“Ipads were new on the market at that time, and people saw the potential, but weren’t quite sure what they could do with the technology,â€� said Library Director Nadine Dexter. But the donation helped the Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine become a national leader in digital medical education. Today, 4 textbooks are available on the tablets. Using technology, students can take notes right in the “virtualâ€� book, zoom in and out of the pages, watch videos of specific patient cases and even compare and share notes with classmates through a special social media feature. Health databases like DynaMed and Hippocrates allow students to quickly look up drug and disease information from an approved and accurate source. Students can buy books by the chapter, reducing the cost of expensive textbooks, and don’t have to carry around heavy books or a laptop.

“It’s very interesting to listen to students talk about how they’re integrating the use of a tablet into their daily learning style� Dexter added. “From taking notes to answering email and pulling up library e-books and articles, they’ve gotten pretty creative.�

The medical school’s library is 98 percent digital, and its motto is “information anywhere, any time, on any device� because digital material means students don’t have to be in the library to access information. The class of 2017 is the first to get the mini version of the iPad, which the library team hopes will be more convenient to carry and navigate, especially in clinical settings.

Many of the new first-year students had heard about the library’s iPad learning program, and were delighted to learn they were receiving their tablets before classes even started. “It’s definitely one of the factors I took into account when choosing my medical school,� said first year student, Sean Chagani. “I saw students walking the halls looking through CT scans and x-rays on their iPad. I thought it was a really cool, innovative way to essentially take your work home with you.�

Other students are looking forward to using the tablet to lighten their everyday load. “It’s definitely a step forward in education in terms of its technology,� first year student Brandon Hendrix said.  “In undergrad, I would spend hundreds of dollars on giant textbooks. Now I’ll have them on the iPad, which will be a lot more convenient.�

Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine students received a high-tech gift for their Christmas stockings Wednesday as local philanthropist Alan Ginsburg gave new iPads to each of the school’s 100 M.D. students. The hand-held electronic devices will allow students to take notes, review on-line scientific journals and 3-D medical imaging, and even take paperless exams. And students’ use of the iPad will be part of a two-year research study on the use of technology in medical education.

Students cheered as Dr. Deborah German, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, announced the gift. During the past few days, rumors were circulating about the possibility of an iPad holiday gift for the medical students. “But we didn’t want to get our hopes up and then be disappointed if the gift ended up being chocolate,� said M-1 student Alvin deTorres. Alvin said he was delighted with the portable technology because it will provide immediate access to the college’s Harriett F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, which is 98 percent digital.

Nadine Dexter, library director, told students that the iPads were a “gift of loveâ€� from Ginsburg, who thought they would be a fitting tribute to his wife’s love of reading and learning. “With the iPads, you have information in an ‘anytime, anywhere’ environment,â€� she said. The Ginsburg family’s earlier donation of $4 million created the Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine’s library. “We are delighted to be part of the Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine and the way it is training doctors for the 21st century continues to exceed our highest expectations,â€� Ginsburg said. “We hope this gift provides one more way for the students to develop the skills they need to take care of us all.â€�

iPads offer several learning advantages for medical students: They can download PowerPoints from class lectures and type notes directly on the presentation. The device’s imaging provides what Dexter described as “exquisite� 3-D images of systems such as the brain and vertebrae, and the large screen allows students to have electronic journals, books and databases at their fingertips.

M-1 student Marcos Colon said he had just told his father last week that he intended to steal Dad’s iPad over winter break to help with his medical school studies. “Now I don’t have to steal his,� he said. “I have one of my own.�

Dr. German hosted the tour, telling the college’s benefactors that the upstart medical school offered Â鶹ԭ´´ the opportunity “to do it right” with technology that “surpasses the technology of any medical school in the country.”

The Tavistock Group saw plenty of that technology, including digital slides in the Microscopy Lab, touch-screen computers above dissection tables in the Anatomy Lab and the Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, which is 98 percent digital.

“Students want instant access to information,” explained College of Medicine Professor Andrew Payer as he welcomed the visitors to “the anatomy lab of my dreams.”

Rasesh “Sesh” Thakkar, CEO of the Tavistock Group, talked about the company’s commitment to the College of Medicine and the emerging medical city at Lake Nona. Medical city will strengthen the area’s economy and supply needed jobs and other opportunities, he said. “The region will never be the same again.”

“We want to thank you for sharing Cynthia with us,â€� Dr. Deborah German, dean of the College of Medicine and Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s vice president for medical affairs, told the Kahn family.

Dr. Julia Pet-Armacost, associate dean for planning and knowledge management, whose department includes the library, called Cynthia a “bright light� who loved medical history but also embraced new technology as a way to provide medical information to the masses. “Information was Cynthia’s passion,� Dr. Pet-Armacost said, “and she wanted to share it with the world.�

Library Director Nadine Dexter told attendees that Cynthia had “worked a miracleâ€� in securing “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine,â€� a traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine that shows how medicine began in Harry Potter’s time and has developed into what we know today. The exhibit has a three-year waiting list but Cynthia was able to secure it for the Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine in her first three weeks on the job.

