Making technology work for learning

The Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium schools are adapting technology in new ways to solve key problems and advance physician training.

They are teaching the use of electronic health records, management of patient panels to improve health outcomes, and interpretation of "big data" on health care costs and utilization in order to learn how to best use resources.

In addition, schools are applying learning technology to manage individualized, flexible progress by assessing student competencies along their medical education journey.

New tools are being used to compile assessment data that will allow for easier self-assessment by students and review with faculty coaches.

Badges and other methods of credentialing enable students to differentiate along "threads" or areas of scholarly concentration, as they progress through individualized tracks.

Learn about the new teaching tool that has emerged from the collaboration of the AMA and the Regenstrief Institute to ensure more medical students and medical trainees gain real-world experience using EHRs during their training. Developed by Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute as part of the AMA’s initiative to create the medical school of the future, the AMA and Regenstrief are now working together to disseminate the newly enhanced Regenstrief EHR Clinical Learning Platform to medical schools across the country.

This first-of-its kind platform uses real, de- and mis-identified patient data to safely allow students to virtually care for patients with multiple, complex health conditions by navigating records, documenting encounters and placing orders within an application that is similar to the EHRs they will use in practice. It also provides an immersive and cutting-edge way for medical educators to teach students how EHRs can be used to address important issues pertaining to population health, quality improvement, patient safety and social and structural determinants of health.

In this perspective, the authors advocate for the enhancement of existing health information systems so that they intentionally facilitate learning. They describe three well-regarded frameworks for learning that can point toward how health care information systems can best evolve to support learning. The authors’ main thesis holds that learning frameworks should inform the design and integration of information systems serving the health professions. An underutilized mediator of educational improvement is the ubiquitous electronic health record. The authors list learning analytic opportunities, including potential modifications of learning management systems and the electronic health record, that would enhance health professions education and support the shared goal of delivering high-quality evidence-based health care.

This study provides an overview of the Regenstrief Teaching Electronic Medical Record (tEMR), how the tEMR could be used, and how it is currently being used in health professions education.

Explore materials from the NYU Healthcare by the Numbers: Populations, Systems, and Clinically Integrated Data curriculum, a 3-year education program based on actual clinical data. Explore their website to find links to lecture materials, slides, small-group session handouts, datasets and student exercises that assist in implementing a data-based curriculum focused on population health.

Read a paper analyzing medical student access to EHRs and presenting information on innovative strategies intended to reduce limitations in access by authors from the AMA, Oregon Health & Science University and Indiana University Medical School.

• Learning analytics for training in the workplace
• Preparing future physicians for the new digital frontier