testament to the power of using a blog to disseminate knowledge farther and wider.

If you have never created a blog and want to play around with how to create and use them, you can start with Blogger, which is free. There are other alternatives such as Wordpress or Typepad. If your institution already has purchased blogging software, contact your administrator to find out about using it.

Using a blog to teach can be a fun, interactive, and dynamic tool for you to consider using in your role as a teacher.

Radiology Picture of the Day (blog)

2008-06-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Like most internet users, you probably grab images from a basic Google image search. Well, thank your lucky stars that there are some nice alternatives to just "googling" for medical images.

Check out the Radiology Picture of the Day blog. A new image is posted daily that is provided by a physician with a brief description below about the image with related references.

The blog is edited and maintained by Dr. Laughlin Dawes, a diagnostic neuroradiology fellow at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Western Australia. The images date back from November 2006 to the present.

I prefer to navigate this blog via its ARCHIVE page that categorizes the images for you. There is a link to suggest an image that you would like to submit to this blog, as well.

As always, give credit where it's due if you are going to use any image from the web. For example, if I were to use this image

I would reference this image as:

Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation. Image provided by Dr. Ahmed Haroun. Posted Feb 28, 2008 on the Radiology Picture of the Day blog. Accessed on June 30, 2008 at http://www.radpod.org/2008/02/28/congenital-cystic-adenomatoid-malformation.

IRAM Curriculum Integration

2008-06-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

Through a joint research project between the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Library, there is a term that we've coined as "IRAM".

IRAM = Information Retrieval And Management

IRAM covers skills such as evaluating information resources, properly citing information, literature searching skills, and managing citations for research, presentations, and publications.

I recently presented at the annual Medical Library Association Conference in Chicago the results of the work that I have been doing as the UCSF Library's liaison to the School of Medicine. Please see the presentation and handout posted online.

My hope is that the work done here at UCSF gives you an overview of what is involved in integrating an information skills set into the medical curriculum. Feel free to leave me your comments to share any of your thoughts.

Google Quick Tip #9

2008-06-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways... Let Google show you how.

GOOGLE QUICK TIP #9

Typing the tilde sign ~ in front of a word in Google will find synonyms for that search word. Not sure where the tilde sign is? Hold down the Shift key and hit the key to the left of the number 1 on your keyboard.

Click here to see what searching ~love in Google will find you. The synonyms will be highlighted to help you think of other terms that the word can be searched as.

Run a search such as ~diet diabetes and see what kinds of things you get in comparison to searching diet diabetes. Is one search better than the other? Not necessarily. You'll notice that the tilde search has millions more results. BUT you will get ideas for other search words that you might not have thought of.

PowerPoint Presentation Tips

2008-06-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Most of us being self-taught PowerPoint (PPT) users have become quite accustomed to our own PPT styles. Like your wardrobe, it's good to reassess and revamp your presentation style to stay fresh.

What is the main goal of any presentation you give? Engage your audience and make sure they leave knowing the main message of your topic.

Here are some useful tips on how to improve your PPT presentations, and thus, your presentation skills:

PowerPoint for Teachers- PowerPoint Presentations: Design, Content, & Delivery

Death by PowerPoint (and how to fight it)

You'll notice that both presentations have quite a few slides. But, you will see the difference in how the message of the presentation sticks with you. The slides engage and deliver the message.

For some additional tips on how to give effective presentations, check out the Business Week article, The 10 Worst Presentation Habits.

Impliment at least three of anything you learned in these resources above and you're guaranteed to have a happier audience that is bound to be wowed by your ideas!

Heart Sounds Tutorial from Blaufuss

2008-05-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

THE HEART - so vital to our existance, so profound, so...hard to remember all the boatloads of information related to the heart! Well, thank goodness for tutorials such as the ones created by Blaufuss Multimedia Laboratories.

Their Heart Sounds and Cardiac Arrythmias tutorials walks you through all you need to know about heart sounds and electrocardiogram / arrhythmias. There are pictures, animated images, sound, and you can even take a quiz to test your knowledge.

Bless their hearts for creating such an awesome resource!

Finding Health Information in Different Languages

2008-05-27T14:30:00.001-07:00

Looking for multi-lingual patient education health information? There is no ONE perfect resource to answer that question, but here are two that I'd recommend looking at.

MedlinePlus.gov
This fantastic website is put together by the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine. At the bottom left of their homepage, you will see the new highlighted listing of Multiple Languages. There are over 40 languages available covering various health topics.

Healthy Roads Media
This resource provides health information in 17 languages. Information is available as PDF handouts, and where available, audio and video. You can read more information about this resource. The contributors to Health Roads Media cover a variety of organizations.

Please post a comment to this posting to share any other resources that you've found helpful for finding multi-lingual health resources.

Google Quick Tip #8

2008-04-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Need to answer a trivia question like, "What is the order of the planets?", or "What are the different types of dinosaurs?" Here's a quick way to find some answers.