The Library staff presented the family with a sunflower wind chime in hopes that the sound will remind the Kahns of Cynthia’s spirit. The sunflower was chosen because it represents the warmth of the sun on the state of Florida.

In placing a plaque with Cynthia’s name on the fruit-bearing citrus tree, Dr. German said the college wanted to “remember her life with life.�

The touring exhibit, created by the National Library of Medicine, is on display weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the College of Medicine medical education building, located at 6850 Lake Nona Blvd. in Orlando.

Source: Orlando Business Journal,

The event will showcase the college’s new 170,000-square-foot medical education building, including a 356-seat main auditorium, and new lab and classroom technology. It was constructed within its budget and on time.

“We designed our building to be iconic, to be a welcoming, life-giving magnet for the Central Florida community we serve,â€� said Dr. Deborah German, Â鶹ԭ´´ vice president for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine.

The Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine education building is the first to start from scratch in the United States in more than 30 years, according to Â鶹ԭ´´. The medical school has planned the new campus, achieved preliminary accreditation, obtained full scholarships for its inaugural class of 41 students and received donated funds and land from the community to help construct the first two buildings on the health sciences campus in four years.

The building has a clinical skills and simulation center with 12 examination rooms, which have computerized mannequins, video recording and computer monitoring that allow faculty members to observe and evaluate students in action.

Its anatomy lab has 22 dissection tables with ceiling-mounted computer terminals over each table so students can access anatomical information during dissection. Digital cameras allow the professor to record subject matter during a dissection and then link it simultaneously to every terminal in the lab and to lecture halls three floors down. Mitsubishi designed the computer screens above the dissection tables for the college, which are the first-of-their-kind in the nation.

A 5,300-square-foot microscopy lab will let students compare normal and abnormal tissues simultaneously using virtual digitized slides. The laboratory also allows groups of students to study traditional slides through a 10-headed microscope equipped with digital image capture and multiple video monitors.

The Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library houses medical and research reference materials for the entire health sciences campus. It has access to more than 3.2 million holdings, with 98 percent in digital form. The library features an open computerized study commons plus multiple problem-based learning rooms for students and faculty members, as well as an extensive collection of health information for consumers.

The college also announced July 28 that Â鶹ԭ´´ has been designated an official site where community members can will their bodies to train local medical students. Until now, people who wanted to will their bodies to medical science had to have their remains sent to the University of Florida in Gainesville or the University of Miami.

Source: Orlando Business Journal, Â鶹ԭ´´ med school opens to students Aug. 2

NN/LM’s mission is to “advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and improving the public’s access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health.”

“Being selected as a resource library is an honor,” said Nadine Dexter, director of the Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library. “It says the NN/LM feels we have the professional staff, the training and the resources to fulfill the duties of a resource library.”

Resource libraries provide doctors and patients with the most current research, journal articles, audiovisual materials, literature and patient treatment protocols. They coordinate and share resources with other area libraries so they can tell physicians almost instantly what materials are available in the region. “By working together in a network, we can act as a giant card catalog,” Nadine said. In addition to helping doctors who are on staff at colleges of medicine, resource libraries also provide sole practitioners with vital information through a “Lonesome Doc” reference program.

Providing current and trusted data is key for the library staff. “We want the library to be a comfortable, accessible and user-friendly place,” Nadine said. “We want to provide a well-trained staff who are subject matter experts on all the information that clinicians, researchers, students and faculty need.”

For more: Wendy Spirduso Sarubbi, Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine Information/Publication Services, 407-823-0233 or wsarubbi@mail.ucf.edu

In some clinical and hospital settings, medical students may not have immediate access to computers or cell phones with Internet access. With the iPods, they can review symptoms and examination protocols before they see a patient and can also check on possible drug interactions for patients who are taking a variety of medications.

First-year medical student Romeo Joseph was one of the first to sign out the iPod and found an interesting – and potentially dangerous — drug interaction for patients. Romeo said he is hearing a great deal about flax seed, a whole grain that contains fiber, antioxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids and is often recommended for people seeking low-carb and heart-healthy diets. Romeo wanted to learn more. Using Epocrates, he discovered that flax seed is not recommended for insulin-dependent diabetics because it can cause their blood sugars to go abnormally low, a condition called hypoglycemia. “It’s amazing,” Romeo said of the new devices. “Everything’s in one spot.”

The College of Medicine library has 20 new iPods that students can check out. Dexter said the devices will be especially useful as students work with their preceptors, who are local area physicians, as part of their medical school training. “Our students can put the iPod in their pocket and when they walk into a patient’s room, they have all the information they need without having to run and get a computer or a big textbook off the shelf,” she said. “Students can access library e-resources wherever they are.”