Medical Education, is finally catching with the rest of the world and embracing the technologies of today, rather than yesteryear. The Global Medical Education Project (or GMEP as it's otherwise known) is a newcomer to the game, but has a strong leadership team behind it, most notably Mike Cadogan (otherwise known as @Sandnsurf) the founder of Lifeinthefastlane.com.
What to do with more than 50,000 consented clinical images/videos, 10,000 MCQ and 3000 PPT for doctors, nurses, paramedics and students?
This is the question that sparked and guided the whole development process of the Global Medical Education Project. The aim was to create a viable sharing solution, that was both dynamic and allowed multi-users to take part in the process. I'm please to say from my run through of the current beta, the Global Medical Education Project is on track to achieve this goal.
The GMEP on the inside
At it's core the Global Medical Education Project is built upon a strong media library and social media technologies. The following is a short overview of how the Global Medical Education Project looks and feels.
Step 1: Sign Up
To join the Global Medical Education Project you can use your email, or alternatively any of the common social media services (Facebook, Twitter, Google or Linkined). This greatly simplifies the joining process and adds further interactivity down the track.
Step 2: The Dashboard
The Dashboard is your home base and allows you to access all the tools and services in the Global Medical Education Project. It provides an overview of your overall performance, included statistics like questions answered correctly and questions submitted.
The Your Submissions section highlights questions that you have submitted to the Global Medical Education Project, letting you know what others think of your question.
Finally the Recent Activity area provides an overview of tasks undertaken by yourself and friends on the Global Medical Education Project.
Step 3: Your Profile
Your profile can be accessed at all times by clicking on your name in the top right hand corner. Again this profile highlights your statistics, however this profile is also viewable by other users on the network (depending on your privacy settings). This allows users to get a better idea of the person who submitted questions or media to the project. It also allows you to network with other users of the Global Medical Education Project.
Step 4: Media Gallery
The media collection is where users can upload and share their resources with the entire network. The media gallery is searchable and material is largely licensed under Creative Commons.
Step 5: Questions & Exams
The Global Medical Education Project's question service is where it really shines. Questions are multiple choice, and are submitted by other users. Some of the key features are outlined below.
- Questions can by voted on for quality
- Indicate your confidence in your answer
- Indicate your perceived question difficulty (easy to hard)
- Share Question on Social Media services
- See the percentage of people who choose a particular answer
There are two main modes that users can access the questions on the Global Medical Education Project. Either in Shuffle Mode which takes a random selection of questions. or in Exam Mode which allows the user to select the topics and the amount of questions they wish to be tested on.
To submit a question is a relatively simple affair on the Global Medical Education Project. Your question can involve the least amount of effort, or you can put in a decent amount of time in creating a good question. Questions can include images and links to third party websites.
Importantly, there is an explanation section which allows you to add some notes to why a particular answer is the correct answer, or function as a further learning resource.
Step 6: Take it Mobile!
Although no mobile specific version exists currently for the Global Medical Education Project, the great layout of the site to begin with, means that you can use the service on the go. Many times whilst sitting on a bus I've whipped out my iPhone and done a couple of questions to get my medical mind going in the morning.
The Wrap Up
Overall, the Global Medical Education Project in it's current form is a good attempt at drawing together several aspects of medical education. A key challenge to the sustainability of the service is growing a large enough user-base to make the service worthwhile. A large and active userbase is vital to ensure that new questions are created, the media gallery grows and the educational process continues.
If you wish to be part of the Global Medical Education Project go to
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