GOOGLE QUICK TIP #8

Quite often, if you type a general topic into Google (ie, the word planets), if you scroll to the very bottom of the results page, you should see additional suggestions of subjects related to the general topic you searched. View a brief video demo.

Now there's your secret to reclaiming your Trivial Pursuit champion status!

Finding Statistics Using the CDC Website

2008-04-30T21:55:00.001-07:00

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a website with a wealth of resources. Explore their collection of health statistics at http://cdc.gov/DataStatistics/

I suggest that you start by browsing the Data & Statistics by Topic section, as well as the links in the box titled Top Data & Stats Links.

What's Your Learning Style

2008-04-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Wondering how you best learn and process information?

Take this quick quiz and find out if you're a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner.

Today's college and grad students were born in the mid-1980's and early 1990's. They are referred to as "millennials" and "digital natives".

Boomers, Gen-Xers, & Millennials: Understanding the New Students
Oblinger, Diana. 2003. Educause, July/Aug, p 37 (8 pages).

Read about how educators can find ways to approach different learning styles in an evolving set of learners.

PubMed Quick Tip #5

2008-04-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

Using the Clipboard feature to Email Multiple Citations from PubMed

Here's a way to gather interesting articles that you've found along the way during a PubMed searching session:

Check the box in front of the article(s) listed that you want to "clip"
From the Send to dropdown menu, select Clipboard option
As you find other interesting articles from your searches, select those and also send to the clipboard
When you are ready to email your clipboard items, click on the Clipboard tab
From the Send to dropdown menu, select E-mail
You will be prompted to enter the email address you want these citations to be mailed to for you to review later

Google Quick Tip #7

2008-03-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

Can't remember how to say "lungs" in Spanish? Have no fear, Google translator is here!

GOOGLE QUICK TIP #7

Click on the Language Tools link to the right of the search box
Type in the word or phrase you want to translate in the Translate text box
In the dropdown menu below the box, select the language you want to translate to
Click on the Translate button

As best as it can, Google will translate the word/phrase you entered.

There are a vast number of languages to choose from: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

For starters, type in the phrase Where is the pain? and translate it from English to Spanish.

This tool is a guaranteed great way to replace any dull moments of a day!

NEJM Audio Interviews with Authors

2008-03-30T16:58:00.001-07:00

Here's yet another cool multimedia feature of the New England Journal of Medicine - In the middle of the right column on their homepage (http://nejm.org), there is a box titled Recent NEJM Audio.

The first link takes you to interviews with authors of recent articles.
A link to the full-text article being discussed is available on the interview page. (NOTE: you must be connected to the campus network to access the articles.)
The interview can also be downloaded to listen to on your mp3 player.

A full archive of all interviews is also available.

NEJM Audio Summaries

2008-03-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

No time to read the New England Journal of Medicine? No problem. The NEJM has audio summaries of the latest issue available on their homepage (http://nejm.org).

Look for the Audio Summary link. The summary runs about 20 minutes.

You can listen to the summary on your computer or download them as an audio file to listen to later on your mp3 player. Wow - what'll they think of next?!

NEJM Videos in Clinical Medicine

2008-03-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

http://content.nejm.org/misc/videos.shtml

Since April 2006, the NEJM website has featured a growing collection of how-to videos.

* Most videos run 6 to 15 minutes

* Topics (i.e.): intubation, catheterization, arterial line placement

* Includes a PDF transcript of each video

* Provides references for more information

NOTE: You must be connected to campus network to access these videos.

If you forget the URL to this page, you can also navigate to it via the NEJM website (http://nejm.org/). Click in the Recent NEJM Video box in the right column.

Google Quick Tip #6

2008-02-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

When you search Google Scholar, do you notice that the first result, which while may be relevant to your search terms, is not necessarily the most recently published? What's the deal with that?

GOOGLE QUICK TIP #6

The way Google works is that the most frequently linked to item rises to the top of the results. So, it's more like a popularity contest.

To re-rank your results to show the most current papers:

Click on the Recent articles link that's in the green menu bar above your results in Google Scholar
A box will appear to the right of the search box indicating that there's a date dropdown menu
Choose the most recent year or any other specific year you'd want to find

Of course, to be sure you've got THE most recently published scientific journal articles, search PubMed. Google Scholar usually is not caught up with PubMed's currency.

View this short demo

Science Citation Index's New Look

2008-02-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

In a previous posting, I covered how to use the Science Citation Index database to find papers that have cited an article you find interesting. They recently updated their search interface, so there's no better time than the present to cover their new look.

There used to be an icon indicating the Cited Reference Search feature, but now it's displayed as a link in their menu bar.

View this short demo video.

There's also a more in-depth tutorial available.

PubMed Quick Tip #4

2008-02-25T18:07:00.001-08:00

How to view the latest issue of a journal online

Instead of going to several publisher's websites(ie, http://jama.com or http://nejm.com), to view the latest issues online, you can view the latest journal issue using PubMed's Single Citation Matcher.

