Resources
and Obstacles
The sites below
are linked to illustrate both the potential and obstaclesto providing useful
resources to students. These links are not an endorsementor criticism of the
content contained.
- The Whole
Brain Atlas demonstrates several obstacles to use. In part because of
its popularity, access to the site is often slow. It is a powerful resource
but the interface is exceeding complicated. For clinical students, there
is also a workflow problem. Instead of looking for an example of specific
image, student often have an image that they want to diagnose. Designing
this type of access is notoriously difficult. Because students may not be
proficient in creating clinical image descriptions, such an interface is
especially challenging. (snapshot)
- DXplain
provides access to information in a way that matches workflow. Students
can get a description of a condition or enter patient
finding and get a description and differential. The system works backwards
or forwards to provide the information the student is missing. However,
because of its power and in part because of its port from stream oriented
sessions to sessionless web technology, students find the interface
confusing.
- Merck
provides a free resource that students can use to search for focused pieces
of text. Observing the URL as a user works their way through the system
reveals that it would be difficult to provide any kind of automatic linkage
to this resource. The source of the information is also of concern when
considering pharmacuetical information. (snapshot)
- Clinical
Pharmacology provides a useful drug information resource. It is flexible,
for exmple providing search by pill description
and comprehensive. The commercial nature of the
product means the market place will drive the quality of the product. However,
licensing issues and access can be complicated.
- NCEMI
provides a list of abbreviations; something particularly useful to students
and rarely available. (snapshot)
- ACID-BASE
provides a useful calculator. How this tool could be linked to a workstation
remains prolematic. (snapshot)
- EMRS
provides a demonstration database to introduce students to the concepts
of patient confidentiality in an electronic record, unique identifiers,
and controlled vocabulary. In an environment where students rotate through
numerous institutions, each with different hospital information systems
and different policies for student use, preparing students to use such systems
is a challenge. (snapshot)
- The internet is creating
a flood of information and this is resulting in new types of resources.
Medical Matrix is just
an example of one such site that provides information about other information
resources. Paradoxically, with every specialty society and publisher creating
its own web site, users may have difficulty determining which of these meta-resource
sites to turn to. (snapshot)
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