Link to Single Citation Matcher in the left menu bar of PubMed
Begin typing in the journal name and select the appropriate listing to auto-complete the title
Click "Go"
The latest articles will be listed at the top of the results list

Slideshare.net - Search for PPT presentations

2008-02-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

In Google Quick Tip #2, I showed how you can run a Google search to find just PowerPoint (ppt) presentations. Imagine how excited I was to stumble upon Slideshare.net

Why's it so great?

1) It's a collection of user-posted ppt presentations
2) It's easy to search - just use the search box at the very top right
3) You can upload your own presentations to the site

I ran a search on the words teaching learning and got these results.
I searched on the words obesity diabetes and found a great CDC ppt with vital statistics on obesity.
To view a presentation in full screen mode, click on the icon under the slideshow.

Faculty of 1000 Medicine

2008-01-28T14:19:00.000-08:00

The next time you are looking for a research paper for journal club or small group discussion, consider searching the Faculty of 1000 Medicine database. My nickname for it is F1000M. The UCSF Library has a trial subscription until July 6th.

A selected faculty of nearly 2500 international clinicians and researchers, 25 whom are from UCSF, review medical articles and score them with one of three ratings:

F1000 Factor 3 = Recommended

F1000 Factor 6 = Must Read

F1000 Factor 9 = Exceptional

The beauty of this database is that each article record IS the reviewer's comments. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of deciding if an article is something you'd want to discuss.

F1000M can be a nice compliment to searching PubMed. It's definitely a quick way to find good papers fast.

I suggest using the Advanced Search interface or to Browse by topics in the left menu. You'll notice that there is no listing for the topic of Pediatrics. However, if you select one of the topics, ie Psychiatry, you can see that in the subsets of that category are pediatric specific topics.

There are handy features for each record:

*** a How to cite this evaluation link below each comment *** links to related articles *** links to Google Scholar to check if anyone has cited this work *** the ability to download a citation to EndNote or RefWorks

Each article is classified by its type of scientific advance:

*** New Finding *** Important Confirmation *** Technical Advance

*** Controversial Finding *** Interesting Hypothesis, or ***Refutation

For more info, view a short demo and also link to this quick guide.

Try F1000M and let us know what you think. Your comments matter to us and aid in our decision to purchase or not a subscription for UCSF. Feel free to comment to this blog posting or email us your comments.

Google Quick Tip #5

2008-01-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

Many of you have probably searched Google Scholar to find research papers and other scholarly publications. As you come across interesting material, did you know that you can easily send them to your RefWorks or EndNote account?

GOOGLE QUICK TIP #5

Follow these three steps to set up this feature in any browser window:

(1) In Google Scholar, select the Scholar Preferences link to the right of the search box

(2) On the Preferences page, scroll down to the bottom, select the option for Show links to import citations into, and in the dropdown menu, select the appropriate bibliographic management software that you use (ie, RefWorks)

(3) Select the Save Preferences link

Returning to your Google Scholar search results, you will see a new link under each result that reads Import into RefWorks. Selecting that link will open a new browser window prompting me to sign into my RefWorks account. View this brief demo.

This feature will work in any browser window. So if you are searching on a computer that is not yours, you can easily save these same settings when you open a Google Scholar window and follow the steps described above.

Remember that if you are a member of UCSF, you can create a RefWorks account for free since the UCSF Library has purchased a site license.

PubMed Clinical Queries

2008-01-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Ever wish there was a quick way to find good evidence-based clinical medicine articles in PubMed? There is a great PubMed feature called Clinical Queries that can help you do just that. There is a link to it in the left menu bar of PubMed.

Clinical Queries allows you to find articles that relate to one of the following clinical study categories:
- etiology - diagnosis - therapy - prognosis
- clinical prediction guidelines
- systematic reviews

You can also use the Limits tab to further narrow and focus your search results.

View this brief video to see a demonstration of how to search PubMed Clinical Queries.

Audio and Video Podcasts of Lectures (article)

2008-01-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

There is ever-increasing use of podcasts of lectures in higher education. Along with this comes concerns of whether this form of delivering education may decrease class attendance and if podcasts truly improve student learning.

The article below addresses these issues and sheds light for those of you who currently podcast or are thinking of podcasting your lectures.

Copley, J. (2007). Audio and Video Podcasts of Lectures for Campus-Based Students: Production and Evaluation of Student Use. Innovations in education and teaching international, 44(4), 387-399.

ABSTRACT
Podcasting has become a popular medium for accessing and assimilating information and podcasts are increasingly being used to deliver audio recordings of lectures to campus-based students. This paper describes a simple, cost-effective and file size-efficient method for producing video podcasts combining lecture slides and audio without a requirement for any specialist software. The results from a pilot scheme delivering supplementary lecture materials as audio and video podcasts are also presented, including data on download patterns and responses to a survey of students on podcast use. These results reveal students' enthusiasm for podcast recordings of lecture materials and their primary use by students in revision and preparation for assessments. Survey responses also suggest little likely impact on lecture attendance as a consequence of podcasting, but indicate that podcast recordings of lectures may not be effective in facilitating mobile learning.